God this was the most boring question I’ve answered so far and somehow this is the one everyone has to read and upvote. Seriously, it took me 5 minutes to write this and there was nothing fun or interesting about it. Well, let’s see how well that works here.
Question: What is the average return for individual investors?
I found this chart in JP Morgan’s 1Q, 2014 Guide to the Markets.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Clik here to view.
Based on their analysis, the average investor had a 2.3% annualized return over the 20 years from 1993 to 2012. Honestly, I didn’t look into how they got that result, so there is room to argue about what the actual number should be. If I can find the time, I’ll look at the details and update this post if needed.
