Average purchase price (DCA)
What it shows
A backward DCA simulator: it computes how regularly adding a fixed amount to a chosen coin from the start date to the end date (today by default) would have looked. It compares total deposits with the value at the end of the period and with a lump-sum-at-start variant.
How to read it
It shows the historical effect of averaging your buy price over time for the chosen period and coin. The gap between the green and blue lines is your result against the capital you put in; the comparison with the lump-sum variant tells you whether spreading purchases over time helped or hurt. It is an educational simulation on past data only: not a buy recommendation or a forecast.
Parameters
- How it's calculated (formula)
- On each scheduled date (per frequency) we buy for a fixed amount at that day's price: units += amount ÷ price. Invested = number of deposits × amount. Value = accumulated units × price at the end of the period. Avg buy price = invested ÷ units. Result % = (value − invested) ÷ invested.
- Invested / Value
- The blue line is the running total of deposits, the green one the value of accumulated units today.
- Result %
- (value today − invested) ÷ invested: the percentage gain or loss of the whole DCA run.
- Positive reading: Clearly positive: the green line stays above the blue.
- Negative reading: Negative: the value of accumulated units is below the total deposited.
- Neutral reading: Near zero: DCA roughly breaks even.
- DCA vs lump sum
- A comparison with depositing the whole amount at the start: it shows when averaging helped and when entering at once was better.
- Positive reading: DCA above lump sum: spreading purchases over time historically helped.
- Negative reading: DCA below lump sum: entering all at once at the start did better.
- Neutral reading: Lines close together: the entry timing mattered little.