BESSEMBINDER 2026 · 1926—2025 — Ten decades, and the middle stock keeps getting worse
The decade ledger — Median stock returns across ten decades, with the shares beating T-bills and beating the market.
Every stock on the books at each decade's start, held for ten years. The median decade return averages 63.6% across the first six decades and 5.8% across the last four, while the share beating the value-weighted market stays near a third throughout — 35.62% pooled over all 62,348 stock-decades.
What this page answers
This static page is built to answer searches for BESSEMBINDER 2026 · 1926—2025. It summarizes the live dataset behind the Ten decades, and the middle stock keeps getting worse panel and links to the full interactive chart.
Every stock on the books at each decade's start, held for ten years. The median decade return averages 63.6% across the first six decades and 5.8% across the last four, while the share beating the value-weighted market stays near a third throughout — 35.62% pooled over all 62,348 stock-decades. The data is refreshed by the History of Market pipeline and published as a stable JSON endpoint for research, citation, and AI-agent use.
The plate
Data & Source
GET /api/static/bessembinder-2026.json — Canonical dataset endpoint.
Exchange closing prices · Company filings · Robert Shiller · FRED · NBER.
FAQ
Where does this data come from?
History of Market combines public market and macro datasets — exchange closing prices, company filings, Robert Shiller, FRED, NBER, and the UBS Global Investment Returns Yearbook (Dimson–Marsh–Staunton). The exact endpoint for this panel is linked below.
How often is it updated?
Daily-tier datasets refresh after the U.S. market close, with a broader weekly refresh on Sunday. The timestamp shown on this page comes from the JSON payload.
Can I use the data?
Yes, for research and education with attribution to History of Market. Upstream data sources retain their own terms.