The Nasdaq Composite closed at 5,048.62 on 10 March 2000. It closed at 1,114.11 on 9 October 2002, which is 77.9% lower. The index did not close above its March 2000 level again until 23 April 2015.
The fall took 943 days. The index then needed 12.5 years from the low, or 15.1 years from the high, to close above it again.
What was the dot com bubble? The dot com bubble was the rise in Nasdaq share prices to March 2000 and the fall that followed. In this post the dot com bubble means that rise and fall, measured on price data.
The Nasdaq Composite rose to 6.7 times its end-1994 level to its March 2000 high, then fell 77.9% to October 2002.
It closed above the March 2000 high again on 23 April 2015.
The Nasdaq-100, an index of 100 large non-financial Nasdaq companies, fell 82.4% over the same dates.
What was the dot com bubble?
A bubble is a rise in prices that later reverses sharply. "Dot com" refers to internet companies. We measure what the index did, not why.
The Nasdaq Composite is an index of Nasdaq-listed common stocks. It is a price index, so it leaves out dividends.
We use daily closes from 5 February 1971 to 26 October 2026. A closing high is the highest close reached before a fall. A drawdown is the fall from a closing high to the lowest close before the index next closes above that high. Our guide to what a drawdown is covers the idea in full.
How far did the Nasdaq rise before March 2000?
The Composite closed 1994 at 751.96. It reached 5,048.62 on 10 March 2000. That is 6.7 times the 1994 level, a rise of 571%.
Chart 1 shows the climb, the fall and the return.
Source: Nasdaq, Inc.
The line peaks in March 2000, bottoms in October 2002 and first crosses the dashed high line again in April 2015.
How far did the Nasdaq fall in the dot com crash?
The Composite fell 77.9% from 5,048.62 on 10 March 2000 to 1,114.11 on 9 October 2002. That is 648 trading days counting both ends, or 943 calendar days.
We searched the whole series, from 5 February 1971 to 26 October 2026, for the deepest fall from a closing high. This was the deepest. The next deepest was 59.9%, from January 1973 to October 1974.
The fall was not a straight line. The Composite rose 44.7% from 1,423.19 on 21 September 2001 to 2,059.38 on 4 January 2002. That is the largest rise between two closes inside the fall. The low came nine months later.
A 77.9% fall needs a gain of 353% to get back.
Why do the Composite and the Nasdaq-100 give different falls?
The Nasdaq-100 is an index of 100 large non-financial companies listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Nasdaq ranks them by market capitalisation.
Chart 2 puts both on the same two dates, 10 March 2000 and 9 October 2002. Both are price indexes. The Composite fell 77.9%, while the Nasdaq-100 fell 82.4%.
Source: Nasdaq, Inc.; YX Insights price data
The third bar is QQQ (the Nasdaq-100 fund). QQQ is an exchange-traded fund (ETF). Invesco, its issuer, says it tracks the Nasdaq-100.
With dividends counted, QQQ fell 82.5% on the same dates. It paid no dividends in this window, so dividends do not explain the 0.1 point gap.
On its own dates, the Nasdaq-100 fell 82.9%, from 27 March 2000 to 7 October 2002. It did not close above that high until 3 November 2015.
Which years did the Nasdaq fall?
Chart 3 shows the Composite's price return in each calendar year from 1995 to 2003. Each year runs from the last close of the year before.
Source: Nasdaq, Inc.
It rose in each of 1995 to 1999. It fell 39.3% in 2000, 21.1% in 2001 and 31.5% in 2002. It rose 49.5% in 2003.
Three falling years in a row happened once from 1972 to 2025. We checked every complete calendar year in that span. The next longest run was two years, 1973 and 1974. The Composite fell in 14 of those 54 years.
What did the Fed and the economy do?
The Fed Funds Rate is the rate at which depository institutions lend reserve balances to each other overnight, as the Federal Reserve defines it. The effective rate is the market rate on those loans. We did not test whether rates or the recession caused the fall. Our guide to the Fed Funds Rate explains it.
The monthly average was 4.76% in June 1999 and 5.85% in March 2000. It reached 6.54% in July 2000, the highest monthly average from January 1999 to December 2001. It fell to 1.82% by December 2001. The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System publishes the series.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the US recession from March 2001 to November 2001. The recession began a year after the Composite's high. See what a recession is and stocks during recessions.
How far did single stocks fall?
We took five technology companies and SPY (the S&P 500 ETF) from our price files. One rule covers all six.
The high is the highest close from 10 March 1999 to 31 December 2000. The window starts a year before the Composite's high, because Amazon and Microsoft peaked in December 1999. The low is the lowest close from that high to 9 October 2002. Returns count dividends.
