Just came across something interesting about Samuel Benner's economic cycle theory from way back in 1875. This guy was trying to map out when markets actually make money and when you should just sit tight. Pretty fascinating how he broke it down into three distinct periods.

So the core idea is straightforward: there are specific periods when to make money, and knowing which period you're in changes everything. Benner identified panic years roughly every 18 to 20 years—think 1927, 1945, 1965, 1981, 1999, 2019, and looking ahead to 2035 and 2053. During these periods, financial crises hit hard and markets collapse. The advice here is clear: don't panic sell. Just weather the storm.

Then you've got the boom years, which are honestly the money-making windows everyone watches for. These are when prices surge and recovery kicks in. We're talking 1928, 1943, 1960, 1980, 1989, 2000, 2007, 2016, 2020, and notably 2026 is showing up on this list. These boom periods are your cue to actually sell and lock in profits. It's almost counterintuitive because everyone's excited about the market, but that's exactly when smart money takes profits.

The third piece? Recession and decline years. Prices bottom out, the economy slows down, everything feels gloomy. But here's the thing—these are actually your golden buying opportunities. Years like 1924, 1931, 1942, 1951, 1958, 1978, 1985, 2005, 2012, 2023, and coming up 2032 and 2040. Buy when blood is in the streets, hold through the boom, sell at the peak. That's the playbook.

The whole strategy around periods when to make money boils down to this: accumulate during recessions when assets are cheap, hold your position through the boom years, then exit when euphoria peaks. Skip selling in panic years because you'll just lock in losses. It's cyclical thinking applied to markets.

Now, important caveat—this isn't gospel. Benner's cycle is based on historical patterns and long-term trends, but markets get thrown off by politics, wars, tech breakthroughs, and unexpected shocks. Still, it gives you a useful framework for thinking about market cycles over decades. Not a crystal ball, but definitely something worth keeping in your mental toolkit when analyzing where we might be in the bigger picture.