stock market history for anyone that is interested

[Value Buy]

I know many posters here do not visit the investing/stock market board or do not enter the discussions there if you do look at them.
I am posting a post of mine that I just listed from a thread there showing the stock market index gains for the last 9 years. I want to post it here, just in case someone may say wow, maybe I should be paying attention to the markets more than I do! 
When you start looking at historical data for the stock indexes it can be surprising how fast your money can increase in value. Will it continue like this? Heck no. There is no guarentee. Can you be involved in this? Heck yes! There are simple S&P 500 ETF funds that track the S&P500 that you can invest in and receive this level of gain over the years. You do have to pay attention and move the funds out if Stock markets continue in a long trajectory downward, etc.
I just hope a poster who is not involved in market investing might just start tracking various indexes and learn some tactics. It is much easier to hit these returns for a person without a ton of knowledge, rather than trying to hit it big with individual stocks.....
Closing index prices, Dec. 30th, 2011/closing quotes Dec 31 st 2019

Dow 12,217.................................................28,538.44  (more than doubled)
Nasdaq 2,605.15............................................8,972.60  (more than tripled)
S&P 500 1,257.60..........................................3,230.78   (more than doubled)
Transportation index 5,019.69................... ...10,901.28    (more than doubled)
Utility index 464.68..........................................879.17

Gold $1,566.0 oz.........................................$1,520.30
Platinum $1404.90.........................................$971.60
Silver $27.85 oz.............................................$17.915
Copper $3.436.................................................$2.798

Oil $98.93 barrel.............................................$61.134
Gasoline $2.6574 gallon, NY Harbor...................$1.6902
Natural gas $2.989...........................................$2.182
Heating oil $ $2.9350 Gallon..............................2.0265

Wheat $6.5275 bushel.....................................$559.50
Corn $6.4650 bushel........................................$387.25
10 yr treasury $101.0938
Euro $1.296....................................................$1.1214


Here is an eight year run for the markets comparing items I was following eight years ago to today's numbers.

[Value Buy]

Happy New Year everyone!

I posted this thread in EE just to get some eyballs for everybody to read and think about it......

[tractor]

Interesting, I’ve been in stocks the whole time and can attest to the unprecedented increase. The gold numbers really tell a story, really not much of a gain there, despite all the hype you’ve heard over the years.

[oped]

amp.axios.com/trump-stock-market-gain-obama-bush-d4f951ec-1fd7-4b53-bb4e-b33d4e91df37.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=organic&__twitter_impression=true

[OldCoyote]

Absolutely amazing,, VB posted something that could be of interest to many that are not involved in the market,,

And we HAVE to make it political!!

[Value Buy]

Jan 2, 2020 9:10:32 GMT -5 OldCoyote said:

Absolutely amazing,, VB posted something that could be of interest to many that are not involved in the market,,

And we HAVE to make it political!!

Yes, if I wanted to make it political, it would have been in the politics or even the current events sections these days.
Taking a snapshot of specific days shows very little. In fact if you take it from the day of the actual election instead of the day in office, he beat Oabama. Does not matter, as I am looking at a longer period than three or four years.
But that is not the point. If you were in for the entire time in an S&P 500 fund, or Nasdaq 100 fund, your base amount invested wouild have increased dramatically.
Heck, last year we pulled $85,000 out of our investments (stocks and IRA'S) and we wound up with more money on December 31st 2019 than we did at the end of 2018 and based on the Ira's distributuon, we have more shares than we started with. 
I just want some posters who may not understand the markets to start reading up on them. Become educated and take a small first step.
If you believe Social Security may not last as some posters say, it behooves everyone to start taking care of their retirement needs today. The earlier you start, the better off you will become.
Another tidbit to know when the stock markets have a better than 20% yearly gain, the following year usually returns another 10% gain.
With the Presidential election this year, I am not 100% sure we will see this, but I would not be surprised to see a 12 to15% gain going into maybe early September, then a sell off until the election is complete, then either a falloff if Trump loses (doubt that happening) or a year end rally to close with a gain of between 8 to 13% based on him winning re-election.......'I am not making this political with that statement. It is just a possibility of actually happening based on the election results.
Their is an old rule of 72 to double your money in seven years.
www.investopedia.com/terms/r/ruleof72.asp
Right now we have a historical record of beating that number based on the last decade's returns. 
And again, Happy New Year eveyone.

[resolution]

This has really been an excellent decade for index funds, and I feel like all of my investing has finally been worth it. I started investing in the 00s when everything stayed flat for a decade, which was extremely discouraging. I am glad that I kept investing through the down times, because it has paid a handsome return.

[Value Buy]

To add to Resolution's post, we had one or two years where our 401-k's barely increased more than what we had with held from our payroll, due to economic issues in the mid 2000 years. Talk about frustrating and double thinking our investments, etc.

What it did do was buy more units at lower cost, and after the economy improved so did the stock market which increased our share/units dramatically.
Everyone has to think long term.

[Value Buy]

XOM is a stock that we own. If you buy it now, you could reap a 5% dividend return with the possibility of eventual stock share increases when oil prices rise above current levels. Anyone believing oil will not rise from this price level as world economies improve are wrong imo.
Put the shares in the drip program (dividend re-investment program) and buy more shares at the current price, at no cost to you, increasing your shares and reaping more dividend income in future years. XOM usually increases the dividend a little bit every four to five quarters, but at current payout level of five percent, may not increase it until stock share price increases, lowering the dividend percentage from 5%

seekingalpha.com/article/4314720-exxon-mobil-5-dividend-yield-is-near-25-year-high

Of course if you believe the years of oil useage are over, do not invest in this stock.
And for the record, I am not a stock analyst, and not promoting this stock for any personal or financial reasons.
It is just working for me!