17 September 2001: Stocks reopen and plunge after 9/11
US stock markets reopened for the first time since the September 11 attacks. The Dow fell about 685 points, or 7.1 percent, then a record point drop, on record trading volume. Airlines and insurers were hit hardest. Yet the market hit a low within days and recovered its pre-attack level in a matter of weeks. Investors who sold in the panic often regretted it.
The lesson: Markets can absorb terrible shocks faster than seems possible amid the fear and grief.
What it meant for investors
$1,000 in S&P 500 index fund at the start of 2003 → $7,727 today, vs $7,727 in the S&P 500.
We start the clock at the start of 2003, the first year in our price data after the event. That is 7.7 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | $880 | $7,727 | $7,727 |
| 2005 | $1,180 | $5,763 | $5,763 |
| 2007 | $1,420 | $4,789 | $4,789 |
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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