What is YTD?
Year to Date (YTD) is a term used to refer to the period starting from the beginning of the current calendar year up until the current date. YTD can be used to measure performance or progress during that specific time frame, and can be compared with other similar terms such as Year Over Year (YOY) or Month Over Month (MOM). While all three provide insight into trends over different time frames, YTD specifically looks at progress from January 1st of the current year onwards. This is beneficial for tracking shorter-term achievements and goals within a single year, whereas YOY looks at changes between two separate calendar years, and MOM compares changes within just one month. In finance, YTD is often used when referring to income or profits made during the specified period. For example, if a company has made $20 million in profits so far this year, they could say they have a “$20 million YTD profit”.
Example of YTD
Calculating the return on a portfolio of investments from the beginning of the year to a specified date before the year’s end. For instance, if an investor named Colin invested $50,000 in stocks and $200,000 in bonds on January 1, 2022, and held the portfolio until August 31, 2022, his YTD return on the portfolio would be 8.117%. The YTD calculation for other months is similar, with only the numerator changing.
