Tracks the Russell 2000. Often diverges from large caps.
Prices as of 2026-10-23. Source: Data via FinanceDataReader · Policy rate via FRED (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis).
IWM is iShares' Russell 2000 ETF, launched in May 2000. It holds about 2,000 small US companies, roughly those ranked 1,001 to 3,000 by market value, and often moves differently from the large-cap tech that leads the S&P 500 and Nasdaq.
Many small companies rely on borrowing, so the index is sensitive to rates and the economy. It tends to lag large caps while rates rise and to lead them early in a recovery. It fell close to 60% from its high in the 2008 crisis, and after its 2021 high it stayed below that level for a long time even as large caps set new records.
It is useful for checking whether losing years differ from those of a large-cap index. When splitting money across tickers or strategies, whether they break in different years matters more than return. The principle is in ensemble drawdown, and results by rate regime are in rate regimes and assets.
Using real closing prices only (adjusted for splits and dividends) from 2000-05-26, IWM's worst peak-to-trough fall was -59.5%, from the 2007-07-13 high to the 2009-03-09 low over 416 trading days. It took another 524 trading days (about 2.1 years) to get back above that high, on 2011-04-05. The last close is 9.6% below the all-time high.
A fall of 59.5% needs a 147% gain to get back to even. Any strategy on IWM has to be judged on whether you could have held it through a stretch like this. Why drawdown comes before return.
The standard deviation of daily returns is 1.50% over the whole history
and 1.14% over the last year. By the rough rule
days ≈ (target ÷ daily volatility)², a 1.5% take-profit target needs about
1.7 trading days at the recent pace.
Where the rule comes from.
Three preset strategies run over 2016-01-04 to 2026-10-23 with a $10,000 seed and 0.1% fees, alongside simply holding the same instrument.
| Strategy | Return | Max drawdown | CAGR | Trades | Win rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A2 Standard, base rules (no defence signal) | +27.79% | -31.77% | +2.30% | 1246 | 55.3% |
| A1 Defensive, base rules | +20.30% | -16.91% | +1.73% | 1257 | 82.8% |
| A3 Aggressive, base rules (no defence signal) | +29.02% | -35.11% | +2.39% | 1137 | 50.9% |
| Buy and hold | +149.65% | -42.17% | +8.86% | - | - |
Read the drawdown column before the return column. Split buying leaves much of the seed in cash, which is the main reason its drawdown is smaller — treat it as lower exposure rather than protection.
Test IWM with your own settings →The standard (diamond) preset, one calendar year at a time. A strategy worth using should have good years and bad years mixed — if one year made everything, that was the year, not the rules.
| Year | Strategy | Strategy MDD | Buy and hold | B&H MDD |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | +0.99% | -7.12% | +10.58% | -11.32% |
| 2025 | +1.11% | -20.47% | +11.05% | -23.83% |
| 2024 | +8.03% | -7.82% | +10.51% | -10.06% |
| 2023 | +2.97% | -12.76% | +15.49% | -18.34% |
| 2022 | +4.50% | -10.60% | -22.60% | -27.20% |
| 2021 | -1.04% | -10.42% | +14.70% | -12.52% |
| 2020 | +3.31% | -19.89% | +17.95% | -40.90% |
| 2019 | +3.43% | -7.02% | +22.73% | -9.85% |
| 2018 | -17.42% | -22.64% | -12.98% | -26.90% |
| 2017 | +4.36% | -5.39% | +12.16% | -6.34% |
Across these 10 years the strategy beat buy and hold in 1 and trailed it in 9. It lost money in 2 years; buy and hold lost in 2. In IWM's worst year here, 2022, holding returned -22.6% while the strategy returned +4.5%. In its best year, 2019, holding returned +22.7% and the strategy +3.4%. Giving up much of the best years is the price of the smaller drawdowns.
IWM listed on 2000-05-26, and every number on this page uses real prices only. In the backtest tool you can go back to 1993, but the years before listing are index-based: IWM listed on 2000-05-26. Prices from 1993-01-01 to the day before listing are converted from the 1x index, not real trades: the daily return of Russell 2000 Index (^RUT) minus the fund fee. Treat that range as an estimate. See how the index-based history is built and checked.
Whole shares only. If a tranche is allocated less than one share's price, it buys nothing. Raise the seed or lower the number of tranches.
The Today's Orders page computes the next session's buy limit and each tranche's sell target from your start date. It is a calculation, not advice, and no orders are placed.