Wanted: Performance!

What a difference a decade makes! In 1959 (see preceding post) investors faced the unfamiliar notion that stocks could yield less than bonds. Equities were to be viewed as … growth stocks!

By the mid-1960s the Dow had soared to 1000. Then the ride got bumpy. But by 1969 the Go-Go Years promised instant gratification, supplied by "gunslinger" fund managers who bought first, researched later.

The name of the game was performance. In this October, 1969 ad, Manny Hanny gamely tried to play along: