Stock Rally Analysis (Length and Percent of Gain) from 1900 to 2010

Chart of the Day

The Dow continues to make new rally highs. To provide some perspective to the current Dow rally that began just over one year ago, all major market rallies of the last 110 years are plotted on today's chart. Each dot represents a major stock market rally as measured by the Dow. As today's chart illustrates, the Dow has begun a major rally 27 times over the past 110 years which equates to an average of one rally every four years. Also, most major rallies (73%) resulted in a gain of between 30% and 150% and lasted between 200 and 800 trading days -- highlighted in today's chart with a light blue shaded box. As it stands right now, the current Dow rally (hollow blue dot labeled you are here) has entered the low range of a "typical" rally and would currently be classified as both short in duration and below average in magnitude.

Notes:
- Where's the Dow headed? The answer may surprise you. Find out right now with the exclusive & Barron's recommended charts of Chart of the Day Plus.