How not to calculate an annual return You can't simply divide your simple return by the number of years held because of the compounding power of money. We can use a dramatic example to illustrate why.

The total return of a stock going from $10 to $20 and paying $1 in dividends is 110%. It may seem simple at first glance, but total returns are one of the most important financial metrics around.

Knowing how to calculate your portfolio's returns is essential to becoming a savvier investor. Learn the basic principles ...

How do you calculate the return on your CD? To calculate the return on your CD, you need a few key elements: the principal deposit, the interest rate, the compounding frequency and the term length.

Models for Calculating Intrinsic Value Beyond these metrics, which you can find in most stock listings, analysts have developed several models to get the intrinsic value of a stock.

How to Calculate Beta To calculate the beta of a stock, you need historical price data for both the stock and the market index.