Realized return
Principles of Finance glossary · Valuation of Bonds & Stocks
Definition
The actual return earned on an investment over a holding period.
Realized return in plain English
Realized return is simply the actual profit or loss you ended up earning on an investment over the time you held it — what really happened, not what you hoped or predicted. It rolls together any price change plus any income (like dividends), measured as a percentage of what you put in. For example, if you buy something for $100 and later it's worth $110, your realized return is 10%. The word 'realized' matters because expected returns are just forecasts, while the realized return is the scoreboard after the game is played.
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