...from 1880, 1950 and January 2006 to April 2013

...from 1900 to 2013

Assuming that you can avoid the 10 worst days, you will have to do so in a way that does not have you missing the 10 best days. If you manage to avoid all of the worst days, but miss all of the best days too, then your portfolio performance will be close to buy & hold (minus transaction costs).

"...Lehman was a small player compared with any of the Big Five. If Lehman Brothers was too big for a private-sector solution while still a going concern, what can we infer about the Big Five...?"

If you ever were sceptical on the credibility of the IMF's forecasting skills, this chart will help underpin your doubts!

Government debt reduction ("Schuldenbremse") policy since 2002.

The following chart shows the UK price index over the period with the incidence of witchcraft trials. Note the peak in trials coinciding with the peak of the price revolution.

"Volatility markets are simultaneously calm on the surface and fearful underneath"

China, Saudi Arabia and Petrochina around their tipping points

Banks, financials and the commercial paper market around the crisis of 2008.

With equity markets currently very quiet, and most investors having lost interest in stocks, it's the perfect time to vizualise some of the most spectacular bubbles and crashes of the past twenty years.

The Nasdaq of the late 1990s and the Nikkei ex- and post-1980s

Nominal and real return on assets classes for Japan and Switzerland over the past 100 years.

For all thoses worried about falling U.S. real estate prices, here is a positive side of the coin: agricultural land prices in the State of Texa have more than doubled since 2003.