What if you had invested in a stock or ETF?
Share tool
Only this public address is included. Your files, inputs and results stay out of the link.
Choose a stock or ETF and a past period. Calculate what a lump sum or monthly investment would have become, with historical exchange rates and the same contributions for your benchmark.
Preparing your tool…
Instructions, examples & details
A visual example
The same dividend, two different questions
Synthetic calculation example: USD 1,000 invested at 100, a dividend of 10 per unit, an ex-dividend price of 90 and a final price of 99.
Price return
Dividends are excluded from this mode. The price changes from 100 to 99: −1%.
Total return
The dividend is modelled as reinvested at 90. The resulting exposure grows to a final value of 1,100: +10%.
Price return does not mean that dividends were paid out and kept as cash. It excludes dividends entirely.
Illustrative example. Invented values for explaining the mathematics, not real market data. Before personal taxes and broker fees. No future-return assumption.
Model, not an account statement
How this historical calculation works
Historical data, consistent contributions and clear assumptions.
Data source and permissions
The data provider, snapshot and supported history are shown with each available result. Calculations use only validated completed trading days. If required market or currency data are missing, the calculation is limited rather than filled with invented prices. The open-data option uses post-no-preference/stocks on DoltHub, published under CC BY-SA 4.0. The available snapshot accounts for splits and cash dividends reconciled weekly in the source. Each result displays its actual data date. The data are normalised and combined with historical currency reference rates. Sharing and adaptation under the data licence remain permitted.
Prices, splits and dividends
Price return uses a split-adjusted series. The dividend-reinvestment model adds cash dividends recorded in the source and notionally reinvests them. Spun-off securities, distributions in kind and subscription rights are not credited unless the source records them as a cash amount. Already included splits or dividends are never added twice, and the model does not present index units as actual shares bought.
Trading dates and contributions
The first eligible trading day on or after the requested start is used for the initial purchase; the last eligible day on or before the end is used for valuation. Actual dates are shown. Missing longer sections and ended histories cause an explicit limitation. Contributions are executed only once at each planned date.
Historical currency conversion
Each contribution is converted at its own historical reference rate. Every valuation uses that day's rate, expressed as investor-currency units per unit of the listing currency. If a reference observation is missing, only the most recent earlier observation within a maximum of seven calendar days is permitted; future rates are never used.
Returns and drawdowns
A one-time investment uses its actual holding period for annualised return. A contribution plan uses dated cash flows and XIRR with Actual/365. The largest decline is measured on performance adjusted for external contributions, so deposits cannot hide a market loss. A return that cannot be meaningfully calculated is labelled unavailable.
A consistent comparison
The current catalogue contains US exchange listings quoted in USD. Results in CHF or EUR are historical currency conversions; they do not represent SIX listings or coverage of UCITS funds. Both series use the same investor currency, contribution schedule, dividend mode and common valuation period. An ETF chosen as a benchmark includes its own fund costs and differs from the underlying index.
Coverage and limitations
Fractional investment is assumed, before personal taxes and broker costs. The selected catalogue of current securities does not represent every investment that existed in the past or businesses that later disappeared. Historical reference FX rates are model inputs, not guaranteed broker dealing rates. If the source has gaps, only the following fully documented continuous period is offered. Missing earlier prices are not interpolated. An earlier requested start is rejected; your chosen dates are never shortened automatically.
Sharing and reproducibility
Scenarios are only added to a link after an explicit sharing action. The link stores the calculation version and requested data version. If the original licensed data version is unavailable or corrected, the page explains that the result must be recalculated. No personal investment amounts are sent to usage analytics.
Common questions
Is this a forecast?
No. The calculator replays a chosen historical period. It says nothing about future returns and does not recommend a security.
Are dividends included?
Choose explicitly between price return with dividends excluded and total return with modelled reinvestment. There is no separate cash-dividend mode.
Why can a CHF result differ from the USD return?
The investment and the historical exchange rate both affect the CHF result. Each contribution and valuation uses its own historical rate, rather than today's rate for the whole period.
Is annualised return simply the gain divided by deposits?
No. Monthly deposits have different investment durations. The personal annualised return is calculated from their actual dates using XIRR; a simple gain percentage is not an annual rate.
What happens on weekends or holidays?
Purchases move to the next eligible trading day and the final valuation to the previous eligible day. The actual dates are displayed. A missing long history is not treated as an ordinary holiday.
Past performance does not guarantee future results. This calculation is not an investment recommendation.
How to use it
- Choose an instrument and benchmark, then select a period within their common history.
- Enter a one-time amount, monthly contributions or both, and choose your investment currency.
- Choose price return or total return with modelled dividend reinvestment. Calculate and check the actual execution dates and data date.
- Review the value, contributions, return and drawdown. Share the scenario deliberately or export the permitted results.
A USD listing and CHF contributions are not a CHF investment with a currency label added: each contribution is converted with its historical rate, and each portfolio valuation is converted with the rate available on that day.
Details & limits
Uses a validated historical dataset. Only the supported instruments and displayed dates can be calculated; dividend modes can have different start dates. USD, CHF and EUR depend on historical FX coverage. No personal taxes or broker fees; no forecast or actual trade execution.
Does a shared scenario always keep exactly the same result?
A scenario identifies its calculation version and data version. The original result can be reproduced only while that exact dataset remains available and licensed. If it is unavailable, the calculator explains the mismatch rather than silently substituting another data version.