Chart of the Day: 30% of the Time

Today’s Chart of the Day is from Vanguard and shows that, since 1980, the stock market has traded in the 10%-20% down range, aka Correction Territory, 30% of the time.

Most of that time was during the Lost Decade* (1999 to 2009) but according to the chart, that’s happened 21 times over the last 40 years, which works out to an average of one correction every two years.

The chart also gives definitions used by the financial press, which are:

• Correction- a 10-20% decline
• Bear - a 20%-30% decline
• Extreme Bear - a decline more than 30%

Fortunately, the Extreme Bear has only happened four times since 1980, or once every 10 years. 

*The Lost Decade was a ten-year period from 1999 to 2009 which started after the Dot-com Bubble collapsed and was followed years later with the Great Recession. The market did not reach a new record high until 2009.