Ticker time machine
Use this tool to understand how much past investments would be worth today based on historical growth rates.
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Have you ever wondered: how much would I have made if I’d invested in Microsoft a decade ago? Or maybe: what if I’d invested in Apple or Amazon back in the early 2000s?
Use our smart Ticker Time Machine backtesting calculator to model what might have happened with different investments over your chosen time periods, mapping out market movement for up to the past 20 years. While we can’t actually turn back time so you can pick up those Tesla stocks at the perfect moment, it can still be fun to figure out how that investment might have panned out if you did.
Backtesting calculator - a quick introduction
Our Ticker Time Machine is a backtesting calculator which allows you to model past investment scenarios based on historical data.
Smart investing is what we’re about at Lightyear - and the Ticker Time Machine is powered by the same stock market data which you’ll find when you invest through the Lightyear platform. Simply pick any stock or fund that is tradeable on Lightyear, and enter an initial investment amount and time horizon. You can model a single one off investment or monthly investments, over a time period from 1 year to 20 years.
The Ticker Time Machine crunches all the numbers, to show you what your past investment may have become today, including the percentage performance and the total profit you would have generated. Play around with different past investment options, to answer all of those what ifs?
How to use the Ticker Time Machine: step by step
Let’s look at how to use the Ticker Time Machine in more detail.
- Pick the stock or fund you want to model - you can enter the full name or the ticker
- Enter the initial investment amount and any monthly contribution
- Use the ‘years’ slider to ‘travel in time’, modelling a purchase date up to a maximum of 20 years ago
The calculator will generate results based on the parameters you’ve set, covering:
- Total value of the asset today, based on the historic purchase date selected
- Total amount invested, including any ongoing payments
- Asset performance as a % over the time period
- Total profit at the end of the period
You can pull up results looking back up to 20 years, or however old the instrument is, if it’s less than 20. The calculator will assume that any dividends paid during this time period were reinvested into the same asset, and that any monthly purchases were made at the closing price of the first trading day of each month.
How much could I have made?
Our Ticker Time Machine lets you find out how much you would have made if you had bought Tesla stock in 2008, had invested in Apple 20 years back, or put some of your savings into an S&P 500 ETF. In fact, you can carry out this ‘what if’ exercise using any instrument that’s tradable on Lightyear. Just use the search field above to find it.
Of course you can’t actually turn back time, but it’s an interesting thought experiment. Play with our Ticker Time Machine to test out different scenarios based on companies which interest you, to see what returns you might have generated with either a single stock purchase or regular investments over time.
- Model the outcome for assets you considered buying in the past
- Look at what difference making regular payments makes to asset value
- Check out how different investment time horizons shapes value
- See how much you end up with, when dividends are reinvested in an asset over time
Curious about what you might now be sat on if you’d put money into Tesla or Apple? Investing $5,000 in Tesla in 2008 would mean you have over $683,000 at the time of research, while putting that $5,000 into Apple in 2004 could have generated an astonishing return of over $6.8 million in profit.
The value of investments can go down as well as up and past performance is not an indicator of future returns. This calculator is for information only, and should not be taken as investment advice.
Testing the time machine: historic investing calculator examples
Let’s look at a few examples. If you had bought Google stock back in 2004, and allowed dividends to reinvest, you could be looking at a 492% growth. That’s pretty stellar - and it means that an investment of $5,000 20 years ago would now be worth close to $30,000, with no additional capital added.
If you’d bought Microsoft stock in 2014 you could be looking at an even better result now. In that case, your $5,000 initial outlay could have become over $56,000, leaving you with a clear profit of over $50,000.
Bear in mind these are exceptional examples. But even so, it’s a good demonstration of how some lucky and well-informed buys can bring impressive returns when left over a medium to long term time horizon.
*All asset values correct at time of writing - 14th October 2024.
Investment time horizons - making the most of your money
The Ticker Time Machine can not literally turn back the clock, but it does show the power of regular saving and compound interest, and the importance of having a longer-term time horizon for investments. By modelling different scenarios, including making one single upfront investment or investing monthly for a longer period, you can see what difference your contributions might have made to your end position.
While there’s no perfect investing strategy, using a low cost investment platform like Lightyear, and building out a diverse and well balanced portfolio of assets is a popular choice for both new and seasoned investors. By keeping down the overall costs of buying and managing assets you could benefit from compounding effects, particularly when you have assets which you’re able to hold for an extended period of time.
Naturally, the value of investments can go down as well as up, and past performance is not an indicator of future returns - but the Ticker Time Machine can be a fun way to answer all your investment what ifs.