History Says Buying the Nasdaq-100 at the Dot-Com Peak Still (Eventually) Turned $10,000 Into About $72,000
The $72,000 ending is the easy part. Collecting it involved an 83% loss and a 15-year wait just to get back to even.
Overview
On March 27, 2000, the Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ:QQQ) closed at $117.75. That was the top. The Nasdaq-100 index the fund tracks peaked that day, and the fund didn't close above that price again for more than 16 years.
And yet the worst-timed purchase in the fund's 27-year history still worked out fine. A $10,000 investment at that closing peak, with dividends reinvested, is worth about $72,000 today (about 7.2 times the original stake).
Details
That's the comforting half of the story, and I think it's the half that is remembered. The other half is what it cost to collect. With the fund again trading close to its highs as of this writing, that cost is worth understanding in full.
Source
Originally published at www.fool.com.