One of the few guarantees for investors on Wall Street is short-term unpredictability. Although the stock market has been a genuine wealth-building machine over extended periods, the year-to-year performance of the major stock indexes is no more predictable than a coin flip.

Since this decade began, the major stock indexes traded off bear and bull markets in successive years. These swings were especially pronounced in the growth stock-driven Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX: ^IXIC), which shed 33% of its value during the 2022 bear market, but has rocketed higher by 49% since the start of 2023.

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Source Fool.com