Triumph of the Optimists: 101 Years of Global Investment Returns

Investors have too often extrapolated from recent experience. In the 1950s, who but the most rampant optimist would have dreamt that over the next fifty years the real return on equities would be 9% per year? Yet this is what happened in the U.S. stock market. The optimists triumphed. However, as Don Marquis observed, an optimist is someone who never had much experience. The authors of this book extend our experience across regions and across time. They present a comprehensive and consistent analysis of investment returns for equities, bonds, bills, currencies and inflation, spanning sixteen countries, from the end of the nineteenth century to the beginning of the twenty-first. This is achieved in a clear and simple way, with over 130 color diagrams that make comparison easy. Crucially, the authors analyze total returns, including reinvested income. They show that some historical indexes overstate long-term performance because they are contaminated by survivorship bias and that long-term stock returns are in most countries seriously overestimated, due to a focus on periods that with hindsight are known to have been successful. The book also provides the first comprehensive evidence on the long-term equity risk premium--the reward for bearing the risk of common stocks. The authors reveal whether the United States and United Kingdom have had unusually high stock market returns compared to other countries. The book covers the U.S., the U.K., Japan, France, Germany, Canada, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Australia, the Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium, Ireland, Denmark, and South Africa. Triumph of the Optimists is required reading for investment professionals, financial economists, and investors. It will be the definitive reference in the field and consulted for years to come.

About the Author :
All three authors are at the London Business School. Elroy Dimson is Professor of Finance. Paul Marsh is Esmée Fairbairn Professor of Finance. Mike Staunton is Director of the London Share Price Database.

Review :
"[Triumph of the Optimists] suggests that the recent blind adherence to the cult of the equity needs to be questioned and that the strategic weighting of bonds in institutional portfolios should be increased."---Philip Coggan, Financial Times "A model of how investor research should be carried out. . . . Like most great books, Triumph of the Optimists has us saying 'Wow!' and 'Unbelievable!' with startling regularity. . . . This is a book that belongs on every investor's bookshelf."---Victor Niederhoffer and Laurel Kenner, MSN.com "Brilliant."---Jason Zweig, Time "By far the most important investment book in years. . . . It is the best and most complete source of data yet available. . . . If you spend an hour with it and don't learn anything worth the price then you're truly lousy at learning about markets. . . . Right now, buying this book makes more sense than buying stocks."---Ken Fisher, Bloomberg Money "Connoisseurs of financial history will find plenty to enjoy in Triumph of the Optimists. . . . The evidence produced by Mr. Dimson and his colleagues is striking. . . . A provocative lesson."---Matthew Lynn, Financial Times "Our favorite book on global stock market performance. . . . [It] epitomizes outstanding investment research. . . . Unless intelligent life is discovered on another planet and a stock market is found to have been operating there for some centuries, it is unlikely that much new data can be brought to bear on the issue of long-run stock returns. Triumph of the Optimists may well be the last word on the subject for some time to come."-- "Active Trader magazine"