26 August 2015: The Dow rebounds 619 points
Two days after a chaotic global selloff triggered by fears about China, the Dow jumped about 619 points, its biggest point gain since 2011. Investors who sold in panic on Monday watched prices bounce sharply by Wednesday. Big up days and big down days tend to cluster together during turbulent periods. Trying to dodge one usually means missing the other, which is why market timing so rarely works.
The lesson: The market's best days often follow its worst; panic sellers usually miss the rebound.
What it meant for investors
$1,000 in S&P 500 index fund at the start of 2015 → $3,301 today, vs $3,301 in the S&P 500.
We start the clock at the start of 2015, the year it happened. That is 3.3 times the money, but $0 less than a plain index fund made over the same years.
What S&P 500 index fund teaches: Owning the whole market removes the risk of picking the wrong company but not the risk of a lost decade, so time horizon matters as much as diversification.
| Bought in | Price then | Worth today | S&P 500 would be |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | $2,060 | $3,301 | $3,301 |
| 2018 | $2,700 | $2,519 | $2,519 |
| 2020 | $3,250 | $2,092 | $2,092 |
green = beat the S&P 500 · red = lost money
What if you bought S&P 500 index fund? Every starting year and the full story →
More S&P 500 index fund history
- 5 February 2018: Volmageddon: the Dow drops 1,175 points
- 19 February 2020: The S&P 500 hits a record before COVID
- 29 February 2020: The US reports its first COVID-19 death
- 3 March 2020: The Fed makes an emergency rate cut
- 6 March 2009: The S&P 500 touches 666
- 9 March 2009: The bear market bottoms
Could you have called it at the time? The wheel picks the year, you pick the position, ten seconds a pick.
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