Can't find a forum where this thread will fit, so here goes: I can get daily data from Yahoo for a few days with the ^PXTY ticker, but not years of daily historical data. Morningstar only has year-to-date, not calendar year. I don't belong to Bloomberg, so I can't go anywhere with their SPXT:IND ticker. Anybody know how to do this without spending any money?
I think the symbol for yahoo download is ^gspc or something. Here some yearly data http://www.priceactionlab.com/Blog/2011/02/models-sp-500-returns-and-related-folklore/
Thanks for the reply. ^GSPC is the price return rather than the total return with dividends reinvested, which is ^PXTY. The trouble is that ^PXTY doesn't have any historical data on Yahoo Finance. If you want to see the spectacular difference over the long haul, look at the first chart at: http://www.simplestockinvesting.com/SP500-historical-real-total-returns.htm I have filed a complaint with Yahoo finance, but so far, they have merely escalated the problem to a higher level.