Every S&P 500 drawdown since 1993

Last updated: 2026-09-25

The short answer

Since SPY began trading on 29 January 1993, the S&P 500 has fallen 10% or more from an all-time high 12 times. That is roughly once every 2.7 years.

Most recovered quickly. Five of the twelve were corrections of 10-15%, and the median one took 39 days to get back to its prior high after bottoming.

Two episodes stand apart from the rest:

• The dot-com bear (2000-2002) fell 49.1% over 929 calendar days. SPY did not close above its 24 March 2000 peak until 1 June 2007, a total of 2,625 calendar days from peak to recovery (7 years and 2 months).
• The global financial crisis (2007-2009) fell 56.5%, the deepest drawdown in this record. Recovery took 1,466 days (4 years) from the March 2009 trough. Peak to full recovery: 1,983 days (5 years and 5 months).

The COVID crash, for all its speed, fell 34.1% in just 33 calendar days and recovered in 148. Total round-trip: 181 days.

Full reference table

All 12 S&P 500 (SPY) drawdowns of 10% or more, January 1993 to September 2026.

Durations are calendar days. "Decline" is peak to trough. "Recovery" is trough to the first close above the prior peak.

By severity

The pattern is clear. Corrections under 20% resolve in weeks to months. Past 20%, recovery shifts from months to years. The two deep bears dominate every long-run statistic.

Notable episodes in context

Dot-com bear (2000-2002)

The S&P 500 peaked on 24 March 2000 and fell 49.1% over 929 calendar days (2 years and 7 months). The Nasdaq-100 fell 83.0% over the same period, roughly reflecting the sector composition difference: the S&P 500's broader diversification absorbed some of the tech-driven damage. Recovery took 1,696 days from the trough. Peak to full recovery was 2,625 days, or 7 years and 2 months.

Global financial crisis (2007-2009)

The deepest drawdown in this record. SPY peaked on 9 October 2007 and fell 56.5% to its closing trough on 9 March 2009 (the intraday low was 57.1%, also on 9 March). Unlike the dot-com bear, this was a systemic crisis rather than a sector collapse. Recovery took 1,466 days, reaching a new all-time high on 14 March 2013. Total peak to recovery: 1,983 days (5 years and 5 months).

COVID crash (2020)

The fastest drawdown in this record: 34.1% in 33 calendar days. Peaked on 19 February 2020, troughed on 23 March 2020, recovered by 18 August 2020. The intraday depth was 35.5%. The total round-trip of 181 days makes this the fastest bear-market-depth recovery in SPY's history. For comparison, the 2022 bear market fell less deeply (25.4%) but took 746 days from peak to recovery.

2022 bear market

A 282-day decline of 25.4%, driven by rate hikes rather than a credit or earnings crisis. Shape was a slow grind down rather than a crash. Recovery took 464 days, with SPY not clearing its January 2022 high until 19 January 2024. Duration, not depth, was the defining feature.

2025 tariff correction

The most recent episode. Peaked on 19 February 2025, fell 19.0% in 48 days to a trough on 8 April 2025, and recovered by 27 June 2025 (80 days from trough). The intraday depth was 21.4%. This was a sharp correction that stopped just short of the traditional 20% bear market threshold on a closing basis.

Methodology

Reproducible in full. Every number above comes from one query against raw daily OHLCV data.

Instrument. SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY), the oldest and most liquid S&P 500 proxy, from its inception on 29 January 1993 through 2026-09-25.

Drawdown definition. For each trading day, the running all-time-high closing price is computed from inception. An episode is the set of consecutive days sharing the same running peak. It begins the day after a new all-time high and ends when the next all-time high is set. Depth is the lowest closing price within the episode measured against that peak close.

Threshold. Episodes reaching -10% or deeper on a closing basis are reported. Shallower episodes are excluded.

Durations. Calendar days, not trading sessions. Decline is peak date to closing-trough date. Recovery is closing-trough date to the first subsequent close above the prior peak.

Intraday depth uses the lowest intraday low within the episode against the peak close. It can therefore be deeper than the closing-basis figure.

The SQL

The full query. It runs in under a second and can be verified against any daily SPY price series.

