U.S. stocks are set to open higher after FBI cleared charges against Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Mrs. Clinton was under scanner over the way classified information was handled. Ryanair Holdings plc (ADR) (NASDAQ:RYAAY) will be in focus after the company announced buyback of $609 million. The company reported stellar set of numbers which beat analyst’s…

Volkswagen AG (ADR) (OTCMKTS:VLKAY) ends dispute with CarTrim after 20 hours of negotiations. There were questions on the company’s profitability being impacted. The dispute however, impacted more than 28,000 employees at 6 of its locations out of 10 German factories. Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE:BBY) reported strong numbers for the second quarter topping estimates with…

Investors will watch out for the rig data to be released today. Higher rig count would indicate that the production for oil is picking up. In other development, Volkswagen AG (ADR) (OTCMKTS:VLKAY) is in trouble again after two suppliers named Car Trim and ES Automobilgluss refuse to deliver components which are required for production of…

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Volkswagen AG (ADR) (OTCMKTS:VLKAY) market share continues to drop in Europe as the emission scandal continues to cause havoc. The automaker sales accounted for 24% of new auto registrations in February, a 1.4% drop from last year. The decline represented the sixth consecutive month of market share loss. Industry wide sales rose 14% in the…

Stockchoker was created to answer a simple question: what would a past investment be worth today?

Now it answers the obvious follow-up question, too: would this have been a good investment?

A stock’s performance in isolation doesn’t necessarily tell you a lot. In some cases, it could even be misleading. How so?

Let’s use everyone’s favorite oil company as an example. Check out how a 5-year-old investment in Halliburton looks right now:

If you’re the kind of person who doesn’t pay much attention to the stock market, you might see these stats and think “not bad; I’ll gladly take an annual 5-percent return.” If that’s the case, you’re missing the bigger picture.

Since November 1, 2010, the S&P 500 has gone up nearly 12 percent per year on average. That means Halliburton has grown less than half as much as the rest of the U.S. stock market. Calling this a good investment would be akin to calling a ‘D’ a good grade.

To provide sharper analysis, Stockchoker now includes an ‘Is this good?!’ button along with its usual list of stats. Press it to reveal a new set of details that paints a fuller picture of the investment’s performance.

The growth of the stock or fund is compared to the S&P 500 and a bank account in an easy-to-understand bar chart (in honor of the MSB Cheat Sheet (@kathryncicoletti), we’re trying to avoid these types of charts). You’ll also get a few new stats and a verdict that states whether or not it was a good investment. Here’s how it looks:

The S&P 500 is used as a representation of the total U.S. stock market. Investments that performed significantly worse - particularly over a long period of time - probably shouldn’t be considered a ‘good’ investment, even if they made money. Stockchoker recommends buying low-cost index funds that try to mimic the S&P 500′s performance - like the Vanguard 500 Index Fund - but that’s a story for another blog post.

Thanks to Tadas Viskanta (@abnormalreturns) for suggesting this new feature. Check out his awesome site - abnormalreturns.com - for a daily batch of useful investment links.

Notes:

If Stockchoker had a lawyer, he or she would probably want to remind everyone that these verdicts are based solely on the stock or fund’s performance during the selected time period. So be careful out there when considering new investments. Volkswagen was a great stock until the day it suddenly became the most hated car company in the world.