Did you know? You can go to any day’s “This Day in History” page by simply entering the month and date after www.begintoinvest.com/

For example: www.begintoinvest.com/May-9

Or follow Begin To Invest on Twitter or Facebook for daily posts!

Prefer video? These are posted daily on our YouTube Channel (and embedded below)

Now, ‘This Day in History’ is also available as an Amazon Alexa Flash Briefing!

Quote of the Day

 

“Only buy something that you’d be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years.”

–Warren Buffet

 

This quote has a literal meaning, but I think it also relates to holding stocks during periods of long term negative performance as well, even if the market remains open. Today is an anniversary of the U.S. stock market exiting one of the longest periods of negative returns in its history, see more in our “This Day in Stock Market History” section below.

 

October 11th – This Day in Stock Market History

 

October 11th, 1982 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 1,000 for the first time in nearly a decade, finally recovering from the brutal 1973-1974 recession.

 

Source: The Market’s Measure

 

 

The recession in the 70’s served as a tough reminder for many about the long term nature of investing. There have been 4 periods since 1900 where the U.S. stock market has given a negative 10 year return, and the 70’s was one of them. This is one of the reasons I have been focusing so much time on Wall Street and Stock Market history. It sets expectations and helps you remember what is truly “normal”. Stocks will have periods of low and even negative returns – and that’s OK.

 

The 70’s is known for its recession, but the chart above only tells part of the story. The 70’s and early 80’s also saw the U.S. fighting high inflation, which reached into the double digits in the early 1980s.

When adjusted for inflation, the 70’s and early 80s represent the worst performing period in stock market history.

Below, an inflation adjusted chart of the Dow Jones Industrial Average from 1965 to 1995. Over the course of 30 years, the stock market went nowhere adjusted for inflation!

October 11th, 2007 – The S&P 500 reaches an intra-day high of 1,576.09, what would become the peak of the market before the great recession. Stocks would fall more than 50% over the next 12 months.

The S&P 500 would not close above 1576 until March 28th, 2013.

Best October 11th in Dow Jones Industrial Average History

1932 – Up 5.46%, 3.19 points.

 

Worst October 11th in Dow Jones Industrial Average History

1937 – Down 3.57%, 5.14 points.

 

Read of the Day

Buffett’s quote above and real life examples like the tough investing environment in the 70’s tell the importance of finding quality investments that you can be comfortable holding no matter the market environment.

We have several articles to help your search:

• How to Determine if Your Dividend is Sustainable –  How can you have the confidence to hold your dividend paying stocks through a market downturn? Here is a quick check to see how sustainable a company’s dividend really is.
• From our Definition page – Current Ratio – How to determine if a company can afford to pay it’s bills for the next year.