Perhaps the best foreign example of the impact of the overall market on investors is Japan. In the 1980s, Japan seemed invincible in its economic performance, and the Nikkei stock index reflected Japan’s success as prices rose almost without fail. The Nikkei stock index peaked at the end of 1989 at a level of almost 39,000. By mid‐1992, the index had declined below the 15,000 level, representing a staggering decline of some 60 percent. Even as recently as January 2015, the index was trading below 17,500. As one well‐known magazine put it at the time, this was the “biggest erasure of wealth in history.” Such is the impact of the overall market on investor wealth. From its peak in 1989 through January 2015, the Nikkei stock index lost well over 50 percent of its value. Regardless of an investor’s prowess, virtually no portfolio invested in Japanese stocks over this extended period of time could have performed well.