Imagine putting the same KRW 100 million into each asset ten years ago. How much would it have grown? Follow cash, deposits, gold, Korean and US shares, ETFs and Bitcoin from September 22, 2016 to September 22, 2026.
- Starting investment
- 100,000,000 KRW
- Purchase → valuation date
- →
- Return basis
- KRW · no contributions
- Dividends
- Cash and reinvestment both excluded
The same KRW 100 million: the comparison
All amounts in KRW, before taxes and trading costs. Deposit: assumed 2.5% annual interest with reinvestment. Scroll horizontally on smaller screens.
| Asset | Initial investment | Value at cutoff | Cumulative return | CAGR Compound annual growth rate: the constant yearly rate that connects the starting and ending value. | MDD Maximum drawdown: the largest observed percentage fall from a previous high to a later low during this period. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cash | 100,000,000 KRW | 100,000,000 KRW | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| Deposit (assumed 2.5% p.a.) | 100,000,000 KRW | 128,008,454 KRW | 28.01% | 2.50% | 0.00% |
| Gold ETF (GLD) | 100,000,000 KRW | 385,579,211 KRW | 285.58% | 14.45% | -26.40% |
| Samsung Electronics | 100,000,000 KRW | 854,392,600 KRW | 754.39% | 23.93% | -45.16% |
| SK hynix | 100,000,000 KRW | 4,669,922,800 KRW | 4,569.92% | 46.88% | -54.71% |
| Apple | 100,000,000 KRW | 1,457,757,326 KRW | 1,357.76% | 30.73% | -38.73% |
| NVIDIA | 100,000,000 KRW | 17,311,235,946 KRW | 17,211.24% | 67.44% | -66.36% |
| S&P 500 ETF (SPY) | 100,000,000 KRW | 437,823,735 KRW | 337.82% | 15.91% | -34.10% |
| QQQ | 100,000,000 KRW | 771,682,837 KRW | 671.68% | 22.67% | -35.62% |
| Bitcoin | 100,000,000 KRW | 17,767,607,613 KRW | 17,667.61% | 67.88% | -83.40% |
MDD uses observed daily closes in each asset’s quote currency: KRW for Korean shares, USD for US assets and Bitcoin. Missing trading days are excluded. Cash and deposit use their assumed KRW balances.
How did each asset perform?
Cash
After ten years, KRW 100 million held as cash is still KRW 100 million. Meanwhile, we work, learn and become more capable. Money earning neither interest nor investment returns stays where it started. When prices rise, the same balance buys less.
That gap is my most basic reason for investing. Cash serves immediate expenses and an emergency reserve; money with a longer horizon deserves an opportunity to grow. Adding income from assets to income from our work changes how we build wealth.
Term deposit
A deposit adds interest to principal, and that interest earns more interest the following year. At an assumed 2.5% annual rate, KRW 100 million becomes about KRW 128 million. Even this modest growth puts it roughly KRW 28 million ahead of cash after ten years.
Deposits provide a useful starting point for money needed on a planned date. Beside stocks and ETFs, their result also shows how much growth rates can differ. I would use deposits to prepare for nearer expenses and invest money that can be given more time.
Gold
Gold holds value through ownership rather than through selling products or earning corporate profits. This comparison uses GLD, an ETF holding gold bullion. KRW 100 million invested in it grew to roughly KRW 386 million, a very different outcome from cash.
Comparing gold with shares reveals different ways to build assets. Whether to include gold depends on the assets already owned and the purpose of the portfolio. Understanding that role gives us a reason to choose an investment beyond simply following other buyers.
Samsung Electronics
KRW 100 million invested in Samsung became roughly KRW 854 million. In 2016, Samsung already combined smartphones and appliances with memory and displays. Galaxy S7 sales were part of that business. Buying its shares meant owning a stake in the company operating those businesses.
Working for a salary and owning a business are different ways to earn money. We can become shareholders without manufacturing products or selling them worldwide ourselves. That is part of the appeal of stocks to me: investing earnings from our work extends our opportunities beyond our own job.
