Return

What is a return?

Return is how much you made or lost on an investment. If you invest £1,000 and it grows to £1,100, your return is £100, or 10%.

What is an annual return?

The return over one year. If a fund says it returned 8% last year, that means £1,000 invested at the start of the year would have been worth £1,080 at the end.

What is an average return?

Returns vary year to year. An “average return” smooths this out. A fund might return 15% one year and 5% the next. The average would be 10%.

Past returns don’t guarantee future results. A fund that returned 10% last year might lose money next year.

Key points about returns

• Profit or loss, shown as a percentage or amount
• Can be positive or negative. You can lose money
• Past returns don’t predict the future