Stock

Ownership

From

1950 to 1985

Bull – BEAR – Bull  

According to recent data from the Federal Reserve, around 58% of American households today own stocks, but the majority of stock market wealth is concentrated among the wealthiest households, with the top 10% holding approximately 93% of all household stock market wealth, meaning the bottom 90% of households hold only a small portion of total stock wealth.

When the bear shows himself once again this is what a secular downturn in stock prices looks like.  The late 1960's and 70's was a roller coaster ride to lower prices and overtime to vastly improved valuations so much so by the time stocks bottomed out in July of 1982 equities were on the-give-away-table!  This 17 year journey leaving investors totally disillusioned.  However those who understood valuations invested heavily during any roller coaster lows, spouting low PE's and high dividend yields that would explode to the upside once we moved from the secular bear to the secular bull!

We're a long way from stocks being on the give-away-table but you need to know what a bottoming looks like with valuations so robust you're a kid in a candy store wanting to buy everything while the remainder of the populist will only buy after prices have surged significantly!