What a Difference Five Years Makes

And in more ways than one.  Five years ago today, the S&P 500 closed at a peak of 1,565.15.  Since then the index has seen a huge decline followed by a huge rally.  After all those swings, the S&P 500 has declined 7.9% over the last five years.  Annualizing that decline works out to a loss of 1.63% per year.

What some people may not remember, however, is that exactly five years prior to the S&P 500's all-time high made on October 9th, 2007,  the index bottomed out from the 2000-2002 bear market at a level of 776.76.  Following the post-Internet bubble low on 10/9/02, the index rallied more than a 100% before dropping more than 50%+ from 2007 to 2009.  After bottoming out in March 2009, the index has since rallied more than 100% once again.  Netting out those three monster moves, the S&P 500 is currently 85.6% higher today than it was ten years ago.  Annualizing that gain over ten years works out to 6.38% per year.  For all the talk that the market hasn't done anything over the last decade, 6.38% is a lot better than many of the options faced by investors today.

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