The rest of the year on Wall Street will be a time when many investors will be taking some time off, but when they return to work in the New Year, the S&P 500 will be closing out what has been a historic 200 trading days for the index. The current bull market hasn’t quite reached the 200-trading day point, but for most of its existence, it has ranked as one of the strongest at that point in its life. The first 190 trading days of this rally have been the strongest on record, just edging out the rallies coming off the March 2009 and August 1982 lows.

The chart below is from the Market Cycles section of our 2021 Annual Outlook.  Among other topics in this section, we looked at prior bull markets that lasted 200 trading days or more and analyzed the S&P 500’s performance in the year that followed the first 200 trading days.  The analysis found some interesting trends regarding overall performance and performance for individual periods.  To see the entire analysis, sign up for our 2021 Outlook Special.