SMH max drawdown: 82.1%
VanEck Semiconductor ETF. From its 2000-08-31 peak, SMH fell 82.1% to the 2009-02-28 trough and needed 16.6 years to make a new high (2017-03-31). Computed from 314 months of history starting 2000-06-30, including extended pre-ETF data where available.
Semiconductors, boom-bust amplitude well beyond the broad market.
SMH drawdown statistics
2000-08-31 peak to 2009-02-28 trough.
New high reached 2017-03-31.
Share of all months spent below a prior high.
Rolling year ending 2001-09-30.
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 SMH drawdowns on record
| Depth | Peak | Trough | Recovered | Peak to trough | Total underwater |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -82.1% | 2000-08-31 | 2009-02-28 | 2017-03-31 | 102 mo | 16.6 years |
| -40.0% | 2021-12-31 | 2022-09-30 | 2023-07-31 | 9 mo | 19 months |
| -18.6% | 2024-06-30 | 2025-04-30 | 2025-06-30 | 10 mo | 12 months |
| -18.3% | 2018-08-31 | 2018-12-31 | 2019-04-30 | 4 mo | 8 months |
| -17.2% | 2019-12-31 | 2020-03-31 | 2020-06-30 | 3 mo | 6 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 SMH means living through every number on this page. BestFolio tracks published TAA strategies whose whole job is cutting these drawdowns, with out-of-sample track records.