9 August 1995: Netscape's IPO kicks off the dot-com era
Netscape, maker of the popular Navigator web browser, went public at $28 a share and more than doubled on its first day, even though it had never made a profit. Its debut convinced Wall Street that the internet was the next big thing and opened the floodgates for tech IPOs. Within a few years Microsoft's free browser had crushed Netscape, but the IPO frenzy it started ran until 2000.
The lesson: A brilliant IPO can launch an era, but a competitor with a free alternative can still win.
What it meant for investors
$1,000 in Nasdaq 100 index fund at the start of 1995 → $60,000 today, vs $14,783 in the S&P 500.
We start the clock at the start of 1995, the year it happened. That is 60.0 times the money, and $45,217 more than a plain index fund made over the same years.
What Nasdaq 100 index fund teaches: A great industry bought at a crazy price can take fifteen years to break even, so the price paid matters even when the story turns out right.
| Bought in | Price then | Worth today | S&P 500 would be |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | $400 | $60,000 | $14,783 |
| 2000 | $3,700 | $6,486 | $4,626 |
| 2003 | $1,000 | $24,000 | $7,727 |
green = beat the S&P 500 · red = lost money
What if you bought Nasdaq 100 index fund? Every starting year and the full story →
More Nasdaq 100 index fund history
- 8 February 1971: Nasdaq opens for business
- 10 March 2000: The Nasdaq peaks at 5,048
- 14 April 2000: The Nasdaq drops nearly 10% in a day
- 10 June 2020: The Nasdaq closes above 10,000
- 22 August 2013: Nasdaq freezes for three hours
- 31 December 1999: Nasdaq ends its best year ever
Could you have called it at the time? The wheel picks the year, you pick the position, ten seconds a pick.
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