Just came across this fascinating historical market theory that got me thinking about periods when to make money. Back in 1875, a guy named Samuel Benner was obsessed with predicting economic cycles, and honestly, some of his observations still hold weight today.

So here's the basic idea: markets move in three distinct phases. First, you've got the panic years – roughly every 18 to 20 years – when financial crises hit and everything gets shaky. Think 1927, 1945, 1965, 1981, 1999, 2019, and the pattern suggests 2035 coming up. During these periods when to make money is NOT by panic selling. You need ice in your veins and patience.

Then there are the boom years. These are your golden windows – 1928, 1943, 1953, 1960, 1968, 1980, 1989, 2000, 2007, 2016, 2020, and get this, 2026 is supposed to be one of them. Markets recover hard, prices shoot up, and this is genuinely when you want to be taking profits and moving assets. The wealth is made here.

The third phase? Recession and decline. Years like 1924, 1931, 1942, 1951, 1958, 1978, 1985, 1996, 2005, 2012, 2023, 2032. Prices are in the basement, economy's sluggish. Most people hate these years, but if you understand periods when to make money, you realize this is actually when fortunes get built. This is your buy window.

The strategy is almost stupidly simple: accumulate during recessions when everything's cheap, hold through the chaos of panic years, then dump it all during boom periods. Rinse and repeat. Of course, this isn't gospel – markets get shaped by wars, tech breakthroughs, political shifts, all kinds of unpredictable stuff. But as a long-term framework for understanding periods when to make money? It's worth paying attention to.

What's wild is how this 150-year-old pattern still seems to rhyme with what we're seeing today. Makes you wonder if the next cycle is already starting to play out.