What is the difference between an average and a CAGR?
The average of the years and what the money actually did are two different numbers.
A year of plus 50 percent and a year of minus 50 percent make an average of zero. Out of 100 comes 150, and out of 150 comes 75: a quarter is gone.
The figure that fits is the compound annual growth rate, CAGR for short: the one rate which, repeated every year, lands on the same end value. It is never above the plain average, and the more a series swings, the further below it sits.
How to read this in the simulator
The list of historical averages in the calculator shows the CAGR. Next to each name it says which kind of index it is: a price index leaves dividends out, a total return index contains them.
What the figure does not say
A CAGR says nothing about the path. Two series with the same CAGR can have run completely differently, and the period it was taken from changes it a great deal.
Source: Annual values of the comparison series, as of 2025, retrieved 2026-10-05
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