What Is YTD Return?

YTD, "year-to-date", is the return an investment has produced from January 1 of the current calendar year up to today. In Turkish it is called "yıl başından bu yana" (YBB). For example, a YTD figure read in April shows the return over the span from the start of the year to that day in April. It measures not a single fixed span but a window that stretches from the year's opening to today.

It is a variable-length period

This is the most misunderstood point: YTD is not a fixed period. With each passing day the window grows a little longer. In the first weeks of the year YTD reflects only a few days of movement; by December it covers almost the whole year. At year-end, as of December 31, YTD equals that year's full return.

Because of this, two YTD figures read on different dates measure periods of different lengths. A 5% YTD in February and a 5% YTD in November do not say the same thing; one is the result of a few weeks, the other of nearly a full year. The same percentage represents, in one case, a quick move over a short span, and in the other the total result of a long one. For the same reason YTD is structurally different from a trailing 1-year return, which always covers exactly the past 12 months: a 1-year return spans a fixed length, whereas YTD's length depends on where today sits within the calendar year. In March, for instance, a "1-year return" measures the 12 months since last March, while "YTD" measures only the roughly three months from January 1 of the same year to March. The two usually come out different.

It resets every January 1

YTD starts over at the beginning of each year. When January 1 arrives the counter resets and the window begins growing again from the new year's first day. That is why YTD figures seen in January represent a very short period and are sensitive to small price moves. Placing different years' YTD figures side by side is likewise misleading: each is measured from a different starting point, that year's own January 1.

How is it calculated?

On this site, like every return, YTD is computed with a single method, from the fund's NAV per unit. The starting anchor for YTD is the unit value announced on that year's January 1, or on the last trading day before it; the ending value is the most recently announced unit value. The ratio between the two prices gives the period's return:

YTD = (Today's NAV per unit ÷ last NAV per unit before January 1) − 1

Since January 1 is a public holiday, a price for that exact day usually does not exist; in that case the anchor is the price of the last trading day before the year began. This is the same basis as the return TEFAS publishes, and it is applied consistently across every surface of the site — the list, the comparison, the fund page and so on.

What it is good for, and where it misleads

YTD's main use is that it summarizes progress within the calendar year. It is the direct answer to "how much has this fund returned since the start of the year?" and, when read on the same date, it makes it easy to compare how funds have performed over the same slice of the year.

Its main trap is this: a strong start early in the year can dominate the YTD figure all the way to year-end. A fund that rises quickly in January–February and then moves sideways for months may still show a high YTD in November; that figure hides the flat later months. The reverse is also possible: a fund that falls early in the year and recovers later can keep a low YTD for a long time. So on its own YTD tells you not how a fund is doing "right now" but where it stands in total since the start of the year. To see how it has moved over a particular part of the year, shorter fixed periods (such as one month or three months) can be more informative.

Fair comparison requires the same period

When comparing two funds by YTD, you must look at both on the same date and therefore over a period of the same length. Comparing YTD figures taken on different days means comparing periods of different lengths. If you want the return between a specific start and end date, use the [/fon-getiri-hesaplama] tool, which computes over a fixed interval, or the comparison page, which places funds side by side. To judge a fund's return against a yardstick such as inflation or a currency, see benchmark.