Vanguard Australia and the Australian Centre of Financial Studies (ACFS) have launched the Australian Equities Database (AED) to provide a 90-year view of Australian equities.
The database was aimed at providing a detailed view of long-term share market performance to help understand what was happening now and why.
ACFS research director, Professor Kevin Davis, said the database could help identify the underlying reasons for share market performance and to better educate investors and financial services professionals about how to conceptualise those market forces.
"One key lesson from the database that is particularly relevant to investors today is that periods of sustained low yields are not uncommon," Davis said.
"In fact, the period of relatively high growth from the early 1970s up to the early 2000s, where share market returns powered into double digits, appears to have been an anomaly when viewed in a longer context, prompting us to consider whether the low return, low inflation environment of today is more structural, more long-term."
Vanguard's head of market strategy, Robin Bowerman, said a long-term perspective was one of the most powerful traits an investor could have.
"This can give them the patience and discipline needed to weather market ups and downs without panicking," Bowerman said.
The database will offer long-term analysis of factors driving earnings and value growth, the ability to more thoroughly test portfolios and investment strategies.
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