DCA Lab
A recurring-buy simulator that reports the numbers a spreadsheet would: money-weighted return, drawdown of the position, and the volatility you had to sit through to get there. ZEC against the assets people actually compare it with.
| Asset | First buy | Invested | Units held | Value now | P&L | P&L % | XIRR | Max drawdown | Sharpe | Sortino |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ZEC Zcash | 2021-09-17 | $26,200 | 596.2 | $711,050 | $684,850 | +2613.9% | +166.7% | -66.2% | 0.58 | 1.09 |
| BTC Bitcoin | 2021-09-17 | $26,200 | 0.64232 | $51,321 | $25,121 | +95.9% | +27.8% | -42.0% | 0.43 | 0.65 |
| ETH Ether | 2021-09-17 | $26,200 | 12.436 | $36,311 | $10,111 | +38.6% | +13.3% | -57.9% | -0.02 | -0.03 |
| SOL Solana | 2021-09-17 | $26,200 | 543.2 | $89,748 | $63,548 | +242.5% | +52.6% | -66.9% | 0.21 | 0.30 |
| XRP XRP | 2021-09-17 | $26,200 | 37,485 | $93,491 | $67,291 | +256.8% | +54.4% | -52.2% | 0.66 | 0.98 |
| BNB BNB | 2021-09-17 | $26,200 | 71.412 | $66,135 | $39,935 | +152.4% | +38.8% | -52.8% | 0.58 | 0.85 |
| DOGE Dogecoin | 2021-09-17 | $26,200 | 279,116 | $46,350 | $20,150 | +76.9% | +23.5% | -76.8% | 0.08 | 0.11 |
| ADA Cardano | 2021-09-17 | $26,200 | 51,713 | $29,562 | $3,362 | +12.8% | +4.9% | -62.0% | -0.63 | -0.86 |
| TRX Tron | 2021-09-17 | $26,200 | 233,879 | $73,128 | $46,928 | +179.1% | +43.3% | -43.8% | 0.99 | 1.55 |
| LTC Litecoin | 2021-09-17 | $26,200 | 358.9 | $27,162 | $962.48 | +3.7% | +1.5% | -52.7% | -0.05 | -0.07 |
| XMR Monero | 2021-09-17 | $26,200 | 155.4 | $67,554 | $41,354 | +157.8% | +39.7% | -30.4% | 0.45 | 0.68 |
| DASH Dash | 2021-09-17 | $26,200 | 665.0 | $30,491 | $4,291 | +16.4% | +6.1% | -52.9% | -0.34 | -0.46 |
| NEAR NEAR | 2021-09-17 | $26,200 | 8,826.5 | $23,021 | $-3,179 | -12.1% | -5.2% | -73.4% | -0.15 | -0.20 |
| QQQ QQQ (total return) | 2021-09-17 | $26,200 | 63.678 | $41,601 | $15,401 | +58.8% | +18.9% | -22.8% | 0.81 | 1.21 |
| SPY SPY (total return) | 2021-09-17 | $26,200 | 52.320 | $37,249 | $11,049 | +42.2% | +14.3% | -16.2% | 0.93 | 1.39 |
| GOLD Gold (oz) | 2021-09-17 | $26,200 | 11.209 | $44,333 | $18,133 | +69.2% | +21.6% | -2.3% | 1.88 | 3.26 |
▍What the numbers mean
Read before comparing rows.
Dollar-cost averaging is a schedule, not a strategy: the same amount at fixed intervals regardless of price. The simulator buys at each scheduled close, accumulates units, and marks the position at every later close. Invested is cash paid in; value now is units × today's close.
Max drawdown is the worst fall of the position's value from its running high, so it includes the effect of new cash arriving — a position that is still being built drawdowns less than the asset itself.
Sharpe and Sortino are computed on the asset's own weekly log returns over the window, annualised by √52 with a zero risk-free rate. Sortino penalises only the negative weeks. They describe the asset, not your schedule.
P&L % is value ÷ invested − 1. It ignores when the money went in: a dollar invested five years ago and one invested last week count the same.
XIRR is the annual rate that discounts every purchase to exactly today's value — the money-weighted return. It is the honest comparison across assets with different start dates and across schedules of different length, and it is what the risk-versus-return scatter uses. We solve it by Newton iteration with a bisection fallback.
Between the two: a large P&L % over a short window means a very high XIRR; the same P&L % over ten years is unremarkable.
Prices are sampled on a weekly grid (every seventh daily close, ~520 points per asset) to keep the page light. Weekly, monthly and quarterly buys land on that grid exactly. Daily is approximated as seven days' worth of purchases at each weekly close — the units-held figure will differ slightly from a true daily schedule, in either direction.
QQQ and SPY are total-return style: dividends are treated as reinvested, which is the fair comparison for an asset that pays none. Gold is spot per ounce. Assets that listed after the start date begin buying at their first close; the dashed "total invested" line follows the full schedule.
ZEC and BTC come from the same daily rollup as every other page; the rest are approximate series through well-known reference prices. Related: price, cycle overlay, correlations.