S&P 500 drawdown: 1.3% below the all-time high (price)
The S&P 500 is 1.3% below its all-time high, set Oct 6, 2026 (as of market close, Oct 20, 2026), measured on price alone — dividends are not included, the convention headlines and crash histories use. The chart shows every day — and every month back to 1871 — as a percentage of the highest level reached up to that point: 100% means a fresh record, everything below is a drawdown.
- Below all-time high
- −1.3%
- 98.7% of ATH
- All-time high
- 7,725
- Oct 6, 2026
- Time below the high
- 14 days
- since Oct 6, 2026
- Worst-ever drawdown
- −84.8%
- Jun 1932
- Longest underwater
- 25.0 yrs
- between all-time highs
- Today's level first reached
- Aug 4, 2026
- 3 mo ago
- Last time this deep
- Oct 1, 2026
- in a previous episode
% of all-time high since 1871: price#
The classic underwater chart (drawdown curve), drawn as % of the all-time high — 100% is a fresh record, everything below it is time spent underwater. Basis and range are in the URL, so a particular view is a link.
The deepest drawdowns on record#
Every decline of 15% or more from an all-time high (price basis), deepest first.
| Peak | Trough | Depth | Peak → trough | Recovered by | Underwater |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 1929 | Jun 1932 | −84.8% | 2.7 yrs | Sep 1954 | 25.0 yrs |
| Oct 9, 2007 | Mar 9, 2009 | −56.5% | 17 mo | Mar 14, 2013 | 5.4 yrs |
| Mar 24, 2000 | Oct 9, 2002 | −49.1% | 2.5 yrs | Jun 1, 2007 | 7.2 yrs |
| May 1872 | Jun 1877 | −47.3% | 5.1 yrs | Feb 1880 | 7.7 yrs |
| Jan 1973 | Dec 1974 | −43.4% | 1.9 yrs | Jul 1980 | 7.5 yrs |
| Jun 1881 | Aug 1896 | −42.1% | 15.2 yrs | Dec 1900 | 19.5 yrs |
| Sep 1906 | Nov 1907 | −37.7% | 14 mo | Aug 1909 | 2.9 yrs |
| Dec 1909 | Aug 1921 | −37.4% | 11.7 yrs | Jan 1925 | 15.1 yrs |
Price basis (no dividends) — the convention crash histories use. With dividends reinvested, recoveries arrive years earlier; switch the basis on the chart above to see it.
What happened next: forward returns by drawdown depth#
For every month since 1871, how far the index stood below its all-time high — and the total return (dividends reinvested) over the following 1, 5 and 10 years.
| Starting point | Months | Median next 1y | Median next 5y | Median next 10y | 5y windows positive |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| At/near the high (0–1% off) | 719 | +11.3% | +9.8%/yr | +8.5%/yr | 85% |
| 1–10% off the high | 572 | +8.2% | +8.6%/yr | +8.3%/yr | 93% |
| 10–20% off | 307 | +12.5% | +10.8%/yr | +10.0%/yr | 94% |
| 20–30% off | 101 | +15.9% | +10.3%/yr | +8.2%/yr | 84% |
| 30–50% off | 121 | +16.5% | +11.7%/yr | +9.1%/yr | 90% |
| More than 50% off | 50 | +18.9% | +11.6%/yr | +8.2%/yr | 100% |
Every month as one dot
Read this honestly: monthly windows overlap heavily (they are not independent samples), and the deep-drawdown buckets are dominated by a handful of episodes (the 1930s, 1973–74, 2008–09) — history rhymes, it doesn't promise. This pattern is specific to a broad, survivorship-free index; individual stocks deep below their highs frequently never recover. Not investment advice.
FAQ#
- How far is the S&P 500 from its all-time high?
- S&P 500 is currently 1.3% below its all-time high, set Oct 6, 2026 (as of market close, Oct 20, 2026). Prices only, the convention headlines use; with dividends reinvested the gap is usually smaller.
- What was the biggest S&P 500 drawdown ever?
- The deepest decline on record since 1871 took the index 84.8% below its prior high, bottoming Jun 1932. The table on this page lists every major episode with its peak, trough and recovery date.
- Are big drawdowns good times to buy?
- Historically, deeper drawdowns have been followed by somewhat higher median long-run returns for broad indexes — but the sample of deep crashes is small, the windows overlap, and an index can keep falling long after any threshold. This holds for diversified indexes (which have always eventually recovered), not for individual stocks, which can stay down permanently. Nothing here is investment advice.
Methodology & related#
Monthly data 1871–1993 from Robert Shiller's long-run series (levels are monthly averages, so intra-month extremes are understated in that era), daily data since from SPY, chained at the seam — the level shown for recent dates is an estimate of the index level derived from SPY, typically within ~1–2% of the official close. The price basis excludes dividends; the total-return basis reinvests them; the real basis additionally deflates by CPI. Forward-return analysis uses the total-return series. See also returns by year. Past performance does not predict future returns; not investment advice.
More on S&P 500
- Companies & weights500
- Stock performance500
- Sector performance+55.0%
- Return calculator$1,817
- P/E ratio26.1
- Earnings per share$295.39
- Return drivers+17.7%
- Valuation bands26.1×
ChartRow is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC, S&P Global, Nasdaq, Inc., FTSE Russell, MSCI Inc., Robert Shiller, RSBB-I, LLC, or Yale University. "S&P 500®" and "S&P®" are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and "Dow Jones®" of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC, both licensed to S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC; "Nasdaq-100®" is a registered trademark of Nasdaq, Inc.; "GICS®" is a trademark of MSCI Inc. and S&P Global; "CAPE®" is a registered trademark of RSBB-I, LLC; all other index names are trademarks of their owners. They are used here only to identify the index a fund tracks. ChartRow receives no data from, and holds no licence from, any index provider: the constituents and weights shown are the tracking fund's own holdings as reported in its public SEC filings, rolled forward by ChartRow from daily prices; returns are the fund's own market prices; long-run S&P 500 history comes from public research datasets, Robert Shiller's and Aswath Damodaran's, credited where used; and a current index level is ChartRow's estimate from the fund's price. These figures are ChartRow's own estimates and computations from public filings, prices and research records, provided for information only and without warranty of accuracy; they are not the fund's or any index provider's official figures and may differ from them.