Source: YX Insights price data
Amazon fell 94.4%, from 10 December 1999 to 28 September 2001. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) fell 93.3%. Nvidia fell 82.9% and Intel fell 82.2%. Microsoft fell 65.2%, from 27 December 1999 to 20 December 2000. SPY fell 47.5%.
Name | High | Lowest close to 9 October 2002 | Fall | First close back at the high after 9 October 2002 | Years from the high |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Amazon | 10 Dec 1999 | 28 Sep 2001 | 94.4% | 23 Oct 2009 | 9.9 |
AMD | 21 Jun 2000 | 7 Oct 2002 | 93.3% | 2 Jan 2020 | 19.5 |
Nvidia | 21 Jun 2000 | 9 Oct 2002 | 82.9% | 11 Jan 2006 | 5.6 |
Intel | 31 Aug 2000 | 8 Oct 2002 | 82.2% | 6 Mar 2018 | 17.5 |
Microsoft | 27 Dec 1999 | 20 Dec 2000 | 65.2% | 16 Jul 2014 | 14.6 |
SPY (S&P 500 ETF) | 24 Mar 2000 | 9 Oct 2002 | 47.5% | 26 Oct 2006 | 6.6 |
Dividends counted. The high is the highest close from 10 March 1999 to 31 December 2000. Source: YX Insights price data
The table gives the first close back at the high after 9 October 2002. Nvidia took 5.6 years from its high and SPY took 6.6. Amazon took 9.9, Microsoft 14.6, Intel 17.5 and AMD 19.5.
Three of the six later closed below their own low in the table. SPY closed 48.5% below its high on 9 March 2009. Microsoft closed 69.4% below on the same day. AMD closed 96.6% below on 27 July 2015.
What happened to money invested at the high?
A QQQ holding of $10,000 at the 10 March 2000 close, with dividends counted, was worth $1,752 on 9 October 2002.
It was back to $10,028 on 28 November 2014, 14.7 years after 10 March 2000. QQQ counts dividends, while the Nasdaq-100 is a price index whose own high came later, on 27 March 2000. The Nasdaq-100 regained its 10 March 2000 level on 16 July 2015.
On 26 October 2026 the same holding was worth $73,799. That is 7.80% a year, compounded, over 26.6 years. The figure starts on the day the Composite peaked. See stock market recovery time for the S&P 500 record.
How does the dot com crash compare with other falls?
From 5 February 1971 to 26 October 2026, the Composite had seven falls of 30% or more from a closing high. The dot com fall is the deepest of the seven. The most recent was 36.4%, from 19 November 2021 to 28 December 2022.
Our guide to whether the stock market will crash puts falls of this size in a longer record. The 1929 crash is the older comparison.
What does this analysis leave out?
The Composite and the Nasdaq-100 are price indexes, so they leave out dividends. The QQQ and share figures count them. The analysis covers two Nasdaq indexes and six names. It does not cover causes.
The Composite's 77.9% fall took 943 days from a high of 5,048.62 to a low of 1,114.11.
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Common questions about the dot com bubble
How much did the Nasdaq fall in the dot com crash?
The Nasdaq Composite fell 77.9% from its closing high of 5,048.62 on 10 March 2000 to its closing low of 1,114.11 on 9 October 2002. The Composite is a price index, so dividends are left out. The Nasdaq-100 price index fell 82.4% over the same two dates.
How long did it take the Nasdaq to recover from the dot com bubble?
The Nasdaq Composite first closed above its March 2000 high on 23 April 2015, which is 15.1 years after the high and 12.5 years after the low. The Nasdaq-100 price index took until 3 November 2015 to close above its own high, which it reached on 27 March 2000.
When did the dot com bubble burst?
The Nasdaq Composite closed at its high on 10 March 2000. The fall that followed ended on 9 October 2002. Dates alone do not show why prices turned. The recession the National Bureau of Economic Research dates began in March 2001.
Did Amazon survive the dot com bubble?
Amazon's shares did not fall to zero, but they fell 94.4% with dividends counted, from a close on 10 December 1999 to a close on 28 September 2001. They first closed back at that high on 23 October 2009, 9.9 years after the high. Intel took 17.5 years and AMD 19.5 years.
DISCLAIMER: This article is intended for educational purposes only. Any information or analysis in this note does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities. Nothing in this note is intended to be investment advice, nor should it be relied upon to make investment decisions. Any opinions, analyses, or probabilities expressed in this note are those of the author as of the note's date of publication and are subject to change without notice.
