Investing

Posts on investing have been core to the site since the beginning. Investing is intimately connected to net worth, as it can earn you income passively while you work your own day job.

On this page, you'll find return calculators for individual equities as well as indices, funds, and commodities. You'll discover valuation tools and indicators. And finally, you'll encounter definitions, commentary, and answers clarifying some mysteries of investing.

Investment Return Calculators

It's surprisingly hard to find historical market returns on various securities, indices, and commodities. In these posts, we've tracked down market data sources and provided investment history in an easy to use form. Where appropriate, these tools also include the effects of dividend and coupon reinvestment – and often inflation as well.

Individual Security Returns

These posts track the historical return of individual securities. If you're looking to estimate how an ADR, stock, Exchange Traded Fund, or Closed End Fund performed over a given time-frame, start here. These tools include the effects of reinvested coupon payments and dividends.

Index Returns

When you look at the price return of an index, you're missing the accumulated (and significant) effect of reinvested dividends or coupons. These tools compute the historical total return of various stock and bond indices.

Commodity and Cryptocurrency Returns

Commodities and cryptocurrencies all have a value as well – the market-clearing price traders where traders agree. These posts look at the historical returns of litecoin, bitcoin, and various commodities, including optional inflation adjustment.

Estimated Return and Valuation Tools

Fundamental to investing is the concept of value – "if I sold this today, what would it be worth?". Whether you're computing discounted cash flows, valuing theoretical yields, or estimating returns on investment, this section is for you. Have fun with valuation and estimation tools for bonds, stocks, funds, markets... and even gambling.

Index Valuation

Unlike bonds, modeling index valuation is more art than science. These measures attempt to build a rough model of a company, index, or company stock market's intrinsic value to guess whether it's appropriate to invest.

Bond Valuation

Bonds and fixed income securities are straightforward to model. These posts contain tools to value bonds based on the present value of their cash flows, teach the backing formulas, and show where the models can break down.

Valuation Tools

In theory, an investment's value is the present value of its future cash flows. In practice? It's whatever someone will pay.

These calculators help you with the theory, if not the edges of the practice. Use these value stocks, bonds, and anything with a revenue stream. Or, use these tools to assist in placing bets or allocating a portfolio.

401(k) Calculator – How Much Will You Have Invested?
Acid Test Ratio Calculator
APR to APY Calculator – What Will it Cost a Year?
APY to APR Calculator – What Would the APR Be?
Average Collection Period Calculator
Bank CD Calculator – What Will Your Investment be Worth?
Capital Adequacy Ratio Calculator
Capital Gains Tax Calculator: Value of Waiting on an Investment
Cash Ratio Calculator
Cash Return on Invested Capital – CROIC Calculator
Common Equity Tier 1 Capital Ratio Calculator
Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) Calculator
Compound Interest Calculator
Current Ratio or Working Capital Ratio Calculator
Discounted Cash Flow Calculator for Stock Valuation
Dividend Discount Model Calculator for Stock Valuation
Efficiency Ratio Calculator
Employee Stock Purchase Plan Calculator – ESPP Tax and Return Estimates
Future Value Calculator – The Value of a Series of Investments
Graham Number Calculator for Stock Valuation
Gross Yield on Earning Assets Calculator
Incentive Stock Option – ISO Calculator
Internal Rate of Return – IRR Calculator
Inventory Turnover and Days of Sales in Inventory Calculator
Investment Calculator: How Will Your Asset Grow?
IRA Calculator – How Large Can Your Account Grow?
Kelly Criterion Bet Calculator: Optimizing Bet Sizes
Liquidity Coverage Ratio Calculator
Loan to Assets Ratio Calculator
Loans to Deposits Ratio Calculator
Mutual Fund or ETF Fee Calculator – What Will it Cost You?
Net Interest Margin Calculator
Net Stable Funding Ratio Calculator
Non-Qualified Stock Option – NSO Calculator
Operating Cash Flow Ratio Calculator
Optimal Asset Allocation with the Kelly Criterion
Present Value Calculator (and the Present Value Formula)
Quick Ratio Calculator
Receivables Turnover Calculator
Reserve Ratio Calculator
Return on Assets – ROA Calculator
Return on Capital Employed – ROCE Calculator
Return on Equity – ROE Calculator
Return on Invested Capital – ROIC Calculator
Return on Investment (ROI) Calculator
RSU Calculator – Projecting Your Grant's Future Value
Stock Calculator – Compute Your Stock Investment Return
Tier 1 Leverage Ratio Calculator
Working Capital Calculator
XIRR Calculator - Irregular Internal Rate of Return

Private Investment Valuation

Private investments such as private equity buyout funds, venture capital and angel investment funds, and real estate syndications come with their own set of vocabulary and calculations. These tools and posts help you make sense of the marketing and numbers thrown around to better evaluate the performance of private investments.

Investment Returns

These posts are retrospective looks at past returns on an index, commodity, or cryptocurrency. Beyond a typical return report, they include a discussion of total return, including dividend reinvestment.

Find more years in the Investment Return Archives

Investing Definitions, Research, and Answers

Our take on investing research & interesting questions.

How Many Qualified Purchasers Are There in America?
How Many Qualified Clients Are There in America?
How Many Accredited Investors Are There in America?
Accredited Investors vs. Qualified Clients vs. Qualified Purchasers
Does Dollar Cost Averaging Work? How Should You Use It?
How Does an Interest Rate Cut Affect the Stock Market?
Dollar Cost vs. Lump Sum Investing: What to Do with a Windfall
CAPE, Interest Rates, and Poor Future Returns
The Relationship Between Bear Markets and Recession
What is a Bear Market? How Long Do They Last?
Long Run Yield Curve Inversions, Illustrated (1871-2018)
A Linear Scale and Round Numbers are Misleading While Investing
Should You Always Just Stay in 100% Stocks?
Can Bond Spreads Predict Stock Returns?
Did Donald Trump Beat the S&P 500 With His Career Net Worth Increases?
What Type of Investors Perform Best?
Active vs. Passive Funds: The Indexing Grudge-match
Can You Grow Wealth with Stocks? A Case Study.
Dollar Cost Averaging: When Not Playing the Game Can Make You a Winner
The Risk Spread Premium - (Almost) A Century of Data
More on Shiller's CAPE vs. The Ten Year Treasury Yield
How to Beat Investing or Gambling
The Curse of Success(ful Investing)
What Stock Market Returns Can You Expect?
Who Will Rate the Raters? The Analyst Crisis on Wall Street.
The Efficient Market Hypothesis is Flawed
Don't Use Leveraged ETFs. All About Danger and the Constant Leverage Trap.
When You Should Hold Municipal Bonds in Your Portfolio (And Why!)
What is a Master Limited Partnership?
Know the Signs! Pyramids and Ponzis...
Exotic Investing: Closed End Funds
Investing in the 79th Element

Don't Quit Your Day Job...

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