Making Cents: Stocking Up, Down and All Around 10%

Over recent generations, stocks have returned about 10% a year. But that’s an average. From 1950 to 1995, says the Stock Trader’s Almanac, not one year produced a gain of exactly 10%. And after examining all the 10-year periods ended since 1935, Paul Merriman, a Seattle advisor and manager, reports that “30 returned more than 10%, 30 returned less than 10%, and one returned precisely 10%.”