$1,000 S&P 500 Crash Buys Since 1950 Grew Past $750,000 Across 11 Selloffs
Updated
Updated · Yahoo Finance · Aug 16
$1,000 S&P 500 Crash Buys Since 1950 Grew Past $750,000 Across 11 Selloffs
3 articles · Updated · Yahoo Finance · Aug 16
Summary
$11,000 spread across 11 S&P 500 crashes since 1950 would be worth more than $750,000 today, based on an analysis of buying about 10% above each market bottom.
The calculation used bear markets of 20% or more, from 1957 through 2022, and valued each $1,000 purchase against the S&P 500's current level near 7,750.
The biggest dollar gains came from the oldest downturns: a 1957 buy grew to about $180,233, while 1962, 1970 and 1974 purchases each topped $100,000.
More recent crash buys still compounded strongly but from higher starting levels, with 2009 rising to about $10,403, 2020 to $3,150 and 2022 to $1,970.
The results underscore the long-term payoff of buying during panic rather than trying to time exact bottoms, with the combined return exceeding 68-fold.