October 19, 2026
What if you missed the market's 10 best days? 20 years of the S&P 500
Over 20 years and 5,000-plus trading days of the S&P 500, we checked what happens when you sit out just a handful of the best ones.
Buy the S&P 500 on the last trading day of 2005, hold it for 20 years through the end of 2025, and your money grows 5.48x (8.88% a year). That's 5,031 trading days. Sit out only the 10 best of them and it shrinks to 2.44x (4.56% a year).
| S&P 500, 2006–2025 | $1,000 became | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| Stayed in the whole time | $5,484 | 8.88% |
| Missed the 5 best days | $3,389 | 6.29% |
| Missed the 10 best days | $2,442 | 4.56% |
| Missed the 20 best days | $1,442 | 1.85% |
| Missed the 30 best days | $943 | -0.29% |
The best days sat right next to the worst
The single best day was October 13, 2008, up +11.6%. 6 of the 10 best days came within two weeks of one of the 10 worst. That's the stretch when selling feels most reasonable.
| 10 best days | That day | Worst day within 2 weeks |
|---|---|---|
| 2008-10-13 | +11.6% | 2008-10-15 −9.0% |
| 2008-10-28 | +10.8% | 2008-10-15 −9.0% |
| 2025-04-09 | +9.5% | — |
| 2020-03-24 | +9.4% | 2020-03-16 −12.0% |
| 2020-03-13 | +9.3% | 2020-03-12 −9.5% |
| 2009-03-23 | +7.1% | — |
| 2020-04-06 | +7.0% | — |
| 2008-11-13 | +6.9% | 2008-11-19 −6.1% |
| 2008-11-24 | +6.5% | 2008-11-20 −6.7% |
| 2009-03-10 | +6.4% | — |
Of course, dodging only the worst days would have done even better. The trouble is that the two tend to arrive days apart. People who step out to avoid the bad days usually miss the good ones too.
Other indexes
| Index | Stayed in | Missed 10 best | Near a worst day |
|---|---|---|---|
| S&P 500 | 5.48x | 2.44x | 6/10 |
| DAX | 4.53x | 2.04x | 6/10 |
| FTSE 100 | 1.77x | 0.89x | 7/10 |
| Nikkei 225 | 3.12x | 1.35x | 5/10 |
| KOSPI | 3.06x | 1.53x | 7/10 |
Same 20 years for each (2006–2025). Indexes without 20 years of data are left out.
How we calculated this
- Daily return = close vs. the previous trading day's close. 'Missed' means sitting in cash for that one day, earning nothing.
- Price indexes, so dividends are not included. No taxes, fees or inflation. DAX includes reinvested dividends.
- Source: S&P 500, DAX, FTSE 100, Nikkei 225, KOSPI (Yahoo Finance)
Our take
On Aug. 5, 2024, Korea's KOSPI fell 8.77% in a single day. The next day it rose 3.30%. I was in the market for both. On the first day I bought a little, as I'd planned. On the second I did nothing. If I'd sold in a panic on day one, that rebound would have happened without me.
I rarely sell once I buy. Putting these numbers together, I realized that habit is less lazy than it looks. Nobody can pick the 10 best days ahead of time. Being in the market when they arrive is something you can actually do.
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Data as of October 27, 2026. Past returns don't guarantee future results. For information only, not investment advice.