A very long-term chart of U.S. stock prices usually going up 📈

An incredible track record despite 200 years of challenges 🤯

As we often say here at TKer, the stock market usually goes up.

These discussions are usually accompanied by charts of the stock market going back to the 1920s.

So I was delighted to see Bank of America analysts share this chart of U.S. stock prices going all the way back to 1820s.

“In the long run, stock prices go up.” (Source: BofA)

“[A]s this chart illustrates, in the long run, stock prices go up,” BofA’s Michael Hartnett wrote in a research note published on Monday. “$1 invested in U.S. large company stocks in 1824 was worth $16 million in Oct 2023 with dividends reinvested, a stark illustration of the power of compounding and total return.“

The further back you go, the more you run into data quality issues and other issues related to comparability. So I don’t think it’s always helpful to lengthen the X-axis for the sake of going back into ancient history.

That said, this super old data nevertheless confirms the observation that the stock market usually goes up.

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Why does the stock market usually go up? You can read more about that here:

• 10 truths about the stock market 📈

• 4 key observations about the U.S. stock market to remember 📊

• Telling the story of how the stock market usually goes up, year 2 📈🎂

For more discussions with long-term charts of the stock market, check out:

• 2 ways of thinking about this chart of stocks and recessions 📈

• The most important pattern in history's bear markets 📉📈📈

• The markets and the economy are 'full-on Monet' 🖼️

• Falling valuations ≠ falling stock prices 🤔