Just looking back over the past few years as of this writing, it looks like a roller coaster. In 2009, the market’s annual return was 26.46 percent. In 2010, it was 8 percent. In 2011, it was actually down for the year at -1.12 percent. But true long-term investors don’t worry too much about the year-to-year returns. They look at the history over the long haul, knowing that some years it’ll be up, and some years it’ll be down.
