Financial History

Financial History
April 2026

The Miracle of Markets and the 100-Year Dataset That Changed the World

Dimensional

David Booth

Research

10 Pages

Dimensional explains how 100 years of CRSP market data changed investing by replacing guesswork with evidence.

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Financial History
April 2026

Housing Prices, Wars, and Epidemics over Six Centuries

Research

47 Pages

Swiss Finance Institute examines six centuries of Stockholm housing data to test how wars, bubbles, and epidemics affect house prices over time.

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Financial History
April 2026

50 years. 50 facts. Indexing since 1976.

Vanguard

Article

5 Pages

Vanguard shared 50 facts from 50 years of index investing.

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Financial History
April 2026

Reconstructing a Century of U.S. Corporate Bonds: Credit Risk in Historical Perspective

Research

65 Pages

The authors construct a new historical corporate bond database spanning 128 years, from 1895 to 2022, allowing them to estimate a corporate bond counterpart to the equity risk premium.

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Alternative Assets
March 2026

An Index of Commodity Futures Returns Since 1871

Research

22 Pages

The authors document the returns to a broadly diversified index of commodity futures over more than 150 years of U.S. market history.

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Developed Markets
March 2026

The long-term performance of Swiss equities and bonds (1900–2025)

Pictet

Djâafar Aballeche, Nadia Gharbi

Research

12 Pages

Pictet Wealth Management analyzes the long-term performance of Swiss equities and bonds back to 1900.

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Markets
March 2026

Global Investment Returns Yearbook 2026

UBS

Elroy Dimson

Research

24 Pages

The UBS Global Investment Returns Yearbook offers a comprehensive record of long-term performance across stocks, bonds, bills, currencies, and other asset classes, tracing developments back to 1900.

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Financial History
December 2025

Global Housing Returns, Discount Rates, and the Emergence of the Safe Asset, 1465 2024

Paul Schmelzing

Research

77 Pages

Boston College reconstructs centuries of housing returns and discount rates to understand how real estate and sovereign bonds evolved as core assets.

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Markets
March 2025

Global Investment Returns Yearbook 2025 (GIRY)

UBS

Elroy Dimson, Dr. Mike Staunton, Paul Marsh

Research

22 Pages

UBS updated their annual GIRY, which highlights the evolution of global markets over the past 125 years.

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Markets
November 2024

Pricing of Corporate Bonds: Evidence From a Century-Long Cross-Section

Research

48 Pages

This study presents a comprehensive corporate bond return database covering 128 years of U.S. financial history, offering insights into pricing patterns and risk factors that were previously obscured by shorter data samples.

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Markets
June 2024

The Life Cycle of Market Champions

Bridgewater

Bob Prince, Thomas Maisonneuve, Khia Kurtenbach

Research

12 Pages

Bridgewater takes a historical look at how market champions of the past and if there are insights into how today’s market champions may perform in the next decade.

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Markets
May 2024

Learn from Last Tech Bubble to Embrace GenAI Mania

Research Affiliates

Que Nguyen

Research

8 Pages

Research Affiliates studies the internet bubble of the 1990s as a guide for how to think about the AI craze today.

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Annual Report
March 2021

Global Investment Returns Yearbook 2021 Summary Edition

Credit Suisse

Elroy Dimson

Research

76 Pages

Credit Suisse Research Institute explores over a century of global market returns, with a particular focus on emerging markets and their evolving role in portfolios.

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Portfolio Management
April 2020

Equity Styles And the Spanish Flu

Robeco

Guido Baltussen, Pim van Vliet

Research

5 Pages

Robeco analyzes how equity factor styles behaved during the Spanish Flu alongside World War I, using extended historical data to study market stress before modern datasets.

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Annual Report
February 2020

Summary Edition Credit Suisse Global Investment Returns Yearbook 2020

Credit Suisse

Elroy Dimson

Research

48 Pages

Credit Suisse explores over a century of global asset returns, focusing on ESG investing, long-term performance, and factor strategies across 23 markets.

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Miscellaneous
June 2019

Russell US Indexes – 40 Years Of Insights

FTSE Russell

Research

31 Pages

FTSE Russell walks through the evolution of its US equity indexes, explaining how a rules-based, comprehensive framework reshaped benchmarking and passive investing.

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Annual Report
February 2019

Summary Edition Credit Suisse Global Investment Returns Yearbook 2019

Credit Suisse

Elroy Dimson

Research

43 Pages

Credit Suisse examines 119 years of global asset returns, comparing equities, bonds, and cash while exploring risk premiums, emerging markets, and factor investing across 23 countries.

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Financial History
September 2018

Misleading Lessons of History

Newfound Research

Corey Hoffstein, Justin Sibears

Research

8 Pages

Newfound Research explores how investors often draw misleading conclusions from historical market data, especially when evaluating strategies and asset performance.

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Markets
February 2018

Credit Suisse Global Investment Returns Yearbook 2018

Credit Suisse

Elroy Dimson

Research

43 Pages

Credit Suisse examines 118 years of global asset returns, factor investing, and private wealth performance to frame today’s low return environment.

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Markets
February 2018

Credit Suisse Global Investment Returns Yearbook 2018

Credit Suisse

Research

22 Pages

Credit Suisse explores 118 years of asset returns, factor investing, and private wealth trends to frame today’s low return environment.

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Markets
November 2017

The Rate of Return on Everything, 1870–2015

Federal Reserve Bank

Research

123 Pages

The study investigates historical returns across major asset classes since 1870, finding that both housing and equities have generated similar returns, though housing shows lower volatility. It also highlights that, globally, the weighted rate of return on capital was twice as high as the growth rate in the past 150 years.

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Miscellaneous
September 2017

Why Selling a Big Position of Puts the Day Before the Crash of ‘87 was a Great Trade

O’Shaughnessy Asset Management

Jim O'Shaughnessy

Research

2 Pages

Jim O’Shaughnessy reflects on how selling his put position hours before the 1987 crash reshaped his investing philosophy.

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Portfolio Management
June 2017

Historical Returns of the Market Portfolio

Robeco

Ronald Doeswijk

Research

51 Pages

This paper reconstructs the global market portfolio from 1960 through 2015, tracking returns across equities, real estate, and bonds to examine how the average investor actually performed.

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Financial History
June 2017

The Rate of Return on Everything, 1870 to 2015

Katharina Knoll

Research

83 Pages

The authors examine 150 years of returns across housing, equities, bonds, and bills, arguing that housing has historically matched equities while delivering lower volatility.

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Miscellaneous
April 2017

LTCM Brochure

LTCM

Research

12 Pages

Long-Term Capital Management’s white paper explains how leveraged fixed income arbitrage unraveled during the 1998 Russian debt crisis, exposing hidden liquidity risks across global markets.

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