Total inflation-adjusted returns are what everyone should be looking at when considering investments.
Yet it seems so awfully hard to find that data on stockbrokers sites/apps.
Why?
Yet it seems so awfully hard to find that data on stockbrokers sites/apps.
Why?
If you want to roll your own, you can use free data from Yahoo and FRED and get there pretty quick.
You should also consider tax implications. For example, trading equities short-term is awful and PL taxed at income rate. Compare that to buying real estate which has a 101 ways to avoid paying taxes.
I think part of the answer is that: (1) it's very hard to explain what that means to most people ("WTF, why are the historical prices on this chart changing?") beyond simple 2:1 splits, and (2) it's hard to get everyone to agree on what inflation metric to trust/use.