As of the shut on Monday the S&P 500 is now down nearly 17% from all-time highs.
The technical definition of a bear market is down 20% however we’re shut sufficient for me to name it.
It’s a massacre on the market.
The Nasdaq 100 and Russell 2000 are each already there:
It’s been a few years since we’ve skilled a bear market so it’s in all probability an excellent time for a refresher:
- Bear markets are regular.
- They are often painful.
- The explanations are at all times totally different however the feelings are the identical.
- Nobody is aware of how lengthy they’ll final.
- They do come to an finish finally.
The size of the present iteration in all probability will depend on how lengthy inflation stays elevated, how resolute the Fed is with tighter financial coverage and if these two components mix to throw us right into a recession.
Issues may absolutely worsen earlier than they get higher or this might all finish with one sentence from Jerome Powell if he decides to faucet out. The underside will look apparent in hindsight however, as at all times, predicting these items in real-time will not be simple.
Historic comparisons can not present the blueprint for the current scenario however they might help put issues into perspective when it comes to the size and length of previous bear markets.
Right here’s a take a look at each bear marketplace for the S&P 500 going again to 1950 that reveals the drawdown, peak-to-trough variety of days they lasted, and the way lengthy it took for the S&P to reclaim earlier ranges:
Over 15 bear markets, the typical downturn is a lack of 30%, lasting just below a yr to succeed in the underside and taking a bit of greater than one-and-a-half years to interrupt even.1
The final three bear markets2 have all been comparatively short-lived. Eight out of the 15 bear markets broke even in underneath a yr. The worst-case situation is the 1973-1974, 2000-2002 and 2007-2009 crashes which all took greater than 4 years to recuperate.
I’m unsure how this one will play out.
Each time shares fall a bit of it seems like they might fall so much. Each time shares go right into a correction, it seems like they might go right into a bear market. And each time shares go right into a bear market, it seems like they might tailspin into an all-out crash.
I definitely wouldn’t rule out a crash proper now with how shortly markets are transferring. It seems like the percentages of one thing like a flash crash are a lot larger now than they had been previously.
The unhealthy factor about bear markets is you by no means know the way unhealthy they’re going to get as a result of we human beings can panic underneath duress.
The advantage of bear markets is they arrive to an finish and supply the chance to purchase at decrease costs.
Efficiently navigating a bear market requires endurance and an excellent deal with in your feelings and time horizon.
Additional Studying:
What Occurs When You Purchase Shares in a Bear Market?
1When you’re somebody that prefers median values, right here you go: -27.1%, 196 days, 329 days and 0.9 years, respectively.
2I rounded up on a few of these. Horseshoes and hand grenades — shut sufficient.
