BESSEMBINDER 2026 · 1926—2025 — The average stock made a fortune; the middle one lost money
The median is negative — The whole life of 29,754 stocks: mean, median, and how many cleared each of three hurdles.
29,754 stocks, each measured over its own life on CRSP: the mean buy-and-hold return is +30,621% and the median is −6.87%. 48.22% finished above zero, 41.17% beat the Treasury bills of the same months, and 27.60% beat the value-weighted market — which itself turned $1 into $15,041 over the century.
What this page answers
This static page is built to answer searches for BESSEMBINDER 2026 · 1926—2025. It summarizes the live dataset behind the The average stock made a fortune; the middle one lost money panel and links to the full interactive chart.
29,754 stocks, each measured over its own life on CRSP: the mean buy-and-hold return is +30,621% and the median is −6.87%. 48.22% finished above zero, 41.17% beat the Treasury bills of the same months, and 27.60% beat the value-weighted market — which itself turned $1 into $15,041 over the century. 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.