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If you’re like me, you forget how fast time flies. We are fast approaching the halfway mark in 2026, and now we are closer to the 2030s than the 2020s. In the past six years, FTSE 100 you have endured global pandemics, tax cuts, countless wars and more.
But if someone had parked £10k in the index at the start of 2020, what would it look like now?
Show me the numbers!
At the beginning of January 2020, the index was trading at 7,604 points. Later, the trade reached a low of 4,993 points during the pandemic crash in 2020, with a high of 10,910 points in February. A £10k investment would be worth £13,668 at the moment, given a return of around 37% since the start of 2020.
On the face of it, that seems like a good return. To be clear, no one should be unhappy with the profit! However, it is not as good as some might expect. Across the lake, i S&P 500 it delivered a 120% return over the same period.
At a stock-specific level, some components outperformed. Rolls-Royce good example, we earn 389% during the mentioned period. Of course, some stocks have lost significant value over the years as well. So things need to be taken with a grain of salt. But overall, I think an active investor with a carefully selected stock portfolio would have outperformed the index over the years.
Where do you go from here?
The past is part of the conversation. Where the reference goes from here is equally worthy of discussion. Given the market’s ability to recover and reverse the impact of events in recent years, I believe that in the long enough term, the index can continue to bring good returns in the coming years.
However, I think an investor can identify certain sectors that are poised to grow faster than average. For example, FinTech. IG Group (LSE:IGG) fits into this category nicely as an FTSE 100 growth stock.
It allows clients to trade and speculate on the price movements of stocks, currencies, and commodities. In simple words, the more clients trade, the more IG earns in fees, spreads, and capital costs. It has grown rapidly since 2020, partly due to high market volatility. I can see this continuing in the coming years, so that’s one tick in the vision box.
Add to this that it is pursuing an expansion-oriented strategy. This includes acquisitions like Freetrade and the move to crypto. There is a clear attempt to diversify beyond the usual vendor offerings. However, there are risks. The law is the elephant in the room. IG’s core products are powerful and high-risk, meaning regulators are always watching. Any tightening of regulations regarding retail trade may affect growth.
Even so, I still believe it has a strong shot at outperforming the broader index in the coming years and therefore can be considered by investors.
