Then he saw it: a pattern no news anchor discussed. Every major crash—2000, 2008, 2020—was followed by a recovery that broke the previous all-time high within 18 to 36 months. The drawdowns were terrifying. But the long-term slope was relentless: roughly 14% compounded annually.
Arjun had always dismissed the stock market as sophisticated gambling. But when the pandemic lockdowns emptied the streets of Mumbai in 2020, boredom drove him to open a demat account. He wasn’t a trader; he was a historian by training, now working a lifeless IT job. One night, staring at a chaotic Excel sheet of Nifty 50 closing prices, he had an idea: What if I treat the market like a living archive? nse nifty historical data
The 2008 line looked like a cliff. He zoomed in. October 24, 2008: Nifty crashed 11% in a single day. Arjun remembered that day. He was in college, watching news channels show Lehman Brothers employees walking out with cardboard boxes. His father had almost sold everything in panic. The data whispered: Those who sold at the bottom missed the next 500% rise. Then he saw it: a pattern no news anchor discussed
Arjun stopped checking his portfolio every hour. He automated a small monthly SIP into a Nifty ETF and deleted the trading app. But the long-term slope was relentless: roughly 14%
One night, he found an anomaly. On May 18, 2009, after the election results, Nifty jumped 17% in one day—the largest single-day gain ever. But the day before, volumes were normal. No one knew. The market’s greatest moves happened when everyone was certain of the opposite.
Five years later, he opened the laptop again. His investment had tripled. The news was full of "record highs" and "overvalued warnings." But the historical data smiled back at him: Same panic, different date.