The
S&P 500 have returned about 10% a year for a century. Those returns mean $3,000 invested at the end of 1920 would be worth roughly $41 million today.
Barron’s took a look at the numbers because we are turning 100. It was partly an exercise in nostalgia, but also a fascinating walk through the tangle of mergers that is American corporate history. More important, looking at the market over a long span offers lessons about how to put money to work.
Like investing itself, digging into century-old data isn’t simple. We tried to calculate 100-year returns for the indexes, as well as for some prominent companies that have been traded continuously for a century.