Take our quiz: Which stocks made investors the most money?

This week, we’re excited to be releasing fresh data on the 15 stocks that generated the most wealth for investors over the past decade across Australia and the United States.

But before we get there, we thought it’d be fun to put your market instincts to the test with a quick quiz.

Because identifying the market’s biggest winners isn’t always as obvious as it first appears.

Some companies dominated headlines. Others quietly compounded in the background. And depending on how you think about investor wealth, a few of the answers may genuinely surprise you.

Think you know the answers? No Googling. No Bloomberg terminals. Just trust your gut. 👇

Poll 1: Measuring wealth

Before we even begin, let's see if you understand how wealth creation is measured.

Correct answer: Market capitalisation growth plus dividends paid, as this captures the total wealth created for shareholders over time.

Poll 2: Australia’s biggest money-maker

Australia’s market has produced some extraordinary winners over the past decade - but only one company created the most shareholder wealth overall.

Correct answer: BHP Group, which created roughly $282 billion in shareholder wealth through a combination of capital growth and enormous dividend payouts.

Poll 3: America’s best success story

In an era of American exceptionalism, it is good to know which company has truly been the most exceptional over the past 10 years.

Correct answer: NVIDIA, which generated more than US$4 trillion in shareholder wealth during the AI boom and became one of history’s greatest market winners.

Poll 4: The ASX's quiet achiever

Not all wealth creators looked obvious at the time. One company below quietly generated enormous shareholder value over the past decade, becoming a top 15 wealth-creator, despite rarely dominating headlines or barbecue conversations.

Correct answer: Sigma Healthcare. Along with Resmed it was the only healthcare stock to make the top 15. CSL, surprisingly, did not make the top 15!

Poll 5: Capital growth vs cash

One of the companies below paid out so much cash over the past decade that its dividends exceeded its capital growth by multiples!

Correct answer: All of them! But Fortescue took the cake, with returns from dividends exceeding 1,700%, and capital gains of about 475%.

Poll 6: The ASX's closest rival to a U.S.-style growth stock

When investors think about the ASX, they usually think dividends first.

But one company below behaved more like a classic global growth stock - compounding shareholder wealth largely through capital appreciation while paying relatively little income along the way.

Correct answer: Goodman Group, which delivered roughly +329% capital growth versus just +92% dividend returns over the decade, unusually growth-heavy for the ASX.

Poll 7: The trillion-dollar club

Over the past decade, a small group of companies joined one of the most exclusive clubs in markets: the US$1 trillion valuation club. Three of the companies below have crossed that threshold at some point. 

One, however, has not - despite generating enormous shareholder wealth and becoming one of the market’s dominant businesses.

Correct answer: JPMorgan Chase, which became one of the world’s dominant financial institutions and enormous wealth creators, but hasn't crossed the US$1 trillion valuation threshold (yet).

Poll 8: The ASX banking paradox

An interesting thing we looked at in the study was how much of a company's wealth was created from growth versus dividends.

One financial stock actually delivered negative capital growth over the past decade - yet still produced positive total returns for shareholders once dividends were included.

Correct answer: Bank of Queensland, whose share price fell roughly 40% over the past decade, but due to returns from dividends of 73%, it ended up providing a total gain of about 35%.

📅 THE WEALTH CREATORS

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