Search a ticker to simulate a range for the year ahead.

The S&P 500, one year simulated

Last close$762.59

Actual price90% of runs50% of runs50th percentile run
Run drawn
History

Price a year out

The chance of a loss over the year is 28%.

Point at the curve for the odds at any price.

Today $763Median $819Mean $824Below today 28%Above today 72%

Where the 2,000 simulated years finished.

How this is made

Where the centre comes from

The middle of the band is the return CAPM expects. CAPM starts from the risk-free rate — what a Treasury bond pays — and adds a premium for taking on stock-market risk. How much premium depends on beta, a number for how strongly the asset has moved with the market. A beta of 1 moves with the market and is expected to earn the market premium; a beta of 2 moves twice as hard and is expected to earn twice the premium. In short, expected return = risk-free rate + beta × market premium.

How the paths are drawn

Each path is one possible year, drawn many times over. It starts at today’s price and drifts at the CAPM return above, while its day-to-day swings are as large as this asset’s own swings over the past few years — its historical volatility. Repeating that thousands of times gives thousands of different years. The band is the range most of them passed through, and the bell curve is how they were spread out at year end.

Latest News