Stock & ETF DCA Calculator
Backtest historical returns or forecast future performance of dollar cost averaging into stocks and ETFs.
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Compound average cost basis
Each scheduled buy converts a fixed dollar amount into shares at that day's adjusted close. Total dollars divided by total shares is your dollar-weighted average — mathematically lower than a simple average of prices when the asset has volatility.
- 01Each scheduled buy executes at the next available daily closing price. Weekends and US market holidays roll forward to the next trading day.
- 02Prices are split- and dividend-adjusted (Yahoo Finance adjusted close). Dividends are implicitly reinvested at the same close.
- 03No brokerage commissions or bid-ask spread. Most US brokers charge zero commission on ETFs and stocks today.
- 04Fractional shares are allowed. If your broker doesn't support fractional shares, real-world results will round down each buy.
- 05Taxes are not modelled. In a taxable account, dividends and any realized gains create a tax bill that real results would have to absorb.
- 01Adjusted-close prices already include dividend reinvestment, so the headline return is total return, not price return. If you want price-only returns, you need a different data source.
- 02Survivorship bias: the supported tickers are companies that survived. Single-stock DCA into companies that went bankrupt is not represented.
- 03Forecast mode assumes a constant annual growth rate. Real markets have draws, gaps, and regime changes — your actual experience will be lumpier.
- 04Currency: all prices are USD. Investors using non-USD home currencies are exposed to FX as well as asset risk.
What is dollar cost averaging in stocks?
Dollar cost averaging in stocks is the practice of investing the same dollar amount into a stock or ETF on a fixed schedule — for example, $500 into SPY on the first of every month. The amount stays fixed while the number of shares purchased flexes with the price.
Does DCA work better with index ETFs or single stocks?
Index ETFs like SPY and QQQ have lower idiosyncratic risk than single stocks because they hold many companies. DCA into an index captures the broad market's long-run drift. DCA into a single stock magnifies both the upside and the risk that the company underperforms or goes to zero.
Should I DCA weekly or monthly into stocks?
Over windows of 10+ years, the difference between weekly and monthly DCA returns on the same broad index is usually well under 1 percentage point. Monthly is simpler to automate via paycheck deduction; weekly captures more dips. Pick what you'll actually keep doing.
Are the backtest returns net of fees and taxes?
No. The backtest assumes zero commissions and ignores taxes. Most US brokers charge zero commission on stocks and ETFs today, so the fee gap is small. The tax gap depends on your account type — none in an IRA/401(k), real in a taxable account.
Why does NVDA show such a high CAGR?
Because the backtest covers a window that included NVIDIA's data-centre and AI growth phase. Single-stock backtests selected after the fact will always favour the winners. The same exercise on a stock that quietly underperformed (or was delisted) would look very different.