DCA Method Research Team

Every calculator, data page and article on DCA Method is published under one name: the DCA Method Research Team. This page explains how that work is produced, which data it relies on, and what we do and don't assume.

Who we are

The DCA Method Research Team is the editorial byline of dcamethod.com. We build the site's dollar-cost-averaging calculators, maintain the historical price datasets behind them, and write the guides and research studies that explain the results.

We publish as a team rather than as individuals because the work is a shared process: the same datasets and the same calculation code are used for every page, and the methodology is documented publicly so anyone can check it.

How content and calculations are produced

• One calculation engine — Every backtest runs the same code: a fixed amount is invested on a fixed schedule, each buy uses that day's closing price, and the result is compared with the total amount invested. The calculators run this in your browser, so changing an input recalculates instantly.
• Stored historical data — Backtests read daily price files that are stored with the site and served from /data/historical — not live, unverified feeds. The same files power the calculators, the per-asset /dca pages, the comparison pages and the research studies.
• Articles built on the same numbers — Figures quoted in our guides and studies come from these datasets and calculators. Research pages such as the S&P 500 DCA study are generated by scripts from the same historical files and rebuilt when the data is refreshed.

Data sources

• Historical prices — Yahoo Finance — Daily price history for 168 cryptocurrencies, 602 stocks and ETFs, and 15 commodities is fetched from Yahoo Finance's public chart data. Stocks and ETFs use split- and dividend-adjusted closes; crypto uses the USD daily close; commodities use the continuous front-month futures contract. Stooq is used as a fallback source when Yahoo has no data for a symbol.
• Live prices — CoinLore and Yahoo Finance — The current price shown on calculator pages comes from CoinLore (crypto) and Yahoo Finance (stocks, ETFs and commodities), cached for a few minutes. If a provider fails, the page shows the latest stored close instead. Live prices are only used for the current-price display and as the starting point of forecasts — never inside a historical backtest.

Update frequency

Historical prices are refreshed automatically every day at 05:23 UTC. The refresh validates each file before saving it: series with impossible values, too few trading days or erratic jumps against the previous version are rejected and the previous file is kept, and the whole run fails if more than 20% of assets can't be fetched.

Updated data is deployed to the site automatically, so the per-asset and comparison pages reflect the latest close by the next morning (UTC). Articles show their publication date and, when revised, the date of the last update.

Backtest assumptions

These assumptions are taken directly from the calculation code. They make results comparable and reproducible, but real-world returns will differ.

• Schedule — The first purchase happens on the start date you choose; later purchases follow every day, week, two weeks or calendar month. The same amount is invested every time.
• Price used — Each purchase uses the daily close of the scheduled date. If the market was closed that day (weekends, holidays), the next available close is used.
• No costs — No trading fees, spreads, slippage or taxes are deducted, and amounts are in nominal US dollars (not adjusted for inflation or currency conversion).
• Fractional units — Each buy acquires amount ÷ price units, including fractions of a share or coin.
• No selling, no rebalancing — Holdings are never sold during a backtest. The final value is units held × the last close on or before the end date. The portfolio builder splits each purchase by fixed target weights and never rebalances.
• Dividends — Stock and ETF results include dividends implicitly, through adjusted-close prices (as if they were reinvested). Crypto and commodity results are price-only; futures roll and storage costs are not modelled.
• Annualised return — The annualised figure (CAGR) compares the final value with the total amount invested over the whole period. Because later contributions were invested for less time, this is a conservative simplification, not a money-weighted return (IRR).
• Forecasts — Forward projections apply one constant growth rate (from a target price, a chosen rate or the asset's historical CAGR). They cannot model volatility, drawdowns or regime changes.

Affiliate disclosure

DCA Method is free and has no paywall or account. To fund it, some pages show referral links and codes for exchanges where a DCA plan can be carried out: Kraken, OKX, Backpack, Bybit, Hyperliquid, and Ondo Perps. If you sign up through one of these links, you may get a fee discount or bonus and DCA Method may receive a commission, at no extra cost to you.

Referral offers appear in clearly marked boxes, separate from the calculators and analysis. Partners do not pay for coverage, do not review or approve content, and have no influence on any calculation — the numbers are the same whether or not you use a referral link.

Contact

Questions, data issues or corrections: email us at dcamethod@pm.me

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• About DCA Method