The Queen is Dead, Long Live the King

This week, the world watched Queen Elizabeth, one of the longest reining monarchs in history, be buried surrounded by family, friends, world leaders, and her beloved corgis.  The amount of national and world history that she saw from her front row seat is stunning…this chart from Britannica.com captures just a small portion of the events that happened during her lifetime.

Amazingly, just two days before the Queen died, she was ushering in the 15^th Prime Minister during her reign:

The Queen has also been on the throne for 13 bear markets in the US, as well as 11 recessions.

Each bear market was unique and scary in its own right, but looking back, each of those periods in the market were simply bumps in the road of long term growth.  Since the Queen took the throne in 1952, the S&P returned over 17,000%, or an annualized rate of over 7.5%.

While any downturn is unpleasant to live through, with the lens of a longer time horizon, investors can  remember the Queen’s steady demeanor and “Keep Calm and Carry On.”