Showing daily action of the 2018-2022 S&P 500, adding more detail of market action, which seems pretty interesting to me. The S&P 500 is a weighted index representing the total capitalization value of the 500 largest U.S. companies. Then all of the S&P 500 Index mutual funds track it with similar percentage numbers (less fund fees).   ( A good S&P 500 graph )

The market goes up and down every day. So don't sweat the small stuff, think long term, but this table does show the past S&P 500 action. It can be volatile and has some bad times, which are "lost time" for earnings, but it always recovers, and overall performance is good and certainly worthwhile.

• 2017 closed up 19.42%.
• 2018 was Not a good year. December 24 was down 20%, with the year ending still down at -6.24% (if not including the +2.09% dividend). But it recovered (7 months between the adjacent record highs). 19 record highs in 2018.
• 2019 had a slow start (recovering from end of 2018), but then 35 record highs with 28.88% year end gain.
• 2020 was the March pandemic crash (-34%). But it recovered (6 months between the adjacent record highs), not bad at all. 33 record highs and 16.25% year end gain.
• 2021 was a great year, 70 record highs and 26.89% year end gain.
• 2022 had severe problems, the vast government spending of Trillions causing the painful inflation (at a 40 year high), the oil and the current federal restrictions on U.S. oil (U.S. had become self-sufficient on oil but now requires imports again), the open border and the crime increase are big worries piling up now. The S&P 500 had only one new record high on the first market day of 2022, and is well down now, still.
• 2023 is suddenly a different story, volatile ups and downs, with bigger ups still well down, but is so far hopefully suggesting maybe the start of the recovery. Some believe it is only a bear market rally and can't last, but the 2023 market is sure more hopeful than 2022. The market has always recovered and times will get good again. The current conditions may make recovery slow until the next election, but it is looking more hopeful.

This calculator is an extra, not needed below, but it can check any other values:

Compute Compounded Gain and Annualized Return

Percentage gain =

New value - Old value
Old value

× 100

New value $ from Old $ over years

Any units (like distance or weight or time, or Dollars or Euros).
Years can be blank if Annualized Return is not needed.
Any $ or , format keys are optional, and are ignored.

Annualized Return includes the long-term compounding of several years, and is a hypothetical number computed to be AS IF the SAME final gain result instead resulted from a Fixed equal gain, same every year (like a bank). This Annualized gain rate purpose allows meaningful comparisons, and it computes the fixed gain rate that would match the same market compounded result. It hides any volatility during the years, computing a smooth path that would give the same gain result in the same time.

The gains in this next table are from daily S&P 500 closing values. These are just the daily prices, so dividends or compounding are not included (but any Total Return data would include all gains).
See 10 years of 100 individual stock and fund histories compared (Total Return, including dividends).
See annual S&P Total Return detail in a 50 year S&P 500 Calculator.

Table Color Legend: