2012 Stock Market Predictions
In case you haven’t heard, the S&P 500 closed the year at 1257.60 this past Friday. That’s just a hair down from the 2010 closing price of 1257.64 — essentially even in the grand scheme of things.
Despite the flat performance overall, the past year was anything but uneventful. Don’t believe me? Check out the graph below.
After some nice gains during the first half of the year, Congress managed to cook up a crisis which resulted in a US credit downgrade and dramatic losses stock market losses. From that point forward, the market gradually regained its footing, though it was far from a smooth recovery.
Of course, the above numbers ignore dividend reinvestment. After account for dividends, the market (as measured by the S&P 500) returned something close to 2% for the year. Not great, especially given the volatility, but better than nothing.
Through it all, I managed to do a good bit of tax loss harvesting on the equity side, and we also benefited nicely from our bond holdings (Total Bond Market [VBMFX] and TIPS [VIPSX]), which account for roughly 40% of our total portfolio.
With that as a backdrop, I though it would be fun to run a poll asking for 2012 stock market predictions…
If you’d like to make a guess as to the specific closing price at the end of 2012, please do so in the comments section (but please also select a poll choice). You won’t win anything but bragging rights if you get ir right, but hey…
Bragging is kinda fun. 
Note: E-mail and RSS subscribers may need to click through for the poll to work.
Disclaimer: Discover is a paid advertiser of this site.
Reasonable efforts are made to maintain accurate information. See the Discover online credit card application for full terms and conditions on offers and rewards.
Filed under: Saving & Investing
About the author: Nickel is the founder and editor-in-chief of this site. He's a thirty-something family man who has been writing about personal finance since 2005, and guess what? He's on Twitter!
Related articles...
» 2013 Stock Market Predictions» Borrow Money to Invest?
» What is ‘Shorting’ a Stock?
» Rebalancing our Retirement Portfolio
» The Stock Market Then and Now: What a Difference Two Years Makes
» Gambling vs. Investing: Casinos and the Stock Market
» The (Currently) Most Overvalued Assets
» Super Bowl (and Stock Market) Prediction Poll Results
Was this article useful? Please sign up to receive our content via e-mail:
One Response to “2012 Stock Market Predictions”
Leave a Reply
Top Cards by Category
Earn 100 Reward Dollars after you make $1,000 in purchases in the first three months of Cardmembership.
Earn 25K Membership Rewards(R) points after you spend $2,000 during your first three months of Card membership.
Consumer friendly credit card with a great low rate of 7.25% and save on interest charges. No balance transfer fees and no annual fee.
The new Discover it card is out to change the way people think about credit cards. No annual fee. No overlimit fee. No foreign transaction fee & no pay-by-phone fee. No late fee on your first late payment. And Discover won't increase your APR for paying late.*
The new Discover it card is out to change the way people think about credit cards. No annual fee. No overlimit fee. No foreign transaction fee & no pay-by-phone fee. No late fee on your first late payment. And Discover won't increase your APR for paying late.*
Consumer friendly credit card with a great low rate of 7.25% and save on interest charges. No balance transfer fees and no annual fee.
Limited Time Offer: Get 25,000 Membership Rewards(R) points after you spend $5,000 in the first three months of Card membership. Enroll and select a qualifying airline to receive up to $200 annually in statement credits for incidental fees, such as checked bags and in-flight refreshments, charged by the airline.
The new Discover it card is out to change the way people think about credit cards. No annual fee. No overlimit fee. No foreign transaction fee & no pay-by-phone fee. No late fee on your first late payment. And Discover won't increase your APR for paying late.*
- How to Become a Millionaire
- How to Get Out of Debt
- The Best Dollars I've Ever Spent
- How Our Estate Plan is Structured
- How We Paid Our Mortgage In Less than 10 Years
- Money Making Ideas
- How to Manage Your Asset Allocation with Multiple Accounts
- Consumption Smoothing - Save While the Saving's Good
- How to Save on Groceries
- How Much Life Insurance Do You Need?
- Eleven Great Books About Money
- Dave Ramsey is Bad at Math
- Dish Network Customer Service SUCKS
- $8,000 Homebuyer Tax Credit
- Pay Off Mortgage Early or Invest?
- How to Claim the First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit
- Termite Control: Sentricon vs. Termidor
- How Much Should You Pay a Babysitter?
- Ethanol Blended Gas = Lower Mileage?
- Reduced Credit Limits? Share Your Experience
- $15,000 Homebuyer Tax Credit
- Will Mac OS X Lion Kill Quicken 2007?
- Federal Income Tax Rates Went Down but Your Federal Tax Withholding Increased. Here's Why...
How to save money on insurance
- More money, more happiness: Do you think money can buy happiness?
- Overdraft fees soared to $32 billion in 2012
- How do you combat prom inflation?
- How should you choose a bank? Look in the mirror.
- The cost of clean water
- College debt 101
- Is it possible to live debt free?
- How to prepare for a home appraisal
- Home prices are up: good news or bad?
- A bit of foolishness
January 3rd, 2012 at 1:42 pm
Oh how hindsight is 20/20. Let’s hope that 2012 is more prosperous!