Fund Return Calculator

📖 Overview

With funds or shares, the easiest thing to overlook is the difference between return and annualised return. The same percentage gain over three months and over three years represents entirely different efficiency, and if you added or trimmed along the way, the headline return alone will not tell you how you actually did. This tool handles both lump-sum and regular-investment modes. Give it your contribution, the purchase and current net asset value, the subscription and redemption fee rates and the holding period, and it returns total profit, return percentage and annualised return. For regular investing it works out the units bought in each instalment and sums them, which is how a real savings plan accrues. You can also enter a benchmark gain to see how much of your result is excess return. And when you are down, it tells you how large a rise you need to get back to cost, a figure that is usually more sobering than the loss itself. A position up twenty percent over three years is not the same achievement as one up twenty percent over three months, and the annualised column is what makes that visible. Money-weighted effects matter too: contributions made late in a rising market earn less than contributions made early, which is why the instalment mode prices each purchase at its own date rather than averaging.

✨ Features

• Two modes, lump sum and regular investing, with regular investing priced instalment by instalment and then summed Regular mode accepts different amounts per instalment if your contributions changed over time.
• Reports total profit, return percentage and annualised return together, so the effect of holding period is visible Holding period can be given in days or derived from the number of instalments you made.
• Subscription and redemption fees can be entered, so the profit figure reflects what you would actually receive Fees are applied at purchase and at exit, matching how funds actually charge.
• Accepts a benchmark gain and shows excess return, signed and sized The benchmark field accepts a negative number if the market you compare against fell.
• When you are at a loss it computes the rise needed to break even, so you do not underestimate the climb back The break-even figure is shown next to the loss so the two can be read together.
• Lists the full contribution and unit history so every purchase can be reconciled Realised and unrealised are not distinguished, since the tool works from NAV alone.

🚀 How to use

1. Choose lump-sum purchase or regular investing
2. Enter your contribution, the purchase NAV and the current NAV
3. Fill in the subscription fee rate, redemption fee rate, and holding days or number of instalments
4. If you have a benchmark, enter its gain as well
5. Press Calculate and read total profit, annualised return and excess return

⚠️ Notes

• Annualised is not realised: the annualised figure rescales your return to a one-year basis; a high short-term annualised rate does not imply it will persist, which is why unusually short periods produce figures that look impressive and mean little
• Distributions and tax excluded: dividend reinvestment, exchange commissions, stamp duty and dividend tax are outside the calculation, so your net proceeds may differ from what the screen shows
• NAV accuracy matters: in regular-investing mode, whether instalments shared one NAV or different ones changes the units substantially, so enter what actually happened, and entering a single average NAV will give an approximate answer only
• Fees bite: a short holding period with a high redemption fee drags returns down noticeably, so run the numbers before trading frequently, and some funds waive redemption fees only after a minimum holding period
• Numbers only: a zero amount, zero holding days or negative NAV triggers a message rather than a result, and a negative NAV or zero holding period is rejected