6 March 2009: The S&P 500 touches 666
The S&P 500 hit an intraday low of 666.79, a number that seemed grimly appropriate for the depths of the financial crisis. Banks were near collapse, unemployment was soaring and the index had lost more than half its value from its 2007 peak. It turned out to be the bottom. Investors who bought in that devilish moment saw their money multiply over the following decade.
The lesson: Maximum gloom is often maximum opportunity, though it never feels like it at the time.
What it meant for investors
$1,000 in S&P 500 index fund at the start of 2010 → $6,071 today, vs $6,071 in the S&P 500.
We start the clock at the start of 2010, the first year in our price data after the event. That is 6.1 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | $1,120 | $6,071 | $6,071 |
| 2012 | $1,280 | $5,312 | $5,312 |
| 2015 | $2,060 | $3,301 | $3,301 |
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
- 9 March 2009: The bear market bottoms
- 12 March 2020: Black Thursday: the worst day since 1987
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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