Home › Explore Investing Strategies › Questions and answers
Common investing questions, answered with numbers calculated from actual prices. Recomputed every month.
Calculated from actual daily prices of US ETFs (QQQ, SPY, QLD, TQQQ, SCHD, QYLD, JEPQ). Monthly investing questions put in $500 a month; system trading questions put in $10,000 once at the start. Every question charges 0.15% on each buy or sell, and dividends are reinvested except on the one question that compares spending them.
| Question | Result in brief |
|---|---|
| What would investing in QQQ (Nasdaq-100) every month have returned? | 10-year monthly investing returned 20.9% a year; −5.4% to 24.1% depending on the start |
| S&P 500 (SPY): which ended higher, investing monthly or all at once? | All at once ended higher in 90% of 275 ten-year windows |
| QQQ vs. SPY: how different were the results of investing monthly over the same period? | QQQ ended higher in all 211 ten-year windows |
| Question | Result in brief |
|---|---|
| How did investing in TQQQ every month compare with QQQ and QLD? | 15-year monthly investing, annual return: TQQQ 41.4%, QLD 32.7%, QQQ 20.0% |
| QLD (2x Nasdaq-100): which ended higher, investing monthly or all at once? | QLD: all at once ended higher in 97% of 124 ten-year windows |
| TQQQ basket method: what do the backtest results show? | 240 slots at $500 each: $36,826 put in, $2,922,504 at the end |
| TQQQ and QLD cross-rebalancing: how does it compare with simply holding? | 15 years: 26.4% a year, max drawdown −46.7% |
| Leveraged ETF monthly investing: how much does the start date matter? | TQQQ 5-year monthly investing: −8.1% to 76.2% a year (140 runs) |
| Question | Result in brief |
|---|---|
| Does selling below the 200-day moving average reduce drawdowns in monthly investing? | QQQ 20 years: max drawdown −53.5% vs. −25.1%; plain monthly investing ended higher in all 6 cases |
| How much less does a 70% stock, 30% cash mix fall than 100% stocks? | SPY 20 years, 70/30: max drawdown −55.3% vs. −42.4% |
| Question | Result in brief |
|---|---|
| Grid trading on QQQ and TQQQ: did it beat simply holding? | QQQ over 10 years: grid 2.7% a year, buy and hold 20.9% |
| Grid trading with lines 3%, 5% or 10% apart: which spacing did best? | QQQ full period, annual return: 1.9% at 3% spacing, 2.2% at 5%, 2.5% at 10% |
| Larry Williams volatility breakout on QQQ: did it beat simply holding? | QQQ k 0.5: −17.3% a year at 0.15% cost, 13.2% at no cost, buy and hold 8.6% |
| Buying the golden cross (50-day above 200-day) and selling the death cross: did it beat holding? | QQQ since 2000: golden cross 11.2% a year, buy and hold 8.6% |
| Turtle trading breakout rules (20-day, 55-day): do they still work on ETFs? | QQQ since 2000: Turtle System 2 2.6% a year, buy and hold 8.6% |
| Question | Result in brief |
|---|---|
| SCHD (dividend growth ETF) vs. SPY and QQQ: how did monthly investing compare? | 10-year monthly investing: SCHD 12.3%, SPY 15.7%, QQQ 20.9% a year |
| Covered call ETFs (QYLD, JEPQ) pay large distributions. Did they beat QQQ? | Since Jan 2014: QYLD 8.9% a year vs. QQQ 19.2%, distributions reinvested |
| How much more do reinvested dividends add than spending them? | SPY over 20 years: reinvested $566,043 vs. spent $491,806 (balance plus dividends) |
The start date. Even the same 10-year QQQ plan returned anywhere from −5.4% to 24.1% a year depending on when it started.
No. They are calculations of rules on past prices. They do not recommend any product or timing.
Enter a ticker and conditions to calculate the same way.
These results are calculated from past prices. They do not guarantee future returns and do not recommend any product.
