In microsoft.public.money, kodavasal[at]gmail.com wrote:

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http://dictionary.reference.com/sear...nnualized&r=66

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Money does not offer that. You get a dividend, and then buy more
with that dividend, then your amount paid . Dividends are real
money, and when you buy more with that money, it is really a buy.

See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/131664/en-us

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Appreciation" which does not include dividends as a gain, but it
does include reinvested dividends as a Buy of the security.

ROI (Total Return in Microsoft Money terms) includes dividends in
the calculations.

You referenced Annual Return% and ROI All Dates%. Actually I was
describing annual return(Ann. Ret) from Money 2006 and total return
all dates (TR All)-- the closest that Money 2006 has. The terms
"Annual Return(%)" and "ROI All Dates(%)" are corresponding terms
from earlier versions. You can get a description of what each column
heading means by hovering your mouse pointer over the column
heading.


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It can most easily done with logarithms if I did the calculation.
The above KB article describes it in terms of summation. Calculus
would be the ideal first-principles way.


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I am not sure what *annualized* means.

I assume ROI all dates is calculated like this (correct me if I am
wrong)

Let MV be the market value today
Let PP be what I paid to buy all the stocks all the time I have them
(not including dividend/CG reinvestments, what I actually paid)

Assuming I have not sold anything,

ROI all dates = (MV - PP) / PP * 100

Is this correct?

Now how is the annualized return caculated?

Thanks for your response.

In microsoft.public.money, Cal Learner-- MVP wrote:

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I mean if you see a big *negative* number here, think of taking your
tax loss.

In microsoft.public.money, kodavasal[at]gmail.com wrote:

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Annual Return is annualized; a small gain on a stock that you have
had for a short time can look very large. For medium to long periods
it is a good measure of performance. It does include dividends.


ROI All Dates is overall and is not annualized. If you have had the
stock for a while and see a big number here, think of taking your
tax loss.

What is the difference between Annual Return% and ROI All Dates%? Which
is a better (more correct) indicator of how well my mutual fund is
performing? I am getting confused because I assume both are calculated
for the entire holding period.

Thanks.

Koda Vasal