Over long stretches, Wall Street has proven to be nothing short of a money machine. The stock market has handily outpaced the annualized returns of bank certificates of deposit (CDs), housing, oil, gold, and Treasury bonds over the long run. Following up one of the strongest years in recent memory in 2021, the widely followed Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI), benchmark S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC), and technology-dependent Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX: ^IXIC) all plunged into a bear market and produced their worst full-year returns since the financial crisis.