Quick English question

[Fake Boris]

I'm making portfolio performance reports for English clients. Which phrasing is the best to express the following idea: "return (in %) of the current year (starting Jan. 1st)".

Should I say:

a)current year yield
b)return of the current year
c)current year return
d)something else

[DanS]

"Year-to-date return" or similar.

[Japher]

Seeing as corporate years do not necessarily coincide with calender years I would say something like;

For the year starting January 1st the current return is x%.

I don't know about using yield if it is a return as I don't think the 2 are interchangable. As a return generally refers to a "payback" ala ROI. Where as a yeild is more like a "payout" ala dividend.

[Ben Kenobi]

Year to date over fiscal year.

Year to date is from January to December, and Fiscal year is from May to April.

[Japher]

Good call Ben

[Kontiki]

Fiscal year is whatever the organization decides it's going to be.

[Kontiki]

For laypeople, YTD is likely assumed to be Jan. 1 onward, but you may want to explicitly clarify that.

[DaShi]

"you'll get your money once I have it."

[Fake Boris]

We're using calendar years for this report, so I take it that "year-to-date return" is fine?

Thanks for the answers

[Hueij]

Flemish what???

[Fake Boris]

Not sure about the spelling though

[Hueij]

The spelling is okay, the meaning is not so nice though...

[Ben Kenobi]

Yeah, I've actually run into the difference between those terms in some of my statistics. One of my questions is if my data gets distorted because one set uses fiscal year, and another the year to date.

[Fake Boris]

So, BK, your job involves running into flikkers?

[DanS]

OB: Yes, that's fine. Can be shortened to "YTD return," depending on how formal the document is.

Good luck.