Stocktake: Nasdaq 15,000 eases dotcom pain

Time doesn’t heal all wounds, but the Nasdaq hitting 15,000 last week will certainly ease the pain felt by investors who bought at the peak of the dotcom bubble in March 2000.

One of the great bubbles in market history, the Nasdaq topped 5,100 before losing almost 80 per cent of its value. It almost revisited its 2002 low of 1,114 in 2009 and didn’t return to dotcom era levels until 2015.

Hitting 15,000 means anyone who bought at 2000’s infamous peak has earned annualised nominal returns of 5.1 per cent, excluding dividends – not great, but not a terrible return for investors who made the mistake of buying into one of the most expensive markets in history.