When was the best ever day on the IAG (ASX:IAG) share price chart?

The Insurance Australia Group Ltd (ASX: IAG) share price has edged higher in trade on Monday, closing at $4.94 apiece.

That's an 8.5% decrease in the last month for the insurance giant, on the back of a choppy year to date.

With this in mind, it's worthwhile checking the rearview mirror to see what have been the best periods of performance for the IAG share price.

What was the best day for IAG shares?

To check which day was the best for IAG's share price, we don't have to look back very far.

It was only in mid 2019 when IAG shares were changing hands at almost $9 a piece.

Alas, the best day for the IAG share price was on 25 July 2019, where it hit a high of $8.72, a whopping 76% premium to its current market price. However, it did hit an intraday high of $8.89 on 26 June 2018.

There was one period where IAG showed similar strengths, with its share price climbing to around the same level in July of 2018.

However, it wasn't strong enough to break past this barrier in both 2018 and 2019. Combined with the findings of IAG's misconduct from the Royal Commission into Banking and Finance, the IAG share price has plummeted to all-time lows as of this year.

This marks a difficult journey for long-term IAG shareholders, particularly those who've held since the company's initial public offering (IPO) around the year 2000.

Stepping back and looking at its share price chart over this time, there is a series of large price swings both up and down, with the IAG share price now hovering around its 2004 levels.

Depending on timing, however, it still may be a more suitable return for longer-term holders. For instance, if one bought in the lows of around $3 per share in 2012, this would still equal a sizeable 60%+ return in this time.

Nonetheless, IAG shares are well off their highs of almost $9 achieved back in 2018 and then once again in 2019, with their best day occurring in June 2019.

IAG share price snapshot

The picture doesn't change too much when honing in on a single-year view of the IAG share price.

After a period of high volatility, where its share price chart looks like a 9.0 earthquake Richter scale drawing, it has gained a paltry 43 cents per share in the last 12 months.

This is despite reaching highs of $5.45 three times on separate occasions this past year.