The stock market is more than 400 years old. In 1602 the Dutch East India Company began issuing tradable paper shares, creating the Amsterdam exchange — the world’s first modern stock market, and a direct ancestor of today’s Euronext.

The New York Stock Exchange began under a buttonwood tree. Twenty-four brokers signed the Buttonwood Agreement on Wall Street in 1792; the board that grew out of it was known as the New York Stock & Exchange Board until 1863, when it took the name it carries today.

Japanese stocks compounded at roughly 17% a year through the 1970s and nearly 29% a year through the 1980s — turning $10,000 in 1970 into about $610,000 by 1989. The bubble then burst so completely that the Nikkei 225 didn’t reclaim its December 1989 peak until February 2024, a 35-year round trip.

The only four-year losing streak in Dow history is the Great Depression: the index fell 17% in 1929, 34% in 1930, 53% in 1931, and 23% in 1932. 1931 remains the worst calendar year the Dow has ever recorded.