ETFs / DIA
What If You Had Invested in DIA 10 Years Ago?
SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust (DIA) with real monthly prices, dividends reinvested, through November 2026.
DIA $512.22 ▼ -0.40% last close, Nov 06, 2026
If you had invested $1,000 in DIA in November 2016, today it would be worth
$3,232
Same $1,000 in the S&P 500 (SPY): $3,907
If you had put $500 a month into DIA since November 2016, your $60,500 would be worth today
$110,454
Same plan in the S&P 500 (SPY): $129,289
More options in the What If calculator.
DIA live price chart
DIA returns by period
| Period | Total return | Per year | $1,000 became | SPY per year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 year | +8.8% | +8.8% | $1,088 | +8.8% |
| 3 years | +48.9% | +14.2% | $1,489 | +18.7% |
| 5 years | +61.6% | +10.1% | $1,616 | +11.5% |
| 10 years | +223.2% | +12.4% | $3,232 | +14.6% |
| 20 years | +548.5% | +9.8% | $6,485 | +10.6% |
| Since 1998 | +1075.5% | +8.9% | $11,755 | — |
DIA year by year
Best full year: 2013 (+29.6%). Worst: 2008 (-32.1%).
| Year | DIA | SPY | What happened |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (so far) | +7.8% | +8.7% | |
| 2025 | +14.7% | +17.7% | |
| 2024 | +14.8% | +24.9% | |
| 2023 | +16.0% | +26.2% | |
| 2022 | -7.0% | -18.2% | The Dow fell far less than the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq because it holds fewer of the expensive growth stocks that rate hikes hit hardest. |
| 2021 | +20.8% | +28.7% | |
| 2020 | +9.6% | +18.3% | |
| 2019 | +25.0% | +31.2% | |
| 2018 | -3.7% | -4.6% | |
| 2017 | +28.1% | +21.7% | |
| 2016 | +16.4% | +12.0% | |
| 2015 | +0.1% | +1.2% | |
| 2014 | +9.7% | +13.5% | |
| 2013 | +29.6% | +32.3% | |
| 2012 | +9.9% | +16.0% | |
| 2011 | +8.1% | +1.9% | |
| 2010 | +14.0% | +15.1% | |
| 2009 | +22.7% | +26.4% | |
| 2008 | -32.1% | -36.8% | The global financial crisis. Bank failures and a deep recession made this one of the worst years for stocks since the 1930s. |
| 2007 | +8.8% | +5.1% |
DIA: all at once or every month?
Take $12,000: all of it on day one, or $1,000 a month for a year. Across every starting month since 1998 (335 of them), the lump sum was ahead after 12 months in 247 (74%). For DIA the case for monthly buying shows up in three bad stretches, 2000 to 2002, 2007 to 2008 and the shorter dips of 2015, 2019 and 2022. Outside those, investing at once won most of the time. The best case for monthly investing was a start in May 2008, when it finished the year 33% ahead.
Worst drop
DIA's worst fall in this history was -47.0%, a deep bear-market fall, from October 2007 to February 2009. Getting back to the old high took until April 2011: 26 months from the bottom and 3.5 years from the peak. $1,000 invested at that peak shrank to about $530 at the low.
The 2008 financial crisis. The Dow lost about half from its October 2007 record to the March 2009 low, and three of its members, AIG, Citigroup and General Motors, needed government rescues and were dropped from the index.
DIA dividends
DIA paid $7.18 per share over the last 12 months, in monthly payments. At $512.22 that is 1.40%, a small yield; nearly all of the return has come from the price. From 2020 to 2025 the yearly payout grew +3.7% a year, steadily. The yearly total fell in 2020.
| Year | Dividends / share | Change | Yield |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | $6.88 | +0.7% | 1.43% |
| 2024 | $6.83 | +0.4% | 1.61% |
| 2023 | $6.80 | +7.5% | 1.81% |
| 2022 | $6.33 | +10.3% | 1.91% |
| 2021 | $5.74 | +0.2% | 1.58% |
| 2020 | $5.73 | -3.8% | 1.87% |
| 2019 | $5.95 | +14.0% | 2.09% |
| 2018 | $5.22 | +7.1% | 2.24% |
| 2017 | $4.88 | +9.3% | 1.97% |
| 2016 | $4.46 | +9.8% | 2.26% |
Yield = each year’s dividends divided by the price at the end of the year.
DIA dividend history: last 12 payments
| Ex-dividend date | Amount | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 16, 2026 | $0.1140 | -90.4% |
| Sep 18, 2026 | $1.1920 | +172.8% |
| Aug 21, 2026 | $0.4370 | +193.3% |
| Jul 17, 2026 | $0.1490 | -89.4% |
| Jun 18, 2026 | $1.4050 | +409.1% |
| May 15, 2026 | $0.2760 | +34.0% |
| Apr 17, 2026 | $0.2060 | -79.3% |
| Mar 20, 2026 | $0.9940 | +62.2% |
| Feb 20, 2026 | $0.6130 | +242.5% |
| Jan 16, 2026 | $0.1790 | -82.9% |
| Dec 19, 2025 | $1.0440 | +81.3% |
| Nov 21, 2025 | $0.5760 | — |
About DIA
| Issuer | State Street |
| Launched | January 1998 |
| Tracks | Dow Jones Industrial Average |
| Expense ratio | 0.16% |
| Holdings | 30 large U.S. companies |
Fund details as of 2025. Check the issuer for the current expense ratio and holdings.
DIA holds the 30 stocks of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the oldest and most quoted U.S. stock index. Unlike the S&P 500, the Dow is price-weighted: a stock with a $500 share price counts five times as much as one at $100, however big either company is.
That quirk gives companies with high share prices, such as Goldman Sachs, Microsoft and Caterpillar, the most say in the index, while NVIDIA, which only joined the Dow in November 2024 in place of Intel, has much less weight there than in the S&P 500.
DIA pays its dividend every month, unusual for a big index fund. As a unit investment trust it passes on what the 30 companies pay as the money comes in, instead of collecting it for a quarterly payout.
Price weighting in practice
Because the Dow ranks by share price, a stock split cuts a company's influence overnight even though nothing about the business has changed. When Apple split 4-for-1 in 2020, it went from the biggest weight in the Dow to one of the smaller ones. High-priced stocks such as Goldman Sachs end up steering the index.
DIA or SPY?
Since DIA launched in 1998 the two have ended up within a modest distance of each other, with the S&P 500 ahead, mostly thanks to the tech rally of the last decade. In single years the gap can be several points. With only 30 stocks and few tech names, the Dow held up better in 2022 and lagged in tech-led years.
Questions about DIA
Did DIA beat the S&P 500?
No. Over the last 20 years it trailed by 0.8 percentage points a year: +9.8% a year for DIA against +10.6% for SPY, dividends reinvested. Its worst fall was about the same as SPY's.
Why is the Dow quoted in points and not dollars?
The Dow is the sum of its 30 share prices divided by a number called the Dow divisor, which is adjusted for splits and changes in membership. DIA is set up so that its share price is about one hundredth of the Dow's level in points.