SK hynix
KRW 100 million invested in SK hynix became roughly KRW 4.67 billion, a markedly different result from Samsung. Its core businesses are DRAM and NAND memory. In Q2 2016, higher shipments increased revenue, while lower selling prices reduced operating profit. Understanding a memory business means examining both volume and price.
These results make me look beyond an industry label when choosing a company. Businesses in the same industry have different operations and earnings structures. Learning how a company makes money is part of building assets. Owning shares gives us a personal reason to follow changes in companies and the economy.
Apple
KRW 100 million invested in Apple became roughly KRW 1.46 billion. In July 2016, Apple reported falling total revenue alongside 19% year-over-year growth in Services. Selling a device and earning from services used by its customers were different parts of the business worth examining together.
As consumers, we can go beyond liking a product to understanding how its maker serves customers and earns money. Shares connect a familiar business with our own assets. I believe combining product experience with a habit of studying companies helps us develop an eye for investments.
NVIDIA
KRW 100 million invested in NVIDIA became roughly KRW 17.31 billion. Signs of a market beyond gaming were visible in 2016. NVIDIA described Pascal GPUs and deep-learning demand in its results and introduced the Tesla P100 for data centers. Investors could already examine how the technology was finding wider uses.
What interests me is the act of studying that opportunity and owning a stake in the company. We can participate without developing the technology ourselves. NVIDIA also had an observed drawdown of about 66%. The ending value came after substantial falls, making research and a plan for holding through price swings part of the same investment decision.
S&P 500 ETF
KRW 100 million invested in SPY became roughly KRW 438 million. Tracking the S&P 500 meant owning many large US companies together. An ETF offers a way to hold their shares when evaluating each company separately feels difficult.
This result matters to me as a reason to begin investing. Finding the single best-performing stock is not a prerequisite for growing money. In this period, owning a broad group of companies produced a large difference from cash. Broad market participation is a useful place to begin learning.
QQQ
KRW 100 million invested in QQQ, which tracks the Nasdaq-100, became roughly KRW 772 million. QQQ and SPY both hold US companies, but their holdings and weights differ. QQQ ended roughly KRW 334 million ahead of SPY in this period. What a fund owns, and in what proportions, affects the result.
Choosing an ETF calls for looking beyond its name. Examining the holdings shows which businesses receive our money. Deciding between broad exposure and larger allocations to particular companies makes an investment approach more concrete. ETFs deserve study too.
QQQ ten-year return with reinvested dividends: results and the 2016 investment case
Bitcoin
KRW 100 million invested in Bitcoin became roughly KRW 17.77 billion. September 2016 followed the second halving, which reduced mining rewards from 25 to 12.5 BTC per block. Investors were examining its defined supply structure and the possibilities of a digital asset traded across borders. Its investment case differed from owning a business.
Bitcoin has both the highest ending value in this table and the largest observed drawdown, about 83%. Looking at the outcome alongside the experience of holding it helps explain its character. I see studying Bitcoin as part of understanding new assets. Before choosing an allocation, investors should be able to explain their reason for holding it and their plan for large price swings.
Why holding on for ten years was difficult
The table can make the task look simple: buy the highest-returning asset ten years ago and leave it alone. During those years, the final value was unknown. An investor might have wanted to take an early profit or questioned the reason for buying after a sharp fall. Bringing this comparison into a personal plan means examining those decisions alongside the ending amounts.
Gains can also make continued holding difficult
A strong advance can make a gain feel sufficient, while fear of losing it can prompt a partial or complete sale. Reaching the large ending values for NVIDIA and Apple required living through declines as well as rallies. Bitcoin likewise combined a high ending return with a large observed drawdown.
Selling leaves another decision about when to invest again. Waiting for a lower price can make returning difficult if prices continue to rise. Taking profits needs a reason; continuing to hold needs a basis for what an investor expects from the asset.
Different assets brought different reasons to stop waiting
Samsung Electronics and SK hynix involved waiting for memory demand and earnings to recover. Confidence in a large company and evidence from inventories, selling prices and product competitiveness provide different bases for holding. Other investment opportunities can make that wait feel longer.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 provide ownership of groups of businesses, which can still fall with the wider market. A large decline or a slow return to an account’s old value can unsettle the plan. Studying an ETF includes its holdings, weights and time to recovery after declines.
