Browse Investing

Growth Rates and Appreciation

Investment performance terms for appreciation, capital appreciation, price appreciation, annual growth rates, AAGR, and CAGR.

Growth Rates and Appreciation terms explain how investment results are measured, compared, annualized, compounded, distributed, or translated into yield language.

Use this branch when the question depends on the exact return formula, time period, reinvestment assumption, fee treatment, tax treatment, or income-versus-price return split.

Key Terms in This Branch

TermUse it for
AccretionA term page that narrows this branch to a specific investing concept, evidence source, or decision point.
Annual Growth RateA measurement term for comparing investment income, growth, or total performance.
AppreciationA measurement term for comparing investment income, growth, or total performance.
Average Annual Growth Rate (AAGR)A measurement term for comparing investment income, growth, or total performance.
Capital AppreciationA measurement term for comparing investment income, growth, or total performance.
Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR)A measurement term for comparing investment income, growth, or total performance.
Price AppreciationA measurement term for comparing investment income, growth, or total performance.

What to Check

Check the formula, measurement period, compounding convention, cash-flow timing, reinvestment assumption, fees, taxes, currency, and whether the result is historical, expected, quoted, or realized.

Common Mistakes

  • Comparing returns from different periods or compounding conventions.
  • Treating quoted yield or expected return as the same as realized performance.
  • Ignoring fees, taxes, currency, reinvestment, and cash-flow timing.
  • Mixing income return, price return, and total return without labeling each measure.

This page is educational and does not recommend a specific investment strategy, security, tax treatment, or account choice.

In this section

Choose a subsection first. Deeper term pages live inside each subsection, which keeps large topic hubs readable.

Accretion

Accretion describes gradual value growth, including bond discount accretion, asset value increases, and earnings-per-share effects.

Annual Growth Rate

Annual growth rate measures the year-over-year percentage change in an investment, asset value, revenue base, or other financial metric.

Appreciation

Appreciation is an increase in the market value of an asset, currency, or investment over time.

Capital Appreciation

Capital appreciation is the increase in an asset's market value and forms the price-gain component of investment return.

Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR)

Compound annual growth rate converts cumulative growth into a smoothed annual rate that assumes compounding over the measurement period.

Price Appreciation

Price appreciation is the investment return caused by market price increases, excluding dividends, interest, or other income.

Revised on Sunday, June 21, 2026