Timing the market is easily one of the most difficult parts of trading. In particular, calling the market bottom and knowing when to get in is usually something investors only know way after the fact. 24/7 Wall St. is looking back to when the S&P 500 bottomed back in March 2009 to see how some of the major blue chips have fared since then.

Back on March 6, 2009, the S&P 500 bottomed out at 666.79, and from there began perhaps the biggest bull market of the modern era. At the most recent close, the S&P 500 was at 2,732.22, more than quadrupling its bottom nearly nine years ago.

So how does this stack up against Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL)?

On an adjusted close basis, Apple closed March 6, 2009, at $8.25 a share, and at $12.19 on an unadjusted basis. Apple most recently closed at $172.43 on an adjusted basis.

Just eyeballing the numbers here, we can see that Apple’s growth over this nine-year period was absolutely explosive, with shares gaining roughly 2,000%.

If you had invested $1,000 in Apple back then, you would have $20,900.61 as of Friday’s close.

Although Apple released its first generation iPhone back in 2007, the real excitement surrounding this product came in its second and third generations, when the bugs were fixed and people realized the smartphone’s potential.

Needless to say, Apple shares climbed hand in hand with iPhone sales over the course of this bull market. Apple currently has a market cap of $883 billion, and it could be the first company to break the $1 trillion cap if it continues to grow at this rate.

Over the past 52 weeks, Apple has outperformed the broad markets, with its shares up about 27%. In just 2018 alone, Apple is only up 2%.

Shares of Apple were last seen trading near $174, with a consensus analyst price target of $192.43 and a 52-week range of $135.28 to $180.10.

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