Specialist trader Donald Civitanova wears a hat to celebrate the Dow Jones Industrial average surpassing 15,000 during trading day on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange, May 3, 2013.BRENDAN MCDERMID/Reuters
If the rise of the Dow Jones industrial average above 15,000 on Friday is providing you with yet more evidence that this bull market is out of control, we sympathize. And yet, evidence suggesting the market's gains have been slow and moderate is hard to ignore.
Bespoke Investment Group looked at how long it has taken the Dow to hit each 1,000-point milestone over the past 30-plus years, and the results are surprising. Sure, in the most recent rally, the Dow has moved from 14,000 to 15,000 in just 10 weeks, a blink-of-an-eye rally that is no doubt causing some furrowed brows among bears and cautious bulls.
But Bespoke looks at it this way: When did the Dow first hit 14,000? And the answer to that is July 2007, or 2,115 days ago.
In the Dow's history of 1,000-point gains, that's a very long time – and looks even longer when you put it in percentage terms. When the Dow rose from 1,000 to 2,000 by 1987, it took 15 years but it marked a gain of 100 per cent. This latest 1,000 point rise came faster but represents a gain of just 7 per cent.
Editor's note: A previous version of this post erroneously calculated the rate of gain between 1,000 points and 2,000 points.
David Berman