What if you bought Athens Exchange in 2000?
Countries · Greece. The hindsight answer, year by year, against the only benchmark that matters.
Could you have picked it? Play0.4× · S&P 500 same money: $4,626
$1,000 in Athens Exchange at the start of 2000 would be worth about $364 today. A plain S&P 500 index fund over the same years would have made more — the boring option won.
The story
The Athens General Index covers stocks on the Athens Exchange, a small market that has packed in more drama than most. In 1999 it soared on euro-entry euphoria and a retail frenzy, then crashed so hard that the start of 2000 was already well past the peak. A recovery in the run-up to the 2004 Olympics and the global boom took it back up by 2007.
Then came the Greek debt crisis. After the government revealed in 2009 that its deficit was far larger than reported, Greece needed bailouts, imposed severe austerity and in 2012 forced private bondholders to take large losses. Greek banks were recapitalised repeatedly, wiping out much of their shareholders' value. In 2015 the exchange was closed for about five weeks as capital controls were introduced. By 2012 the index had lost roughly nine-tenths of its 2007 value. A recovery followed in the 2020s, with Greece regaining an investment-grade credit rating in 2023, but the index remained far below its old highs.
The lesson: A diversified-looking national index can still lose almost everything when its banking system and government fail together, which is why country risk deserves respect.
$1,000 invested at the start of each year
| Bought in | Price then | Worth today | S&P 500 would be | Multiple |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | $5,500 | $364 | $4,626 | 0.4× |
| 2003 | $1,750 | $1,143 | $7,727 | 1.1× |
| 2005 | $2,800 | $714 | $5,763 | 0.7× |
| 2007 | $4,400 | $455 | $4,789 | 0.5× |
| 2008 | $5,100 | $392 | $4,626 | 0.4× |
| 2010 | $2,200 | $909 | $6,071 | 0.9× |
| 2012 | $650 | $3,077 | $5,312 | 3.1× |
| 2015 | $850 | $2,353 | $3,301 | 2.4× |
| 2018 | $800 | $2,500 | $2,519 | 2.5× |
| 2020 | $920 | $2,174 | $2,092 | 2.2× |
green = beat the S&P 500 · red = lost money
Best entry point in our set: 2012, turning $1,000 into $3,077. The S&P 500 from that same year: $5,312.
Now try it without hindsight. The wheel decides the year and the asset class, you pick the position, ten seconds a pick, and we simulate to today. Athens Exchange is one of 258 positions on the wheel — including the ones that went to zero.
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