LQD max drawdown: 25.2%
iShares Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF. From its 1979-08-31 peak, LQD fell 25.2% to the 1981-09-30 trough and needed 2.1 years to make a new high (1991-02-28). Computed from 678 months of history starting 1970-01-31, including extended pre-ETF data where available.
Investment-grade corporates, equity-correlated in liquidity crises.
LQD drawdown statistics
1979-08-31 peak to 1981-09-30 trough.
New high reached 1991-02-28.
Share of all months spent below a prior high.
Rolling year ending 2022-10-31.
For context, SPY (the S&P 500 baseline) had a maximum drawdown of 50.8% over the same kind of monthly-close analysis.
The biggest LQD drawdowns on record
| Depth | Peak | Trough | Recovered | Peak to trough | Total underwater |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -25.2% | 1979-08-31 | 1981-09-30 | 1991-02-28 | 25 mo | 11.5 years |
| -23.3% | 2020-12-31 | 2022-10-31 | not yet | 22 mo | 5.5 years |
| -15.1% | 2008-01-31 | 2008-10-31 | 2009-06-30 | 9 mo | 17 months |
| -8.8% | 1994-01-31 | 1994-10-31 | 1995-04-30 | 9 mo | 15 months |
| -7.2% | 1999-01-31 | 1999-08-31 | 2000-10-31 | 7 mo | 21 months |
Methodology: monthly closing prices, peak-to-trough on total return where available. History extends before the ETF's launch via documented proxy chains (index funds, indices, and academic series), the same data that powers BestFolio's strategy backtests. Educational information, not investment advice.
Drawdowns are the reason tactical strategies exist
Buy-and-hold LQD means living through every number on this page. BestFolio tracks 46+ published TAA strategies whose whole job is cutting these drawdowns, with out-of-sample track records.