Knowledge Base
S&P 500 investing strategies, index funds, ETFs, market performance data, and the trading approaches that shape allocation decisions.
45 articles in this category — page 4 of 4
The oldest stocks in the S&P 500 include companies founded before the American Civil War, with Colgate-Palmolive tracing its roots to 1806. Five companies stand out for both their age and their continued index membership: Colgate-Palmolive (1806), Consolidated Edison (1823), Procter & Gamble (1837),
The S&P 500 drawdown history spans nearly a century of peak-to-trough declines, from the 86% collapse of 1929–1932 to the 33.9% COVID crash that recovered in 148 days. The pattern is consistent: drawdowns are inevitable, recoveries are not guaranteed to be fast, and how you respond determines whethe
Since its 1957 inception, the S&P 500 has compounded at roughly 10.5% annually with dividends reinvested, turning $10,000 into approximately $3.8 to $4.2 million through December 2023, depending on the total return data source. Strip out dividends and that number drops sharply. That distinction matt
The S&P 500 hitting a new all-time high generates a predictable wave of financial media noise. For investors managing $5M+ portfolios, the more useful question isn't whether to celebrate or panic. It's whether the milestone triggers any specific action on taxes, allocation, or estate planning before
The S&P Global Water Index holds exactly 50 companies, drawn from the S&P Global BMI, split across two sub-industries: water utilities and water equipment, instruments, and materials. Float-adjusted market capitalization determines the weights, with single-stock caps applied to prevent any one name
The S&P 500 presidential cycle is a pattern first documented by Yale Hirsch in the Stock Trader's Almanac: stock returns tend to follow a predictable rhythm across the four years of a presidential term, with year three historically the strongest and year two the weakest. The pattern is real in the h
The S&P 500 bear market definition is straightforward: a decline of 20% or more from a recent peak, sustained for at least two months. What that number means for a $10M portfolio is less straightforward. According to Hartford Funds analysis of Ned Davis Research data, since 1928 the S&P 500 has expe
Dividends have accounted for approximately 40% of the S&P 500's total return from 1930 to 2022, according to research from Hartford Funds and Ned Davis Research. That figure surprises most investors who fixate on price movement. For anyone managing a $5M+ portfolio, understanding how S&P 500 dividen
The S&P 500's long-run inflation-adjusted return has averaged approximately 6.5–7% annually since 1871, according to Robert Shiller's Yale dataset. That figure includes reinvested dividends. Strip those out, or run the math after taxes for a $5M+ investor in a high-tax state, and you're looking at s