Ben Carlson: Returns “pretty darn good” after the S&P drops 25%

“History provides no guarantees for the future but I do find some level of comfort in knowing that buying stocks when they’re down big like this tends to offer positive outcomes.

These are the forward one, three, five and ten year returns1 from down 25% over the past 70+ years in the S&P 500:

Every single bear market in the history of U.S. stocks has resolved to new all-time highs eventually.

There is no guarantee that buying stocks when they are down will lead to better outcomes but expected returns should be higher when prices are lower.”