A couple weeks ago there was an article on Fortune.com that featured an interview with billionaire investor Stan Druckenmiller. He was asked during the interview what his thoughts were on the future of the stock market and what investors can expect in the years ahead. Needless to say, Druckenmiller’s forecast was pretty concerning. He predicts that over the next ten years, there’s a high probability that the market will be flat, meaning that share prices aren’t gonna experience much growth. Druckenmiller provided several reasons for this prediction, which included an impending recession, the Fed’s aggression with rising interest rates, banks becoming super defensive and the continuing escalation in Ukraine.
For those who might not be familiar, Druckenmiller is one of Wall Street's best performing investors in history. He was the founder of Due Cain Capital, which was a hedge fund he created back in 1981. Between 1986 and 2010, Druckenmiller was able to provide investors an average annual return of 30%. For comparison, the S&P 500 historically provides investors an average annual return of around 8.5% according to Investopedia. In 2010 Druckenmiller converted his hedge fund into a family office, which is a type of investment company that manages investments for very wealthy families. His investing strategy typically includes holding stocks long term and using leverage to trade futures and currencies.
Druckenmiller’s not along in terms of having a negative outlook on the future of the stock market. Other individuals including Ray Dalio, Michael Bury and Carl Icahn also share the opinion that the markets are headed for a season of declines and volatility. This belief is also being shared by some of the largest financial institutions including Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo, although opinions differ on how long and how extreme things will get in terms of declines. But it’s not just the ultra-wealthy and financial institutions that are being pessimistic. According to the consumer confidence index, which measures how optimistic people are in terms of the economy, it’s currently lower today than it was during the 2008 financial crises.
![[NON STOP] 12 HOURS OF VICTORIOUS](../images/blog/thumbnails/202404/videodetails/img_PlcPZaarDIw_2604064551.jpg)
