A few years back I sat on the front stoop drankin wine, and recording the best price per year of gold and silver since 1973 when Nixon pulled out the chock blocks. I also estimated average price per year.
Then I had some more wine and adjusted numbers for inflation.
Then I looked at all the numbers. What I saw was that if you bought gold at the average price every year, and sold it at average a year later, you'd hardly make any money.
But if you waited 5 years to sell, you'd almost always get a worthwhile profit. (Obviously in RL if you could hold on and avoid a loss you would, but I didn't give my little theoretical guy the option, he had to sell 5-year-old stuff every year. Still did ok overall.)
In fact, IIRC, even having the guy buy at the highest price each year, and waiting to sell 5 years later at the average, he turned some profit.
I didn't try this with 100 different stocks, so maybe they'd do better, or not. I can only drink so much wine.
I have not figured up how the recent crazy run-ups add in, obviously they're good for those who bought in the past. If I eat me a sandwich and go down to the gold shop to get an ounce today, no idea if it'll be worth more in 5 years.