Overall, 2019 was quite a year with most indexes increasing by roughly a third. From a historical perspective, the period from 2010 through 2019 was the first contiguous decade in the history of the market without a recession[1]. During this period, we had only one (2018) negative year.
The gains of 2019 were phenomenal in light of the many headwinds facing investors heading into, and throughout, the year: