Barry Ritholtz’s, The Big Picture, touches on performance measurement in different time periods. Here is what he had to share:
"Aaron Task is Executive Editor at The Street.com; He’s a fairly skeptical guy, not given to the usual cheerleading. In a discussion today about the markets, Task notes that "the key is when you start the proverbial (or actual) clock." While YTD returns for the averages aren’t "all that impressive," but other time frames are. Since the Oct. 2002 lows:
— The Dow is up 43%, the S&P is up 57.3%, the Nasdaq is up 98% and the Russell 2000 is up 100%.
— The Nikkei recently hit a 5-year high;
— Oil is up 127% in the past 5 years;
— Gold is up 92% in the past 5 years while copper is up 56%.