All Ords sends mixed messages

Depending on how you look at it, the stock market has either been doing well, doing nothing or doing poorly.

It all depends on your relationship with the All Ordinaries, which ended August at 5776.30.

If you’ve been in the market for one year or five years, you’d be satisfied with your returns, which have been 4.5 per cent and 33.1 per cent, respectively.

However, the All Ordinaries has done nothing for those who have been invested for one month (0 per cent), three months (0.3 per cent) or six months (0.3 per cent).

Interestingly, even though the returns for one-year and five-year investors have been good, the market has barely moved for three-year investors (2.7 per cent). In fact, when adjusted for inflation, three-year investors have actually gone backwards.

The big losers are those who invested 10 years ago, before the GFC. Since then, the All Ordinaries has lost 7.6 per cent in value.

The All Ordinaries is an index made up of the share prices for 500 of the largest companies listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. It peaked at 6873.20 on 1 November 2007.