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S&P 500

Index
Market proxy SPY$770.241D -0.38%

S&P 500 drawdown: 1.0% below the all-time high

The S&P 500 is 1.0% below its all-time high, set Aug 13, 2026 (as of market close, Sep 4, 2026). 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
−1.0%
99.0% of ATH
All-time high
7,713
Aug 13, 2026
Time below the high
22 days
since Aug 13, 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
31 days ago
Last time this deep
Jul 31, 2026
in a previous episode

% of all-time high since 1871#

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.

Basis
Range
All-time high = 100%20%40%60%80%
S&P 500 level (est.) · log5.0020.001005002,000
18801900192019401960198020002020

The deepest drawdowns on record#

Every decline of 15% or more from an all-time high (price basis), deepest first.

PeakTroughDepthPeak → troughRecovered byUnderwater
Sep 1929Jun 1932−84.8%2.7 yrsSep 195425.0 yrs
Oct 9, 2007Mar 9, 2009−56.5%17 moMar 14, 20135.4 yrs
Mar 24, 2000Oct 9, 2002−49.1%2.5 yrsJun 1, 20077.2 yrs
May 1872Jun 1877−47.3%5.1 yrsFeb 18807.7 yrs
Jan 1973Dec 1974−43.4%1.9 yrsJul 19807.5 yrs
Jun 1881Aug 1896−42.1%15.2 yrsDec 190019.5 yrs
Sep 1906Nov 1907−37.7%14 moAug 19092.9 yrs
Dec 1909Aug 1921−37.4%11.7 yrsJan 192515.1 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 pointMonthsMedian next 1yMedian next 5yMedian next 10y5y windows positive
At/near the high (0–1% off)715+11.2%+9.8%/yr+8.5%/yr85%
1–10% off the high576+8.3%+8.6%/yr+8.3%/yr93%
10–20% off306+11.7%+10.8%/yr+10.0%/yr94%
20–30% off101+15.9%+10.3%/yr+8.2%/yr84%
30–50% off121+16.5%+11.7%/yr+9.1%/yr90%
More than 50% off50+18.9%+11.6%/yr+8.2%/yr100%

Every month as one dot

Before 19501950–19992000–today

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 1.0% below its all-time high, set Aug 13, 2026 (as of market close, Sep 4, 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.

ChartRow is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC, S&P Global, or Nasdaq, Inc. "S&P 500®" and "Dow Jones®" are registered trademarks of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC; "Nasdaq-100®" is a registered trademark of Nasdaq, Inc. They are used here only to identify the indexes discussed. All index-related figures on this page are independently derived from public sources — SEC filings, Robert Shiller's public dataset, and our own computations — not from any index provider's data feed.

More on S&P 500

Companies & weights
500
companies · NVDA heaviest at 8.5% (est.)
Stock performance
500
companies ranked best to worst
Sector performance
+45.3%
Energy leads YTD
Return calculator
$1,822
$1,000 invested 5 years ago
P/E ratio
25.9
trailing, as filed
Earnings per share
$298.53
trailing 12m · +27.9% YoY
Valuation bands
25.9×
trailing earnings · 25×–30× band
Shiller P/E (CAPE)
40.5
10-yr smoothed · median 16.6
Dividend yield
1.06%
weighted across members
Buyback yield
1.48%
1.38% net of shares issued
Shareholder yield
2.51%
buybacks 1.48% + dividends
Earnings
$2.66T
TTM · +32.6% YoY
Sector weights
38.2%
Technology leads the index
Returns by year
+13.6%
YTD · every year since 1994
Trailing returns
+20.3%
1Y · 3Y · 5Y · 10Y, annualized
Concentration
37.9%
held by the top 10 companies
ETFs that track it
3
fees, size and returns compared
YTD return
+13.6%
daily path + historical rank
Year by year
+17.7%
2025 · every year since 1994, with its events
Average return
10%?
the long-run answer, examined