One decade of S&P 500 daily returns compounded at eight fixed bet sizes: ending wealth and worst drawdown
Answered against 22 years of US equities and 12 years of US options data and published with the query that produced it. This result is stored as of 2026-07-31, from Kelly Criterion Position Sizing, Measured.
| bet_size | ending_multiple | max_drawdown_pct |
|---|---|---|
| 0.5x | 1.92 | 18.2 |
| 1x | 3.39 | 34.2 |
| 1.5x | 5.52 | 48 |
| 2x | 8.27 | 59.6 |
| 2.5x | 11.37 | 69.2 |
| 3x | 14.34 | 77 |
| 4x | 17.4 | 88.1 |
| 5x | 14.35 | 94.5 |
- Rows × columns
- 8 × 3
- Computed
- Completeness
- No missing values
- Source
- US exchange, SIP and OPRA market data
- Licence
- Strasmore terms · free, no signup
What each column holds
| Column | Type | Range | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
bet_size |
text | 8 distinct values (0.5x, 1.5x, 1x…) | |
ending_multiple |
number | 1.92 to 17.4 | |
max_drawdown_pct |
number | 18.2 to 94.5 | percent |
Computed from Strasmore's warehouse of US exchange, SIP and OPRA market data. Equity prices are delayed; options greeks and implied volatility are end-of-day. This result is stored, not recomputed on load — it is exactly the numbers that were returned on , and the query below is what returned them.
the exact SQL behind every number
WITH daily AS (
SELECT toDate(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York')) AS dt,
argMax(toFloat64(close), window_start) AS c
FROM global_markets.delayed_stocks_minute_aggs
WHERE ticker = 'SPY'
AND window_start >= '2016-01-01 00:00:00'
AND window_start < '2026-01-01 00:00:00'
AND (toHour(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York')) * 60
+ toMinute(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York'))) BETWEEN 570 AND 959
GROUP BY dt
),
steps AS (
SELECT dt, c,
lagInFrame(c) OVER (ORDER BY dt ROWS BETWEEN 1 PRECEDING AND CURRENT ROW) AS prev
FROM daily
),
rets AS (
SELECT dt, c / prev - 1 AS ret
FROM steps
WHERE prev > 0
),
sizes AS (
SELECT arrayJoin([0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0]) AS bet
),
paths AS (
SELECT bet, dt,
exp(sum(log(greatest(1 + bet * ret, 0.0001)))
OVER (PARTITION BY bet ORDER BY dt
ROWS BETWEEN UNBOUNDED PRECEDING AND CURRENT ROW)) AS equity
FROM rets CROSS JOIN sizes
),
peaks AS (
SELECT bet, dt, equity,
max(equity) OVER (PARTITION BY bet ORDER BY dt
ROWS BETWEEN UNBOUNDED PRECEDING AND CURRENT ROW) AS peak
FROM paths
)
SELECT concat(toString(bet), 'x') AS bet_size,
round(argMax(equity, dt), 2) AS ending_multiple,
round(100 * max(1 - equity / peak), 1) AS max_drawdown_pct
FROM peaks
GROUP BY bet
ORDER BY bet
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