Investing
Investing 500 dollars a month in QQQ since 2015
This page runs the same monthly plan as the S&P 500 version, in QQQ instead: 500 dollars into the Nasdaq 100 on the first trading day of every month since January 2015, dividends reinvested, nothing sold.
Final portfolio value
$250,901.33
Total invested
Absolute profit
Annualized return (IRR)
Max drawdown (MDD)
Compare scenarios
Pin these figures as scenario A, then change any input above to see the difference.
Portfolio value over time
Transaction log
| Date | Price | Investment | Shares | Cost | APB | Total shares | Portfolio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015-01-02 | $94.56 | $500.00 | 5.2875809528643885 | $500.00 | $94.56 | 5.288 | $500.00 |
| 2015-02-02 | $93.68 | $500.00 | 5.337358413224694 | $500.00 | $94.12 | 10.625 | $995.34 |
| 2015-03-02 | $100.48 | $500.00 | 4.976263224419519 | $500.00 | $96.15 | 15.601 | $1,567.56 |
| 2015-04-01 | $96.72 | $500.00 | 5.169492138753305 | $500.00 | $96.29 | 20.771 | $2,008.97 |
| 2015-05-01 | $100.40 | $500.00 | 4.979871359963029 | $500.00 | $97.09 | 25.751 | $2,585.46 |
| 2015-06-01 | $101.67 | $500.00 | 4.918084386459137 | $500.00 | $97.82 | 30.669 | $3,117.95 |
| 2015-07-01 | $99.59 | $500.00 | 5.020468449870121 | $500.00 | $98.07 | 35.689 | $3,554.36 |
| 2015-08-03 | $102.99 | $500.00 | 4.854915699243798 | $500.00 | $98.66 | 40.544 | $4,175.57 |
| 2015-09-01 | $93.25 | $500.00 | 5.361786547277553 | $500.00 | $98.03 | 45.906 | $4,280.83 |
| 2015-10-01 | $94.56 | $500.00 | 5.287552994499888 | $500.00 | $97.67 | 51.193 | $4,840.93 |
Performance summary
| Total return | +255.89% |
|---|---|
| Sharpe ratio | 0.90 |
| Average buy price (APB) | $202.02 |
| Buy & hold final value | $536,019.85 |
| Buy & hold return | +660.31% |
| DCA vs buy & hold | Buy & hold better |
| Final shares | 348.978 |
| Investments | 141 |
| Average per investment | $500.00 |
Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Nothing on this page is investment advice.
The same money invested all at once
Lump sum final value
Monthly plan final value
Difference
The lump sum invests $70,500 — the same capital the monthly plan eventually contributed — at the first closing price of the period and holds it to 2026-09-04. No interest is credited to cash waiting to be invested.
If you had started at the worst possible moment
The worst moment is defined as the high that preceded the deepest fall in this window: QQQ closed at $392.51 on 2021-12-27 and then fell 35.1% to $254.66 on 2022-11-03. Daily closing prices throughout. The run below buys the same amount, at the same frequency, starting on that high and holding to 2026-09-04.
Contributed
Final value
Profit
Annualised return
Maximum drawdown
Buying the top is the outcome a lump sum risks and a contribution plan spreads out. The figures above are what that spreading was worth over this window and nothing more.
The same plan on different funds
$500 on the first trading day of each month from 2015-01-02, run to 2026-09-04 on each series in the committed price snapshot.
| Ticker | From | Contributed | Final value | Total return | Annualised | Max drawdown |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| QQQ | 2015-01-02 | $70,500 | $250,901 | 255.9% | 20.3% | 35.1% |
| SPY | 2015-01-02 | $70,500 | $184,405 | 161.6% | 15.5% | 33.7% |
| VOO | 2015-01-02 | $70,500 | $185,298 | 162.8% | 15.6% | 34.0% |
Every row contributes the same money on the same days, so the columns are directly comparable. Prices as of 2026-09-04. Yahoo Finance chart API — daily adjusted close (dividends reinvested)
A more concentrated index, and what that did to the ride
QQQ holds the hundred largest non financial companies listed on the Nasdaq, which in practice means a portfolio weighted heavily towards a handful of very large technology companies. That concentration is the reason to look at this page next to the S&P 500 one rather than instead of it. The two runs cover exactly the same months with exactly the same contribution, so every difference in the figures above comes from what the index held rather than from timing, luck or the schedule. The number worth comparing first is not the final balance but the maximum drawdown, because a more concentrated index falls harder when the companies it concentrates in fall, and this period contained a year in which they did. The Sharpe ratio above puts the return and the volatility in one number, which is a blunt instrument but a fair one when the same instrument is applied to both funds. Read the two together: a higher return achieved through a deeper drawdown is a different product from the same return achieved smoothly, and a contribution plan is exactly the kind of commitment that people abandon in the middle of the deeper one. The average purchase price is also reported, and in a fund that rose steeply it sits far below the ending price, which is what a decade of monthly buying into an appreciating asset looks like.
What this page cannot tell you
A backtest of a concentrated index over a decade in which that concentration paid is the single easiest way to talk yourself into it. The figures are real and the engine does not flatter them, but the period is one sample, and the companies that drove it are not the companies the index held in 2015. Read this page as a record of what happened to one specific plan, not as an estimate of what the next decade owes anyone. The lump sum comparison above is included for the same reason it appears on every page here: it separates the effect of the fund from the effect of the schedule, and only one of those two is a choice you get to make in advance.
Questions about this backtest
How does this differ from the S&P 500 run?
Only the fund. Same contribution, same months, same engine, same snapshot, so the differences in the figures are attributable to the index rather than to timing.
Are dividends included?
Yes, through adjusted closing prices. QQQ pays a small dividend, so the effect is real but smaller than it is for a broad market fund.
Other backtests worked out
- Investing 500 dollars a month in VOO since 2015
- Investing 100 dollars a month in VOO since 2015
- Investing 1000 dollars a month in VOO since 2020
Run your own plan in the Dollar-Cost Averaging Calculator and Backtest