As can be seen, the stock market was very profitable, in real terms, in the 1950 to 1965 and 1983 to 2000 periods. On the other hand, it didn't perform well from 1965 to 1983, and neither it did for the last decade. Still, during these periods, it partially worked as a shelter from inflation. Annual Averages per Decade Yes, really. Bigger even than 1999-2000 - the daddy bear of all stock-market bubbles. Yikes. That’s because the average overvaluation today may actually be higher than it was back then. The Dow Jones industrial average is up only 17% since September, 2007 (that all came last year), and it is up only 43% since January 1, 2000 (when I started stock traders daily). Said another way, the Dow Jones industrial average has averaged about 3% a year since the turn of the millennium, plus dividends of course.