Fund Radar: Can equities give 0 returns for 5, 10, 15 years?

Many new investors who have seen a bull run after Covid might scoff at this idea. They'd even derisively term us as a Negative Nandoo. Our readers would also think we've lost our marbles, thinking, "Aren't you the same folks who always say that stock markets reward long-term investors?" Fair enough, we say that. But here's the deal: There have been instances of mature markets delivering a big, fat egg of a return for 10 or even 15 years. The long-drawn slumps worldwide Japan: In 1980s, the Nikkei 225 gave annual returns of 20 per cent, leading up to its peak in December 1989. But then, it fell 82 per cent by 2009 as Japan's asset bubble burst. It