Tulipmania 2000% http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tulip_price_index1.svg South sea bubble 1000% http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:South-sea-bubble-chart.png US stock market 1920's 596% http://stockcharts.com/freecharts/historical/djia19201940.html Bitcoin 2013 9352% www.bitcoinwisdom.com Bitcoin 2009-2013 2,070,000% www.bitcoinwisdom.com using $0.06 as early traded price Any other notable markets?
Well, just in the U.S. in the last 20 years: Nasdaq/tech bubble - Late 1990s http://stockcharts.com/freecharts/historical/nasdaq1986.html U.S. Housing - 2002-2007 Many more if you look back further and include other countries.
What were the percentages? The very top end of the London housing market has gone up a 1000% in 10 years.
See my last post (now edited). I attached the Nasdaq chart. The percent gain will depend on your starting point. I don't have a chart for housing. If you look at U.S. nationwide housing prices or REITs it's probably not as extreme as the others. However, certain U.S. regions went up geomretically. And it was more devastating than most other bubbles, since it left its footprint in many facets of the economy.
The Nikkei in the 80s is another one, though you can't find its historical chart at stockcharts.com. At its peak it was around 40,000 in 1990. Today it's hovering around 15,000. That should give the buy-n-holders something to think about. Not all markets recover within 20 years.
Interesting that the Dow 596% move in the 1920's is very similar percentage wise to the Nikkei 592%move in the the 1980's.