29 March 1999: The Dow closes above 10,000
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 10,000 for the first time, at 10,006.78. Traders wore commemorative hats and the milestone made front pages. Books predicting Dow 36,000 were selling briskly. The index peaked the following January, and it would not stay comfortably above 10,000 for years. Round numbers are psychologically important, but they do not mean anything to a company's earnings.
The lesson: Milestones make headlines, but valuations and earnings, not round numbers, drive long-term returns.
Could you have called it at the time? The wheel picks the year, you pick the position, ten seconds a pick.
Play Sixty-40