S&P 500’s Annual Performance Hinges on a Few Days’ Swings
Just a few days of trading can have a disproportionate effect on U.S. stocks’ yearly performance, according to Ryan Detrick, a senior market strategist at LPL Financial Research. The S&P 500 Index rose in every year since 1990 after taking out the 10 biggest daily losses, based on data he cited in a blog posting Wednesday. On the other hand, the index dropped in all but one year since 1998 after the 10 largest daily gains were excluded. The exception was 2013, shown in the chart, which focuses on the past decade.