WITH px AS (
  SELECT date, close, low
  FROM shibui.stock_quotes
  WHERE ticker = 'SPY' AND date >= DATE '1993-01-01'
),
runmax AS (
  SELECT date, close, low,
    MAX(close) OVER (ORDER BY date ROWS BETWEEN UNBOUNDED PRECEDING AND CURRENT ROW) AS peak_close,
    arg_max(date, close) OVER (ORDER BY date ROWS BETWEEN UNBOUNDED PRECEDING AND CURRENT ROW) AS peak_date
  FROM px
),
episodes AS (
  SELECT peak_date,
    MAX(peak_close)      AS peak_close,
    MIN(close)           AS trough_close,
    arg_min(date, close) AS trough_date,
    MIN(low)             AS intraday_low
  FROM runmax
  GROUP BY peak_date
),
seq AS (
  SELECT *, LEAD(peak_date) OVER (ORDER BY peak_date) AS recovery_date
  FROM episodes
)
SELECT
  peak_date, trough_date,
  ROUND((trough_close / NULLIF(peak_close, 0) - 1) * 100, 1) AS depth_close_pct,
  ROUND((intraday_low  / NULLIF(peak_close, 0) - 1) * 100, 1) AS depth_intraday_pct,
  (trough_date - peak_date)     AS decline_cal_days,
  (recovery_date - trough_date) AS recovery_cal_days,
  recovery_date
FROM seq
WHERE (trough_close / NULLIF(peak_close, 0) - 1) <= -0.10
ORDER BY peak_date;

Limitations

Stated plainly, because a reference table is only useful if you know where it breaks.

1. Price return, not total return. SPY closing prices are split-adjusted but not dividend-adjusted. On a total-return basis every recovery is somewhat faster than shown. The effect is negligible for a three-week correction but material for the multi-year bear market recoveries. SPY's distribution yield averaged roughly 1.5-2% annually over this period, so dividend reinvestment would have pulled the GFC recovery date meaningfully earlier.
2. SPY is a proxy, not the index. The fund tracks the S&P 500 with small tracking error and a 0.09% expense ratio. Index-level figures will differ marginally. SPY was chosen because it is what an investor could actually have held.
3. The record starts in 1993. SPY did not exist for the 1987 crash, the 1981-82 bear market, or any earlier episode. A 33-year sample containing two deep bear markets is a small sample for tail estimation.
4. The 10% threshold is a convention, not a natural boundary. An episode bottoming at -9.8% is excluded and one at -10.1% is included, though they are the same event in substance.
5. Close vs intraday. The 2025 tariff correction reached -21.4% intraday but only -19.0% on a closing basis. Whether that counts as a "bear market" depends on which measure you use. This table classifies on closing depth.
6. Nothing here is predictive. Median recovery times describe 12 historical episodes. They are not an estimate of how long any future drawdown will last, and the sample is far too small to support that use.

Frequently asked questions

How many S&P 500 corrections have there been since 1993?

Since SPY began trading on 29 January 1993, the S&P 500 has experienced 12 drawdowns of 10% or more on a closing basis. That is roughly once every 2.7 years. Five were corrections (10-15%), three were sharp corrections (15-20%), two were bear markets (20-35%), and two exceeded 35%.

How long did it take the S&P 500 to recover from the 2008 crash?

The 2007-2009 financial crisis peaked on 9 October 2007 and fell 56.5% to a closing trough on 9 March 2009. SPY did not close above its prior high until 14 March 2013, a recovery time of 1,466 calendar days (about 4 years) from the trough, or 1,983 days (5 years and 5 months) from peak to full recovery.

What is the typical S&P 500 recovery time?

Corrections of 10-15% have a median recovery time of 39 calendar days from trough to new all-time high. Sharp corrections of 15-20% take a median of 82 days. Bear markets of 20-35% take a median of 148 days. The two deep bear markets (dot-com and GFC, both exceeding 35%) took 1,466 and 1,696 days respectively.

Can I reproduce this data?

Yes. Connect the free Shibui Finance MCP server to Claude and ask it to build a complete table of every S&P 500 drawdown since 1993. The full SQL is published above and runs in under a second.

Is this financial advice?

No. This is a historical reference table built from raw market data. Past performance does not predict future results.

Cite this

Free to use with attribution.

Shibui Finance, Every S&P 500 Drawdown Since 1993: Depth, Duration, and Recovery Time, September 2026. https://shibui.finance/sp500-drawdown-history

Charts and tables may be reproduced with a link to this page. If you need a different threshold, a different index, or the same analysis on total-return data, email chris@shibui.finance and we will run it.

Reproduce it yourself

Every figure on this page came from a single natural-language question asked of Claude with the Shibui Finance connector attached. No spreadsheet, no Python, no data download.