S&P 500 History and Past Performance

The S&P 500 history is something all investors can be interested in, especially when it comes to the S&P 500 historical returns and prices. So here is a S&P 500 performance chart taken throughout its entire history.

The index was created in 1957 in order to track the top 500 companies in the US, but it has been extrapolated backwards to see how it would have reacted in the past. Also note not all companies in the Index are American Based.

Today it is one of the most watched indexes in the US along with the Dow Jones and the NASDAQ.

Effect on the Investment World

The S&P is considered to be the “thing to beat” by most mutual funds. The average return of the S&P is 10% a year; this means that most funds are trying to beat 10% a year on average.

Other investors rather then attempting to beat the market will simply buy the ETF that tracks this index (SPY) and benfit from the steady long term return it offers.

Return From S&P 500 History and Past Performance to Stock Market Indexes History