Apple (AAPL) DCA Calculator
What a fixed monthly buy of Apple actually did — computed from real daily closes (Dec 1980 → Jul 2026), not projections. Run your own amount and schedule below.
What $100 a month actually built
The last 10 years of a $100 monthly plan in AAPL, month by month: the flat line is cash paid in ($12,100 total), the accent line is what the position was worth along the way — ending at $53,762. Every point is computed from that day's real close.
Timing luck, quantified
Same plan, different start month. Each bar below is one possible 5-year monthly DCA window in AAPL's history, sorted from worst to best — the honest spread between unlucky and lucky timing, and the case for starting on a schedule instead of waiting:
488 possible 5-year start months — 85% ended positive.
Why dollar-cost average into Apple?
Forty-five years of daily closes make Apple this site's best exhibit on why single-stock DCA is a different sport. The ending is famous; the middle is not: from the mid-1980s to 1997 the stock went sideways-to-down for over a decade and the company came within weeks of bankruptcy. A monthly plan through that stretch felt like burning money — and those buys are precisely what the iPhone era later repriced.
The uncomfortable lesson is survivorship. Apple is the one that lived; the era's other beloved computer makers went to zero, and no schedule rescues a stock that dies. DCA narrows entry-timing risk — it does nothing to company risk, which is the argument for pairing a position like this with an index core.
FAQ
History, not opinion: $100 every month into AAPL for the last 10 years (121 buys, $12,100 invested) would be worth $53,762 today — +344% before fees and taxes. Past performance doesn't predict the future, but that's what the plan actually produced.
The worst 5-year monthly-DCA start in AAPL's history began Jul 1992 and finished at -57%. The best (Nov 2002) finished at +822%. DCA doesn't delete timing luck — it narrows it and removes the decision.
A lump sum bets everything on one entry price. Monthly DCA spreads your cost across AAPL's ups and downs — you buy more units when it's cheap, fewer when it's expensive. Compare both directly in our lump sum vs DCA calculator.
Real AAPL daily closing prices from Dec 1980 to Jul 2026 (45.6 years), refreshed weekly and validated for gaps, zeros and staleness — see the data & methodology page. Fees, spreads and taxes are not modelled.
Run the plan on a real exchange
Five exchanges where DCA — and tokenized stocks & ETFs — actually work, each with a real discount. Pick one, copy the code, trade cheaper.
Referral links support the site and never affect the math. Availability varies by country — check your local regulations.