Packs of Marlboro cigarettes are displayed at a smoke shop on April 28, 2023, in San Francisco.Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
The flame in Paris has now been extinguished, but let’s not forget there is a financial Olympics happening nearly every day.
It’s called the stock market, and it’s got everything the sporting version has: furious competition, triumph and failure, a rich history of cheating.
So, who is the stock market GOAT? It now seems settled, for example, that Simone Biles is the greatest gymnast of all time. Which stock is a comparably singular towering force against which all other corporate listings are measured?
Arizona State University finance professor Hendrik Bessembinder has the answer in a new research paper. And it’s not exactly a feel-good story.
From a century’s worth of data involving nearly 30,000 stocks, the stock that rises above all others is none other than Altria Group Inc….


