Seventeen years ago today, something remarkable happened in the stock market.
At the time, almost nobody realized it.
On March 9, 2009, the S&P 500 closed at 676, the lowest closing level of the entire Great Financial Crisis. The index had already been cut in half from its 2007 peak. Major banks were collapsing. The housing market was imploding. And investors everywhere genuinely believed the financial system itself might fail.
Fear wasn’t just high - it was everywhere.
Just three days earlier, on March 6, I went on Fox News and introduced what I called the Andrew Jackson Portfolio. It was a simple portfolio of nine stocks, but it had a twist. Investors could buy one share of each stock for about $20. That’s where the name came from - Andrew Jackson, the former president featured on the $20 bill.
Looking back, the timing was almost surreal.
That same day - March 6 - the S&P 500 hit an intraday low of 666, marking the absolute bottom of the Great Financial Crisis. From that moment forward, the market began one of the most powerful bull runs in history.
In other words, the moment investors felt the most fear… was the exact moment the market had already bottomed.
Over the following decade, stocks surged dramatically. Investors who stepped in during those dark days saw extraordinary returns as the market recovered and eventually pushed to new all-time highs.
But here’s the key point people forget today.
At the time, nobody believed it was the bottom.
In fact, the overwhelming consensus was that stocks were headed much lower. Headlines were terrifying. Banks were failing. The economy was collapsing. Panic dominated investor sentiment.
Sound Familiar?
Today, we’re seeing the exact same psychology begin to play out again.
The war with Iran has investors on edge. Oil prices have surged, geopolitical tensions are escalating, and markets have experienced sharp swings as traders try to digest the potential fallout.
CBOE Volatility Index (VIX)
Not surprisingly, the CBOE Volatility Index - better known as the VIX - has spiked to its highest level since last April. The VIX is often referred to as Wall Street’s “fear gauge” because it measures the expected volatility of the S&P 500 over the next 30 days based on options pricing.
In simple terms, it’s a real-time barometer of investor anxiety.
And right now, that anxiety is clearly rising.
But here’s what investors often forget: markets rarely bottom when people feel comfortable.
They bottom when fear is elevated.
They bottom when the headlines look the worst.
They bottom when investors believe things can only get worse.
That’s exactly what happened in March 2009.
Moments Like Today Deserve Attention
History shows that geopolitical shocks - wars, military conflicts, and oil spikes - can absolutely trigger short-term volatility. But they rarely derail long-term market trends unless they ultimately push the economy into a deep recession.
In fact, markets often recover far faster than investors expect once the initial panic fades.
Which brings us back to the lesson from 17 years ago.
When I introduced the Andrew Jackson Portfolio on Fox News that day, I wasn’t trying to call the exact bottom in the market. Nobody can do that consistently. The goal was simply to remind investors that opportunity often appears when fear is at its peak.
And that lesson still applies today.
The current environment feels uncomfortable. Volatility is rising. The news flow is intense. Investors are nervous.
But those conditions are often when the most compelling opportunities begin to emerge.
Because history teaches us something simple - and powerful:
Fear creates opportunity.
And if investors take anything away from the 666 bottom of 2009, it should be this:
The moments when markets feel the most uncertain are often the exact moments when the next bull markets quietly begins.
Here’s to the future,
Matt McCall
Founder, NXT Wave Research
