Most stocks fall more than 50% at some point

An interesting article by Proinsias O'Mahony on the volatility of stocks.
https://www.irishtimes.com/your-mon...-most-stocks-fall-more-than-50-at-some-point/

• On a side note, does anyone know what his day job is? He seems to know his onions which suggests writing these snippets is a sideline, but I can't find any reference to him online other than his various articles.

From 1985 to 2024, the median US stock suffered a maximum drawdown of 85 per cent.

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Did he mean "fall in value"? Drawdown makes little sense here as far as I can see.

If you had bought a typical stock at its peak, you would have lost most of your money.

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Well, duh!

Amazon fell 95 per cent during the dot-com bust.

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Yes, but...

Holding Individual stocks is much much riskier than holding a diversified basket of stock
More importantly, this risk is uncompensated. Meaning the average expected return for individual stocks is the same as the expected return of the diversified basket. So you take on extra risk, for no additional expected return.

ClubMan said:

Did he mean "fall in value"? Drawdown makes little sense here as far as I can see.

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Drawdown is the % fall from peak to trough of an investment.