FTSE 100 and FTSE All-Share since 1986

FTSE All-Share and FTSE 250 since 2005

Stock Market volatility is alarming.

FTSE-100 reached 6930 on 30/12/1999 and fell to 3287 on 12/03/2003. Collapse after the dotcom bubble.
It reached 6730 on 15/06/2007 and fell to 3512 on 03/03/2009. Collapse following the global financial crisis.
It exceeded 7778 on two occasions in the first half of 2018 and fell to 4993 on 25/03/2020. Collapse during the coronavirus pandemic.

Period 1990-1999 was exceptionally good for equities;
Period 2000-2009 was bad for equities, we lost money in real-terms and we would have been better-off investing in Cash-ISAs.
Period 2010-2019 was good for equities.
This is illustrated by the table below showing outcomes for £5,000 invested at the start of the period.
As with all examples start and end dates matter, 2000-2009 included two stock-market crashes.

Period	Length	Inflation	Cash-ISA	Shares-ISA
1990-1999	10 years	£6,803	£9,800	£18,762
2000-2009	10 years	£6,069	£7,727	£5,457
2010-2019	10 years	£6,169	£5,963	£10,355

 FTSE index descriptions

Chart below shows returns from £5,000 invested in 2009 in three FTSE index-tracker funds.

 

Key	Abbr	Index	Fund
	F250	FTSE 250	HSBC FTSE 250 Index Retail Accumulation
	AllS	FTSE All-Share	Vanguard FTSE U.K. All Share Index Unit Trust GBP Acc
	F100	FTSE 100	Vanguard FTSE 100 Index Trust GBP Acc

Returns from FTSE-All-Share and FTSE-250 index-tracker funds in real terms

Table shows returns from £1,000 invested from start-year in FTSE-All-Share and FTSE-250 index-tracker funds in money amount and real terms.
Real terms are money amount minus CPI inflation.
Fund returns are change in total-return index less a charges adjustment. For FTSE-All-Share the charges adjustment is described on the Savings Calculator page and for FTSE-250 it is 0.55% per year.

• • Start Year
  • 20162015201420132012201120102009200820072006