Browse Investing

Return Calculation and Performance Metrics

Investment return terms for expected, gross, net, simple, annualized, total, and risk-adjusted performance comparisons.

Return Calculation and Performance Metrics 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.

What This Branch Covers

AreaUse it for
Capital and Advanced Performance MetricsReturn, yield, compounding, income, or performance-measurement terms.
Gross, Net, and Simple Return RatesReturn, yield, compounding, income, or performance-measurement terms.
Total, Expected, and Annualized ReturnsReturn, yield, compounding, income, or performance-measurement terms.

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.

Advanced Metrics

Invested-capital and advanced performance metric terms used in deeper investment analysis.

Return Rates

Gross, net, and simple return-rate terms used to compare investment performance before and after costs.

Total Return

Total return, expected return, annualized return, and mean return terms used in investment performance analysis.

Revised on Sunday, June 21, 2026