"The time to buy is when blood is running in the streets"—Baron Rothschild

From 1903-2007 the average returns for the U.S., U.K., Germany, France and Australia was 13.02%, the median return was 10.65% and about 70% of all years were positive.  If the country was down 2 years in a row then the average return was 19.03%, after 3 down years in a row the average return sky rocketed to 30.30%.  Asset classes from 1975-2007 show similar numbers; all years =12.97% returns, after 2 down years in a row the average return was 23.19% and after 3 down years in a row it was 33.93%.—Source; The Ivy Portfolio.