Chart of the Day: Rolling 10-Year Returns

Today’s Chart of the Day from Cambria shows the rolling 10-year US stock return going back 108 years to 1914. There are two general periods where stocks realized a negative return over a 10-year span: one during the Great Depression in the 1930s and the other during the Great Recession in 2008. Notice that these periods were brief and returns quickly recovered to 10%+. It's good to remember the quote from Warren Buffet, “We don’t have to be smarter than the rest. We have to be more disciplined than the rest.” Discipline comes from being prepared: know downturns have happened and will happen again, but selling when the market is down locks in losses and avoiding knee-jerk reactions to market dips has been the best strategy.