How painful is buying at the top? The Nasdaq took up to 15 years to get back to even.

I’ve compiled a “Nasdaq Historical Drawdown Guide.”
From 1971 to today, the Nasdaq has risen from around 100 points to over 30,000 points, setting new all-time highs.
But every move upward has come with brutal shakeouts.
In history, the Nasdaq has seen drawdowns of more than 30% multiple times.
The worst was the burst of the dot-com bubble in 2000, with a maximum drawdown of about -78%.
The longest recovery took nearly 15 years to reclaim the previous high.
Looking across the entire historical cycle, a few points are crucial:
▰ Sharp sell-offs are part of the cycle
▰ A decline can happen quickly, but the repair often takes longer
▰ For ordinary people, dollar-cost averaging is more realistic than trying to guess the bottom
▰ The prerequisite for long-term holding is picking truly high-quality assets
Real investment ability isn’t about predicting tomorrow’s ups and downs—it’s about controlling risk, staying disciplined through the cycle, and not being eliminated by the market.