Three Year Anniversary

Three years ago the markets bottomed.  That period represented the culmination of the worst period I've ever experienced in this business and probably is the closest we've been as a country to stepping over the edge of the abyss.  We were closer to a repeat the Great Depression back then than most people realized. 

There would have been no reason to think that the period of March 6-10, 2009 was any more than a short step from the market losing another 15-20% of its value.  However if you had bought stocks during that period you would have experienced..... 

....returns.....

...like these shown above. 

Note that even if you had missed the bottom and waited a couple of weeks or even a few months you still had the opportunity to have made substantial amounts of money from those investments.  Instead nearly 2 trillion dollars of cash has been yanked from the markets during that time and the money flows into bond funds at generational low interest rates has continued for much of this year.  What was the harder trade then?  Stocks or bonds?  What is the harder trade now?

*Long ETFs related to the S&P 500 in client and personal accounts.  Long ETFs related to the NASDAQ 100 in client accounts.