SCHD max drawdown: 21.5%
Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF. From its 2019-12-31 peak, SCHD fell 21.5% to the 2020-03-31 trough and needed 3 months to make a new high (2020-08-31). Computed from 177 months of history starting 2011-10-31, including extended pre-ETF data where available.
The most-discussed dividend fund on Reddit. Still an equity fund in a crash.
SCHD drawdown statistics
2019-12-31 peak to 2020-03-31 trough.
New high reached 2020-08-31.
Share of all months spent below a prior high.
Rolling year ending 2020-03-31.
For context, SPY (the S&P 500 baseline) had a maximum drawdown of 23.9% over the same kind of monthly-close analysis.
The biggest SCHD drawdowns on record
| Depth | Peak | Trough | Recovered | Peak to trough | Total underwater |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -21.5% | 2019-12-31 | 2020-03-31 | 2020-08-31 | 3 mo | 8 months |
| -15.7% | 2021-12-31 | 2022-09-30 | 2022-11-30 | 9 mo | 11 months |
| -10.9% | 2024-11-30 | 2025-04-30 | 2026-01-31 | 5 mo | 14 months |
| -10.7% | 2018-09-30 | 2018-12-31 | 2019-03-31 | 3 mo | 6 months |
| -10.6% | 2022-11-30 | 2023-10-31 | 2023-12-31 | 11 mo | 13 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 SCHD 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.