If You Invested $1,000 In SPY Stock After Lehman Brothers' Bankruptcy, Here's How Much You'd Have Today

Friday’s market session marked the 15th anniversary of one of the worst events in stock market history.

On Sept. 15, 2008, financial services company Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, sending markets lower and extending a recession.

What Happened: With $639 billion in assets and $619 billion in debt at the time of its collapse, Lehman Brothers filed for the biggest bankruptcy in American history.

The financial services company was the fourth-largest investment bank in the U.S. and had around 25,000 employees at the time of its bankruptcy.

The collapse of Lehman Brothers resulted from several factors, with the company’s large holdings in subprime mortgages and falling mortgage values among the biggest contributors.

On Sept. 15, the S&P 500 dropped to its lowest closing price in three years. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell over 500 points on the day.

Here’s a look at how investments in ETFs that track the two leading market indexes would have performed over the last 15 years.

Related Link: Crypto Is Facing A Trust Crisis: One Part Lehman Brothers, One Part Dot-Com Bubble 

Investing $1,000 in SPY, DIA: A $1,000 investment in the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY, which tracks the S&P 500 Index, could have purchased 11.15 shares on Sept. 15, 2008 based on an adjusted closing price of $89.67.

The $1,000 investment would be worth $4,944.69 today, representing a return of +394.5% over the last 15 years. The investment would have generated average annual returns of over 26%.

A $1,000 investment in the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust DIA, which tracks the Dow Jones Industrial Average, could have purchased 12.89 shares based on an adjusted closing price of $77.57.

The $1,000 investment would be worth $4,458.52 today, representing a return of +345.9%.

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