The stock market has given investors plenty of reasons to sell over the past four years. CNBC’s Jim Cramer said those who resisted the temptation have reaped the rewards.
Since bottoming on Oct. 12, 2022, the S&P 500 has surged roughly 118%, weathering aggressive Federal Reserve rate hikes, a banking crisis, sweeping tariffs and a war in Iran. The rally began amid widespread pessimism about inflation and the economy, yet none of those setbacks managed to derail it.
“The real lesson is that there never seems to be a good time to invest, because bad things do happen quite regularly, and yet investing is a superior way to get a return,” the “Mad Money” host said.
The gains have been substantial.
According to Cramer, a $10,000 investment in the S&P 500 at the October 2022 bottom would now be worth nearly $23,061. Some of the market’s biggest winners delivered even greater returns. Nvidia surged roughly 1,875% over that period, turning a $10,000 investment into approximately $197,505. A $10,000 investment in Meta Platforms would have grown to more than $58,800 as shares climbed 488%. Cramer’s Charitable Trust, the portfolio run by CNBC’s Investing Club, owns shares of Nvidia and Meta.
For Cramer, the bigger takeaway isn’t about picking the next market leader. It’s about staying invested through uncertainty rather than trying to time every downturn and recovery.
“We could not have predicted either the big declines or the big rebounds,” Cramer said. “We could’ve turned tail so many times in these four years. And we would’ve been all the poorer for it.”
Cramer talked further about why he always stays in the market in his Sunday column for Investing Club members. Club analyst Zev Fima wrote a follow-up story Monday, using an investment calculator that you can plug your own numbers into to show the power of compound interest.
The cost of missing a market rally can be substantial.
According to JPMorgan, an investor who put $10,000 into the S&P 500 and missed its 10 best trading days between 2005 and 2024 would have ended up with less than half the wealth of someone who stayed fully invested.
“Stay in, keep buying, don’t lose faith,” Cramer said. “Those are the lessons from this indomitable four-year-old bull market.”
