What holders of Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF (BND) have given up compared with other places the same money could have been, counted in real time. Every return here is a total return, with distributions and dividends reinvested, not just the change in share price.
All returns are after fees.
* VOO launched on Sept 7, 2010. S&P 500 figures that reach back before October 2010 use SPY, which tracks the same index, for June 2007 to September 2010.
* VXUS launched in January 2011. International figures that reach back before February 2011 use VGTSX, Vanguard’s mutual fund that holds the same stocks, for June 2007 to January 2011.
Every month in the period you pick, the clock compares what its holders' money earned, distributions included, with what the same dollars would have earned in the alternative, and adds up the difference. Select any number to see the math.
Opportunity cost to all BND holders, same method, counting only the months in each window.
A single $10,000 investment at the start of each window, distributions reinvested.
| Invested at the start of | Now in BND | Now in VTI | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 2007 (first month-end) | — | — | — |
| 10 years ago | — | — | — |
| The peak | — | — | — |
| 5 years ago | — | — | — |
| 12 months ago | — | — | — |
| This January | — | — | — |
Step through BND's history. Each year shows the clock as it stood on December 31.
| Year | BND return | VTI return | BND net assets | Cost that year | Cost since 2007 |
|---|
Enter your own BND purchase to watch your personal opportunity cost tick.
Showing an example: $10,000 put into BND at the start of January 2021. Enter your own figures above.
A fund’s share price leaves out the income it pays out. Every return on this page is a total return: distributions and dividends reinvested for BND, VTI, VOO, VXUS and Nvidia, and interest for TIPS and T-bills.
All returns are after each fund’s yearly fee (its expense ratio), so fees are counted once, inside the returns.
Everything starts from monthly total returns since BND's first full month, June 2007: market prices with every distribution reinvested for BND, VTI, VOO, VXUS and Nvidia (NVDA), 3-month Treasury bills with no fees, and the consumer price index for inflation.
BND's net assets come from Vanguard's annual reports for each December since 2007 and from Vanguard's fund page, filled in month by month from shares outstanding and the market price.
For each month: dollars at work × (the alternative's return − BND's return). The clock adds up those monthly differences without compounding them, so it counts what was missed each month, not what the missed gains might have earned later.
The data refreshes automatically each weekday evening after the market closes. Between refreshes the counters move at a steady pace, the way a debt clock runs between Treasury reports.
Hindsight comparisons ignore risk. US stocks fell 37% in 2008 while BND gained 6.9%, and people hold bonds for stability, income and diversification, not to beat stocks. Taxes, trading costs and personal timing also differ. This page is information, not investment advice.