Investors who bought the teeth of the Lehman crisis are up 130%

However, it is best not to underestimate how this economic and asset market recovery seemed fragile and difficult to maintain confidence that the market will eventually bail out the imperfect timing of investors.

The S & P 500, which peaked at 666 the afternoon of March 6, 2009, spent very little time under 800 – no more than five weeks in total. Yet his rise to pre-Lehman levels was slow and in great shape.

Not quite a year after Lehman and five months after reaching the trough of the market, the S & P had fallen back to 1000, but it was still common to consider it as a "bear market rally". market on many minds.

Paul Tudor Jones, renowned hedge fund trader, said this in August 2009: "Impressive counter-trend rallies characterize secular bear markets, we are not inclined to aggressively hunt the market here. especially low household income growth. "

In the three-year market, the S & P 500 had virtually recovered its losses after Lehman, but equities lagged bond yields since the crisis and the European debt crisis threatened to provoke a global financial crisis.

Here is how the Los Angeles Times summarized the situation in August 2011: "RIP, bull market? Unless the stocks reverse quickly, Wall Street statisticians will mark the closing date of the March 29 bull market, which was born in March 2009, in the depths of the last recession. "

After five years, things seemed more solid: the S & P 500 had reached new heights for months, profits were soaring, the buzz of Silicon Valley was based on solid foundations. And it is precisely at this point that the concern has turned to the possibility that the Fed spoils things by starting to tighten policy too early or quickly.

During all these years of worry, the market has fought for a respectable performance, even for those who have bought on the precipice of an unprecedented financial calamity.

Where did we come from? This is no longer the time to ask "Is all the bad news on the market and in front of our noses?" but rather, "things are so good, how did the market not get everything?"

For the record, in September 2008, the first question was exactly the right one to ask. Acting aggressively has proven premature and humiliating for a long time, but not bad.