BESSEMBINDER 2026 · 1926—2025 — 3.72% of the firms made all of it
The wealth waterfall — 29,081 firms sorted by contribution: the first 96.28% net to zero, the remaining 3.72% carry everything.
Sorted from the most value-destroying firm to the most value-creating: the first 17,197 (59.13%) destroyed $10.67 trillion, the next 10,802 created exactly that much back, and so 27,999 firms — 96.28% of the century's listings — net to zero against Treasury bills. The remaining 1,082 account for the whole $90.96 trillion.
What this page answers
This static page is built to answer searches for BESSEMBINDER 2026 · 1926—2025. It summarizes the live dataset behind the 3.72% of the firms made all of it panel and links to the full interactive chart.
Sorted from the most value-destroying firm to the most value-creating: the first 17,197 (59.13%) destroyed $10.67 trillion, the next 10,802 created exactly that much back, and so 27,999 firms — 96.28% of the century's listings — net to zero against Treasury bills. The remaining 1,082 account for the whole $90.96 trillion. 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.