Loading rates…
Ctrl Alt Decidectrlaltdecide.com
Pick two countries and when you started. This replays each market's real share prices and exchange rates from then to the latest month, in your own currency.
Loading rates…
Ctrl Alt Decidectrlaltdecide.com
The same money goes into both markets, on the same days.
| US | China |
|---|
This calculator puts the same money into two countries' stock markets and follows both to the latest month. Pick where your money is (pounds or dollars), the two markets, and the year you started, any January from 2000 to 2025. Both get the same starting sum and the same amount at the end of each month, so the only difference is where the money went.
Each market's line uses its real share prices month by month, converted into your currency at each month's exchange rate. So a market can rise in its own currency and still lose you money if its currency fell against yours, and the table splits the two apart.
Only share prices count: dividends aren't included, for any market. That understates every market, and more so the ones that pay out more of their profits as dividends (the UK pays more than the US, for example). There are no fund fees or taxes.
These use the calculator's starting figures (the US against China, from January 2015) for money in pounds and in dollars, and are refreshed when the data updates.
Had you invested £10,000 and then £200 a month from January 2015 in Chinese shares instead of US shares, by Aug 2026 you'd have £61,046 less: £45,356 in China, against £106,402 in the US.
Had you invested $10,000 and then $300 a month from January 2015 in Chinese shares instead of US shares, by Aug 2026 you'd have $73,311 less: $62,134 in China, against $135,445 in the US.
For a lump sum put in any January from 2000 to 2024 and held to August 2026, US shares finished ahead of Chinese shares, in dollars and in pounds, without dividends. Chinese shares had two great runs, to October 2007 and to June 2015, and each ended in a crash; pick 2006 or 2014 above to see them. From January 2025, China was slightly ahead.
Choose the US and the UK above. The US line is the S&P 500; the UK line is the OECD's index of UK share prices, a broad measure rather than the FTSE 100 itself. Neither includes dividends, which matters more for the UK, where companies pay out more of their profits.
Of the eleven markets here, India, Brazil and South Korea grew the most in their own currencies from January 2000 to August 2026. Measured in dollars, falls in the rupee and the real took away much of India's and Brazil's gains; pick them above and the table shows how much.
No. Every line is share prices only, so real returns were higher everywhere, and by more in markets that pay bigger dividends. For the S&P 500 with dividends reinvested against cash, try the savings vs investing calculator.
If you hold pounds or dollars, a foreign market's gains reach you only after converting back. A market that doubles while its currency halves against yours leaves you where you started. The table shows each market's share prices in its own currency and how its currency moved against yours.