By Ben Carlson
A Wealth of Common Sense
Most of the time good things happen in the markets, but sometimes bad things happen.
The people who predict a crash every single year will be “right” eventually. The same is true for those who are constantly forecasting a recession.
But they will be wrong the majority of the time.
The stock market has been up roughly 75% of the time over one-year periods and nearly 97% of the time over 10-year time frames over the past 70+ years.
The U.S. economy has been in a recession 16% of the time since The Great Depression. That means 84% of the time, the economy has been expanding.
Most of the time things are going up but sometimes they go down isn’t nearly as sexy as predicting a historic stock market crash or the recession to end all recessions all the time.
But it’s far more helpful for people who actually want to make money on their investments.
The commentary is the opinion of the author and distributed with permission under limited license. All data and charts presented herein are from sources deemed to be reliable but are not guaranteed to be accurate. The financial information presented is for information and educational purposes and is not a substitute for professional advice; use of or reliance on any information herein is solely at your own risk. Edited from the original.