The market, by the numbers
Statistics
Ninety-eight years of S&P 500 history and fourteen years of tech IPOs, drawn so you can see the ups, the falls and the climbs back.
SPY and the S&P 500 since 1928
What has a dollar in the US market done over a lifetime?
SPY, month-end price adjusted for dividends
Technical
SPY, with dividends reinvested, grew 31.4 times from Jan 1993 to Oct 2026, a compound +10.8% a year, through 4 bear markets. The S&P 500 index itself, without dividends, is up about 429 times since 1928.
Plain English
Every shaded fall looked like the end at the time. On a long enough chart, each one is a dip on the way up, but the waits to get back were sometimes years long.
Source: S&P 500 index month-end closes (price only) and SPY month-end prices adjusted for dividends: Yahoo Finance. Data to 30 Oct 2026. Refreshed each weekday after the US and SGX closes.
SPY is the SPDR S&P 500 ETF, which tracks the index; it launched in January 1993. The index line leaves out dividends, which have added roughly 2 to 4 points a year over the long run. Past returns don't predict future returns.
Past returns don't predict future returns. Figures are for US markets; a Singapore investor also carries the US dollar's moves against the Singapore dollar. For education only. Not financial advice.