Glossary · Returns
Calendar-year and discrete returns
A fund’s return in each separate period — each calendar year, or each of the last five 12-month periods — instead of one figure across several years.
A five-year return of +50% can hide a year of −20%. Splitting the record into separate periods shows how the result was reached: a calendar-year return runs from the last close of one year to the last close of the next, and a discrete 12-month return runs between the same date a year apart, usually a quarter end.
UK fund factsheets show past performance as discrete 12-month periods, normally for the last five years, so that a single good or bad year is shown alongside the others rather than on its own.
On this site these figures come from recorded closing prices. For a distributing fund the price leaves out income paid out, so the figure is labelled “price only”; for an accumulating fund the price already includes reinvested income. Past performance is not a guide to future returns.
How we calculate it
The full method, with a worked exampleRelated terms
- Total returnThe return of an investment including income (dividends or interest), not just the change in price.
- Real returnA return after inflation has been removed — what the money can actually buy.
- Maximum drawdownThe largest peak-to-trough fall over a period — the worst loss a holder would have sat through.
- VolatilityHow much a fund’s returns vary around their average, usually stated as an annualised standard deviation.
More terms on returns
Definitions describe how a term is used on Fundology. This is information, not advice.