It's safe to say 2013 turned out better than expected for the stock market.
In the year to date, the S&P 500 index is up over 27%.
As the chart below from options guru Jared Woodard of Condor Options illustrates, 2013 was the first year in a long time that the market was able to outperform the upper end of the range implied by options at the beginning of the year.
We experienced a similar situation in 2008 - but to the downside.
Check it out:
