Lesson of the Century: Most U.S. Stocks Can’t Even Beat a T-Bill
- In their lifetime, 58% of equities fail to beat Treasury bills
- Arizona State Professor says a few stocks create most returns
A woman walks past a statue of Albert Gallatin, the 4th Secretary of the U.S. Treasury, while entering the Treasury building in Washington, D.C.
Photographer: Brendan Smialowski/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Of the nearly 26,000 stocks in Hendrik Bessembinder’s database, more than half are losers.
Against T-bills, that is. The finance professor at Arizona State University studied almost nine decades of U.S. stock and bond performance and found that 58 percent of shares fail to outperform Treasury bills in their lifespan.