Econintersect: There is an astounding story today in Investment News. Quoting from research to be released “later today” by Franklin Templeton, the article states that nearly half or more than half, depending on the year, think that the S&P 500 lost money in each of the last three years (2009, 2010 and 2011).
It is not clear if these opinions are a result of a memory bias from 2008 when the index lost nearly 40%, or the distraction of bad economic data which has produce these astoundingly uninformed opinions.
For 2009 almost 2/3 of the investors surveyed thought the S&P 500 lost money when it actaully gained more than 25%. The other years are not quite at that extreme, but the results are puzzling. Here are the details:
That so many investors have totally missed the fact that one of the better stock market rallies in history has occurred is just plain hard to explain.
What kind of investors are these?
Obviously they are investors who could have been nearly 67% richer (including the 12.1% gain year-to-date) as buy and hold investors in the S&P 500 index for the past 3 3/4 years.
Econintersect has not yet seen the Franklin Templeton report that was scheduled for release today according to Investment News. This article will be updated (or a second article posted) when that occurs.
Source:
- High-flying S&P 500 actually down the last three years? Investors think so (Jeff Benjamin, Investment News, 18 September 2012)