Big Picture · US Equities Through a Century

Time in the market.

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S&P 500 vs. Equal-Weight

S&P 500 Annual Returns

Annual returns since 1928. A yearly view of the long-run risk-return distribution.

S&P 500 Annual Return Distribution

Distribution of annual total returns (including dividends) since 1928. Average is ~10%, yet individual years rarely cluster near the mean.

S&P 500 Holding-Period Annualized Returns

Annualized return from the X-axis buy year through the Y-axis sell year, based on year-end levels (excluding dividends).

S&P 500 Return Composition

Annual breakdown 1999–2025. Total Return = Price Return + Dividend Return + Net Buyback Yield.

S&P 500 Drawdowns from All-Time High

Daily drawdown from the prior all-time high, classified into five severity buckets.

Major drawdowns ≥ 10%
Period S&P High S&P Low Days to Low Decline Days to New High Category Trigger

S&P 500 Intrayear Max Drawdown vs. Full-Year Return

Adds perspective to each year: intrayear max drawdown, full-year return, and number of new highs.

S&P 500 Volatility

20-day and 60-day annualized volatility. Red bands mark high-volatility phases when either measure crosses 30%.

Monthly Return Statistics

Monthly returns since 2000, with up-probability for each calendar month.

VIX & S&P 500

S&P 500 on log scale. Red bands mark panic phases where VIX stays above 30.

Index Fear vs Single-Stock Fear (VIX / VIXEQ)

VIX measures the expected volatility of the S&P 500 as a whole. VIXEQ, launched by CBOE in late 2024, can be read as the "single-stock fear index" — it reflects the average implied volatility of each S&P 500 constituent on its own.

Buffett Indicator

Total Market Cap / (GDP + Fed Balance Sheet) — Modified Buffett Indicator.

The original indicator (TMC/GDP) was famously called by Buffett in 2001 "probably the best single measure of where valuations stand at any given moment." The modified version adds Fed total assets in the denominator to absorb the QE-era liquidity expansion: central-bank balance-sheet growth pumps liquidity that lifts valuations, and the original measure would mistakenly flag this "printed-money market cap" as "significantly overvalued."

S&P 500 Shiller PE (CAPE)

Shiller PE uses 10-year inflation-adjusted average earnings as the denominator, smoothing cyclical swings and making it well-suited for tracking long-term valuation extremes.

S&P 500 Market Breadth

Share of constituents at a 52-week high (industry-standard definition).

AIAE · Average Investor Equity Allocation

Equity market cap / (Equity market cap + Bonds + Cash supply). Quarterly since 1945. Source: Alpha Architect 2021.

In plain terms, AIAE measures what share of total household wealth is currently allocated to equities. Unlike PE — which asks "are stocks expensive?" (price ÷ earnings) — AIAE asks "how full are investors of stocks?" (equity holdings ÷ total assets). When everyone is stuffed to the gills with equities, there are only two ways for the allocation to come back down: investors must buy more bonds, or stocks must fall. Empirical work shows AIAE outperforms CAPE and Tobin's Q at predicting 10-year forward returns: AIAE hit all-time highs at the 1929 / 2000 / 2007 tops and all-time lows at the 1932 / 1982 / 2009 bottoms.

S&P 500 Earnings Per Share

TTM EPS

S&P 500 Return on Equity (ROE)

Annual ROE plotted against the long-term average.

Rolling Returns

Annualized N-year trailing return at each point in time, based on monthly data since 1928.

S&P 500 Bull/Bear Cycles

±20% defines bull vs. bear. Bull markets shown above (log-compressed), bears below (percent). Labels show actual returns.

Magnificent Seven & Custom Mag 7 Index

Sector Exposure

S&P 500 weight structure by GICS sector.

Constituent Changes

Recent index reconstitutions compiled from S&P Dow Jones Indices official announcements.

Effective Date Added Removed Trigger Type

Methodology

S&P 500 inclusion criteria, weighting, and rebalancing mechanics.

S&P 500 Constituent Landscape

X-axis: market cap ($B). Y-axis: trailing 1-year return. Weight and price details in the table below.

Company Ticker Weight Price