Gold required waiting without dividends or interest when prices were quiet, and could fall during a crisis it was bought for. Cash and deposits present another choice: how much opportunity to participate in asset growth should money receive while avoiding market-price declines? Every choice calls for revisiting its purpose.
Turn the comparison into a plan you can maintain
Someone investing money needed soon can experience the same decline differently from someone with money available for years. Allocation size also affects the holding decision. I believe this comparison should lead beyond finding the highest past return to choosing assets and allocations that an investor understands and can hold for a long time.
Study the businesses and ETF holdings that interest you, then vary the starting date in a backtest. Examine returns, drawdowns and recovery times before large falls as well as before rallies to consider how long you could wait. Try dividend reinvestment settings too, and decide whether to concentrate in one asset or own several around the uses of your money.
Comparison basis
The results use a single KRW 100 million investment held over the period above with no further contributions. Stock splits are included; dividends, taxes, trading and FX fees, and inflation are excluded. USD assets use 1103.3 KRW/USD at purchase and 1356.5 at valuation. Gold uses GLD; Bitcoin uses Yahoo Finance BTC-USD closes.
The deposit assumes ten annual renewals at 2.5%. Holdings use whole split-adjusted shares for Korean stocks and eight decimal places for US assets and Bitcoin, including leftover cash. Samsung also uses the split-adjusted quantity basis. Displayed amounts are rounded to whole KRW and returns to two decimal places.
Price data and references
Price data
| Asset | 2016-09-22 | 2026-09-22 | Currency |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gold ETF (GLD) | 127.57 | 400.07 | USD |
| Samsung Electronics | 32360 | 276500 | KRW |
| SK hynix | 39400 | 1840000 | KRW |
| Apple | 28.655 | 339.75 | USD |
| NVIDIA | 1.6255 | 228.87 | USD |
| S&P 500 ETF (SPY) | 217.179993 | 773.38 | USD |
| QQQ | 119.09 | 747.46 | USD |
| Bitcoin | 596.3 | 86172.28 | USD |
Prices and FX use stored daily observations. Verification covers the five US ending closes against Nasdaq tables. KRX, Bank of Korea and full-period trading-day reconciliation remain pending. Issuer references describe fund structure.
- Nasdaq: AAPL · NVDA · SPY · QQQ · GLD · 2026-09-22
- State Street SPY · Invesco QQQ · State Street GLD
- Apple IR · NVIDIA stock splits
- Yahoo Finance BTC-USD historical daily prices
- CoinDesk: traders watch the 2016 halving (July 8)
- CoinDesk: State of Bitcoin and Blockchain 2016
- Bitfinex: security breach notice (August 2, 2016)
The business descriptions draw on these company releases published before the purchase date.
Frequently asked questions
Why include deposit interest but exclude stock dividends?
The deposit adds an assumed 2.5% annual interest rate to principal each year. Stocks and ETFs compare price growth excluding dividends. To include dividend income, choose a dividend setting in the investment backtest.
Does a high CAGR mean the asset rose by that amount every year?
CAGR is the compound annual rate connecting the starting and ending values. A 10% CAGR means that steady growth of 10% a year would reach the same ending value. Actual prices rise and fall; MDD helps describe the larger declines along the way.
Let money grow alongside us
The same starting sum led to very different outcomes. Cash stayed still; interest and ownership of assets gave money ways to grow. Investing connects what we earn today with opportunities beyond the hours we can work ourselves.
I believe we should invest so that our money can grow alongside us. As we develop our abilities, we can also learn about the businesses and assets we own. Studying businesses and ETF holdings, starting with an amount and allocation we can sustain, and making investing a habit puts that belief into practice. Examining declines and recovery in a backtest helps turn it into a plan for the years ahead.
Explore your own investment period
Choose the stocks and ETFs that interest you, then vary the starting date, budget and dividend settings. Examine periods of strong returns and large declines together when deciding what to own and how much to allocate.
Open investment backtestThis article presents the author’s opinion and historical results for selected assets. Investment outcomes depend on the asset and period; investors bear losses as well as gains.