Market performances since September 11, 2001

If someone were to ask you where the best place to put your money was the last 10 years, two particular items that might come to mind are oil and gold. While both have dramatically outperformed the stock markets, with returns of 568% and 225% respectively, it has in fact been silver which provided the best return as an asset.

From it’s September 10, 2001 price of a pitiful $4.16, at $41.57 it has produced a whopping 900% return.

Hopefully you didn’t buy and hold US Dollars while Greenspan and Bernanke have been cranking them out.

If we consider a few sectors in the S&P 500, we see that energy and materials performed the best. Consumer staples and consumer discretionary are next in the list. Utilities and healthcare have been essential flat, making them losers. Telecoms and especially financials are the worst performers of the last decade.

What was the best stock pick of the decade? Well, if you bought Apple on September 10, 2001, just a couple of months before they released the first iPod, you made a KILLING. A 4300% killing. Which is pretty good, but not as good as if you’d invested in soda and juice.

Because soda and juice maker Hansen’s Natural (HANS) made an earth-shattering 17,300% return, going from $0.49 to about $85 in 10 years. Honestly, I don’t even know anyone who’s ever heard of this company, but I would like to try their soda.