20-Year Backtest: Buy and Hold DIS (The Walt Disney Company)

This analysis evaluates a buy-and-hold strategy over the past 20 years, providing a historical perspective on DIS's performance from 2005-07-05 to 2025-07-03.

Note: This simulation uses adjusted close prices, meaning all historical prices have been retroactively adjusted for splits and dividends. To achieve similar results in practice, you would need to reinvest all dividends automatically as they are paid.

Performance Overview

Starting with an initial capital of $10,000.00, we purchased shares of DIS on 2005-07-05, at a price of $20.00 per share (adjusted for splits and dividends). No trading, no adjustments — just a simple buy-and-hold approach.

We held the position continuously through every market twist and turn, never selling. As of 2025-07-03, the price of DIS had risen to $124.00. While we didn't sell, we can still assess the performance by calculating the current value of the investment: $62,008.71 — a total gain of 520.09%.

This translates into an annualized return of 9.56% over the entire period. This return is closely aligned with the typical long-term growth rates of diversified equity investments — a realistic and respectable outcome for a passive strategy.

Drawdown and Risk

The maximum drawdown recorded during this period was 60.72%. This drawdown began after a peak price of $198.60 on 2021-03-08, and reached its lowest point on 2023-10-04 when the price fell to $78.02. The drawdown lasted for 940 days.

The drawdown was substantial, though not uncommon for long-term equity strategies that span full market cycles. This level suggests exposure to significant corrections or crashes. 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 Calmar Ratio — annualized return divided by maximum drawdown — was 0.16, reflecting the tradeoff between return and volatility.

The Calmar Ratio is on the lower side of what's commonly seen in broad-market strategies over extended periods.