How to read a comparison

Pick two tickers with the search boxes, or tap an example above. The chart overlays each one’s underwater curve — how far below its own previous peak it was on every trading day — and the table lines up the key numbers. Here is the default pair, computed from the same data the tool loads (through 2026-10-09):

Three things this example shows

• The worst fall isn’t always the same crash. QQQ’s deepest drawdown bottomed in 2002, SPY’s in 2009. Comparing the two max drawdowns compares two different events; the overlaid chart shows how each ticker did in the other’s crash.
• Depth and duration are separate questions. The “average daily drawdown” row is the mean distance below the running peak across every day of history: QQQ spent its history 32.4% below its high on average, SPY 9.0%. Long underwater stretches weigh on that number even after a recovery.
• Check the start dates. SPY’s data begins 1993-01-29, QQQ’s 1999-03-10. A ticker with a longer history has had more chances to post a bad number; when the starts differ, set the period control to a shared window. See comparing on a common window, and the full write-up in QQQ vs SPY drawdowns compared.

Controls and troubleshooting

• Drawdown / Growth — Growth switches the chart to the value of $10,000 invested in each ticker on the first day of the shown window that both have data (₩10,000,000 on the KRW basis). A deeper drawdown can still end with more money; the two views answer different questions.
• USD / KRW — the KRW basis converts prices with the daily USD/KRW rate and uses only dates where both price and exchange-rate data exist, so the window can start later than in USD. See the FX guide.
• A dash (—) in the table — that ticker’s data hasn’t loaded yet, or it has no exchange-rate coverage for the KRW basis.
• Sharing — the pair is kept in the URL (?t=QQQ,SPY); copy it to reopen the same comparison.

Informational only, not investment advice. Past drawdowns don’t predict future ones.