Buy and Hold Strategy for QQQ (Invesco QQQ Trust)

The strategy spanned a total of 9564 days, covering the full period from 1999-03-10 to 2025-05-16. This range represents all available trading data we could find — likely from the stock's initial listing date up to the most recent trading day.

Performance Overview

Starting with an initial capital of $10000, we purchased shares of QQQ on 1999-03-10, at a price of $43.28 per share (adjusted for splits and dividends). No trading, no tinkering — just a simple buy-and-hold approach.

We held the position continuously through every market twist and turn, never selling. As of 2025-05-16, the price of QQQ had risen to $521.51. While we didn't sell, we can still assess the performance by calculating the current value of the investment: $120488.82.

This translates into an annualized return of 9.97% over the entire period. This return is closely aligned with the long-term average annual return of the S&P 500 — a realistic and respectable outcome for a buy-and-hold strategy.

Drawdown and Risk

The maximum drawdown recorded during this period was 82.96%. This drawdown began after a peak price of $99.81 on 2000-03-27, and reached its lowest point on 2002-10-09 when the price fell to $17. The drawdown lasted for 926 days.

The drawdown was very large, indicating high sensitivity to adverse market conditions. Strategies with this profile may offer strong upside but require enduring deep declines. The maximum drawdown lasted over two years, reflecting a prolonged period of market weakness or asset-specific decline. Recovery from such drawdowns can be psychologically and financially difficult.

The return-to-risk ratio, known as the Calmar Ratio, is 0.12. This metric is calculated by dividing the annualized return by the maximum drawdown, both expressed as percentages. It helps assess how efficiently the strategy converted risk into reward.

The return-to-risk efficiency is weak — drawdowns were relatively large compared to the returns achieved.