The market's best and worst days cluster together in time because panic selling and panic buying both occur during the same volatile downtrends, which is why you can't selectively avoid only the bad days.
Ben shows that historically the best and worst trading days happen right next to each other (e.g., 2008, 2020) because volatile downtrends produce both panic selling and panic buying. ✦ AI generated
Ben Carlson · The Compound · 2026-07-15 · original ↗
starts at this moment · 6:15
This shows the best and worst days since 1990. You can see they cluster together. They all kind of happen at the, you know, 2008, of course, 2020. These things happen together. That's because when the market is in a downtrend, people panic. They panic buy and they panic sell.
verbatim transcript · starts at 6:15
6:10much a buy and hold. So, the question is, why? Why is this? Chart off. It's because the best and worst days happen together. Chart on. Stole this one from exhibit A. This shows the best and worst days since 1990. You can see they cluster together. They all kind of happen at the, you know, 2008, of course, 2020. These things happen together. That's because when the market is in a downtrend,
6:35people panic. They panic buy and they panic sell. Chart off. So, you see them both like it's it's great like oh, I'll just miss the the worst days. What How is That's easy. You can't because they happen with the best days. So, it's not like Bob took advantage by buying at the peak. He He had all of them. So, let's I pulled this up. This is from one of my spreadsheets
6:55that shows the February of 2020 to April of 2020 when we had the huge COVID crash. And these are just the daily returns. I've color coded them cuz I'm good at Excel. Look at this. You have the -9%, +9%, -12%, +6%, -5%. All these It's back and forth and back and forth. The Michael Scott snip snap. All the good days happen with the bad days cuz people are wondering, is this
7:20the end? No, this is not the end. And you have this panic back and forth and that's what happens during volatile markets. So, it's there's not like a a trick here or a secret. It's just Bob stayed invested. Right? Remember cuz he invested at the peak. So, he had to eat with the good with the bad. The bad with the good. So, his success really was putting his
7:40money into the peak, but then keeping it invested for years and years and years. That was what the They were That's where the compounding came from. There's no like trick to it. Bob had to eat the best day and the worst day still cuz he invested at the peak. >> Yeah, I don't know what it is, but I've noticed a lot of young people and people new to the market in general, they seem
7:56to always think that the market is going to revert to some mean from like years ago. Like it has to. So, it's like, "Oh, the market topped." It's like, well, yeah, but that means that doesn't mean the market's not going to be much higher years from now. Right? Like, yeah, it's a top right now. But the people always act like it's going to go back down to some level from many
- ·Market's best and worst days since 1990 happen close together
- ·Clusters appear around major downturns: 2008, 2020
- ·Volatile downtrends trigger both panic selling and panic buying
- ·Panic selling and panic buying occur in the same volatile stretch
- ·Best days often follow or precede worst days in that stretch
- ·Trying to time exits risks missing the best days too