Lessons Learned: Here's Why The Market Is At All Time Highs
It seems hard to believe, but less than a year ago the words “social” and “distancing” were rarely seen together. Last January talks of the market being overvalued were had on crowded subways in New York City, and discussions of an inevitable rise in interest rates were being forecast by credit analysts on crowded Wall Street trading floors. Remember, entering 2020 the S&P 500 (an index of 500 stocks often used to measure “the market”) was in the midst of its longest run ever without a 20% fall. It was a run that lasted nearly 12 years and saw prices rise over 400% since March 2009. So, of course, while stocks have been up 80% of the time over the past 50 years, it was natural for most of Wall Street’s brightest minds to call for a breather after the past decade’s historic, nearly uninterrupted rise.