On March 6, 2009 the S&P 500 bottomed at 666.79
The darkest day of the stock market my my lifetime was on March 6, 2009. At the time it felt like every single day the market was falling 3%. In less than two years the market had fallen 57% and the Fed was in panic mode. Interestingly enough, right around the time of the bottom, Bernanke made his famous 'green shoots' comments on 60 Minutes and just a couple weeks ago, Draghi made similar comments about the eurozone.
On the fateful day of the lows, this was the cover of the New York Times.
The cover carries a story about pain on the stock market. A major bottom usually comes at the point of despair and reading that story, it certain illustrates the level of anguish.
"The rout highlighted the apathy and pessimism that have seeped into all corners of the market as the global economic downturn deepens," the story says.
This guy will also go down in infamy: "We're collapsing in on ourselves," Eric Ross, director of research at the brokerage firm Canaccord Adams, told The Times. "Nobody wants to be invested, that's the problem. I don't believe we're at the bottom yet."
Here's another sign that the bottom was near:
"Ninety-nine percent of the people I talk to are pessimistic," said Russell Napier, a consultant at Crédit Lyonnais.. "Everyone is sitting back and waiting for one more big implosion."
Interestingly, that was also a non-farm payrolls Friday. The consensus estimate was -648K! and the actual number was -651K in a rare bit of excellent work from economists at the time. It was later revised to -703K. The worst monthly jobs report came a month later at -824K.
Since then the market has more than tripled in one of the greatest bull markets of all time. Personally, I remember buying stocks heavily at the time. I had been in 100% cash (like everyone) and bought 10% of my account in stocks for 10 consecutive trading days at the time. About a month later I sold it all off for a tidy profit and patted myself on the back. It's cute to think anyone could have bought at the bottom and hung on; there was just too much worry, too many risks and too much fear of another headline that would wipe the market out.