The investment time machine to calculate historical returns
2 min read
eToro has launched a new service, the so-called Investment Time Machine.
This tool allows analyzing the performance over the past years of 35 very popular stocks, to find out how investments made at different times could have turned out.
Thanks to this Investment Time Machine, it is possible to get an idea of how much could have been earned by investing a certain amount of money in a particular stock, at a given time, reselling it after a set period of time.
By selecting a stock, and allocating a portion of the fictitious capital available to make the calculation, it is possible to go back in time to calculate the historical return on a hypothetical investment made on that stock, on that date, and with that capital.
The reference example could be that of Ronald Wayne who sold his 10% share of Apple for $800 in 1976. If Wayne had not sold his shares at that time, they would now be worth $200 billion.
The two other co-founders of the company, who bought Wayne’s shares for $800, ended up with a value of $177.8 million only 4 years later, at the time of the company’s IPO, with a return of 22.224%.
eToro’s Investment Time Machine
The market analyst of eToro in Italy, Edoardo Fusco Femiano, explains:
“The Investment Time Machine is not financial software, but something we have enjoyed developing to show how the value of a brand or company evolves over the years, analyzing a selection of 35 popular stocks and their performance from 1991 (if they were already listed) to the present day. Today access to the financial markets is easier than ever: we may not be able to identify the next Apple, but with a few moves it is possible to be successful. One of the basic rules to follow is certainly to focus on the companies one knows best from a financial and structural point of view and choose the ones expected to be successful in the long term”.
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