Andra Markets

Market history

What happened in each stage of the S&P 500 since 1928: 36 episodes, each with its fall from peak to low, the months to the low and back to the peak, and what happened.

S&P 500 daily closes, price onlyYahoo Finance, to 30 Oct 2026

The S&P 500 since 1928

S&P 500, daily close (log scale)Each episode's fall, peak to low

S&P 500 daily close, price only (the S&P 90 before March 1957). Yahoo Finance, ^GSPC, to 30 Oct 2026.

Every episode

  1. 1928 to 1929The great crash−35.9%
  2. 1929 to 1932The Great Depression−86.2%
  3. 1932 to 1936The New Deal recovery−40.6%
  4. 1937 to 1938The recession of 1937−54.5%
  5. 1939 to 1942War in Europe and Pearl Harbor−43.5%
  6. 1942 to 1946The wartime rally−13.1%
  7. 1946 to 1949The post-war slump−29.6%
  8. 1949 to 1953The Korean War years−14.0%
  9. 1953 to 1956The fifties boom−10.6%
  10. 1957 to 1958Sputnik and the 1957 recession−21.5%
  11. 1959 to 1961The Kennedy years begin−14.0%
  12. 1962The 1962 crash and the Cuban missile crisis−26.4%
  13. 1963 to 1965The go-go years−9.6%
  14. 1966 to 1968The credit crunch and Vietnam−22.2%
  15. 1968 to 1970The 1969 to 1970 bear market−35.9%
  16. 1970 to 1972The Nixon shock and the Nifty Fifty−13.9%
  17. 1973 to 1974The oil shock bear market−48.2%
  18. 1975 to 1976The recovery of 1975−14.1%
  19. 1977 to 1979Stagflation−18.8%
  20. 1980 to 1982The Volcker squeeze−27.1%
  21. 1982 to 1986The start of the great bull market−14.4%
  22. 1987 to 1988Black Monday−33.5%
  23. 1989 to 1991The savings and loan crisis and the Gulf War−19.9%
  24. 1992 to 1994The 1994 bond rout−8.9%
  25. 1995 to 1997The mid-nineties bull market−10.8%
  26. 1998 to 2000LTCM and the dot-com mania−19.3%
  27. 2000 to 2002The dot-com bust−49.1%
  28. 2003 to 2007The mid-2000s expansion−14.1%
  29. 2007 to 2009The global financial crisis−56.8%
  30. 2009 to 2012The euro crisis years−19.4%
  31. 2013 to 2015The taper tantrum−12.4%
  32. 2016 to 2017Brexit and the reflation trade−9.3%
  33. 2018 to 2019Volmageddon and the Fed pivot−19.8%
  34. 2020 to 2021The Covid crash and recovery−33.9%
  35. 2022 to 2023Inflation and the fastest rate rises in decades−25.4%
  36. Since 2024The AI boom and the tariff shock−18.9%

How the figures are measured

From the S&P 500's daily closes, price only: dividends are not included. An episode's fall is the largest drop from a close to a later close within its months, from the highest close before the low. Where an episode's text measures from a peak in the episode before or to a low in the episode after, the figures do too: the Great Depression from the 1929 peak, Sputnik and the 1957 recession from the 1956 high, and the Volcker squeeze to the low of August 1982. Months are calendar months, rounded. Back at the peak is the first close at or above the peak's close.

The text of each episode is the one the Trading Simulator shows at the end of a game. For information only. Not investment advice.