The Bureau of Historic Losses · Counterfactual Division
What if you'd bought JB Hi-Fi in 2012?
Amazon was coming, Dick Smith was flailing, and 'the death of bricks-and-mortar retail' was the only story anyone wanted to tell about JB Hi-Fi. The shares spent the year cheap and unloved — the boring retailer nobody believed would 20x.
$100 on 2012-01-02, worth today
A$1,419
As of 2026-06-12, $100 of JB Hi-Fi bought at 2012's open (A$5.44) is worth A$1,419 — 14.2×.
total return · dividends reinvested · AUD
How much would $100 of JB Hi-Fi bought in 2012 be worth today?
| You'd have put in | You'd have now | Multiple |
|---|---|---|
| A$100 | A$1,419 | 14.2× |
| A$1,000 | A$14,188 | 14.2× |
| A$10,000 | A$141,884 | 14.2× |
Lump sum on the year's first trading day, total return (dividends reinvested, splits adjusted), valued at the latest close. Past performance isn't a promise — it's a taunt.
What did JB Hi-Fi do in 2012?
Opened
A$5.44
2012-01-02
Peaked
A$5.91
2012-01-30
Bottomed
A$3.87
2012-06-26
Closed
A$5.15
2012-12-30
Levels are dividend-adjusted, so historical figures look lower than the headline price of the day — that's the total-return lens, and it's the honest one.
Would steady buying have beaten going all in?
A$75,400 deployed as $100 a week from 2012-01-02, under four temperaments — same money, different nerves.
| All in on day one | A$1.1M |
| Steady weekly buys | A$370,214 |
| Sold dips, rebought rallies | A$324,604 |
| Traded it perfectly | A$559,386 |
“Traded it perfectly” requires knowing the future. Nobody knew the future.
The same $1,000, elsewhere
$1,000 at 2012's open, each valued at the latest close. Hindsight remains undefeated.
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