2017 NASDAQ Return

The 2017 NASDAQ return was +27.24% calculated from the price index. Using a better calculation which factors in dividend reinvestment, the NASDAQ returned +28.62% in 2017.

The 2017 NASDAQ Return: Reinvest Your Dividends

The above numbers assume you bought the NASDAQ index on January 3rd, 2017 and sold at close on December 29, 2017. The numbers for buying at the December 30, 2016 closing price are +28.24% and +29.64%, respectively.

Here are the price returns on the index:

Here are the NASDAQ dividend reinvested returns:

Traditionally, the NASDAQ has been a technology-heavy index. Further, technology companies have a growth bias and tend to pay out fewer dividends than other economic sectors.

That important caveat aside, NASDAQ firms do pay dividends - depending on your choice of start date, reinvesting would have added around 1.4% to your annual return in 2017. That's not nothing - 1.4% is an additional 74.4% over an average 40 year career. (As an aside, it's also a reminder to minimize the fees you pay).

Once again: dividends matter. Even with a tech-heavy index.

Source on the 2017 NASDAQ Return Calculations

These numbers come from NASDAQ Indexes. They also have a number of specialized indexes - biotechnology, big companies, and the like.

We can't match the number of additional resources we listed in the 2017 S&P 500 Return and 2017 Dow Jones Return posts for the NASDAQ. However, in 2014 we estimated how buying the peak of the Tech bubble in 1999-2000 would have turned out:

• Dollar Cost Averaging the Technology Bubble

We also compared the technology bubble to the (since-deflated) Shanghai Composite Bubble:

• Comparing the technology bubble to the bubble in the Shanghai Composite

The 2017 NASDAQ Return

2017 NASDAQ Return and Dividend Reinvested Return