The Longest Bull Market in History

Wall Street is celebrating the longest bull market ever!  S&P Dow Jones Indices, which compiles the benchmark S&P 500 Stock Index, said that the current bull market that began on March 9, 2009 became the longest in history at 3,453 calendar days on August 22, 2018! This longest-running stock rally started in the ashes of the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression. The S&P 500 has soared more than 323 percent since March 2009, creating more than $18 trillion in wealth.

There is some debate over whether this bull market technically deserves the award for the longest on record. Bull markets are defined as a stretch when the stock market rises without suffering a 20 percent drop. Some argue that the market run from October 1990 to March 2000 that stretched over a 3,352-day period was preceded by a slump of only 19.92 percent. This previous record bull run lasted almost a decade until the dotcom bubble burst around the turn of the millennium. Thus, statistical sticklers that don’t round up make the case that the starting point for this earlier boom was December 1987 and that bull run would still retain the crown. Why argue? Sensible people should enjoy the fact that the stock market has pumped up their portfolios and retirement accounts over this 9 ½ year period!