I'm trying to understand how to measure the growth of a particular stock index over a certain period of time, e.g. 5 years.
As far as I understand, for calculating the total growth, you need to do
((end - begin) / begin) * 100
Being end
and begin
the final and initial value (respectively) of the index in question, over the selected period of time (in this example 5 years from now)
According to google, comparing S&P 500 (USA)
, FTSE 100 (UK)
and DAX 30 (GER)
, from 5 years ago until now, I obtain:
FTSE 100: ((7344 - 6527) / 6527.0) * 100.0 = 12.51723609621572
DAX 30: ((12468 - 9490) / 9490.) * 100. = 31.38040042149631
S&P 500: ((2992 - 1982) / 1982.) * 100.0 = 50.95862764883956
This seems to be a nonsense. Are the above results correct?
If so, under which circumstances would it be better to invest in the DAX 30
or FTSE 100
, given that their growth is far less than the S&P 500
? (Even taking into account tax free bank accounts in your country + avoid fees in changing currencies)