Bridge over ocean
18 November 2024 Financial Analysts Journal Volume 81, Issue 1

How Should Investors’ Long-Term Returns Be Measured?

  1. Hendrik Bessembinder
  2. Te-Feng Chen
  3. Goeun Choi
  4. K.C. John Wei
We assess measures of long-horizon investment outcomes, highlighting the importance of interim cash flow reinvestment. We also introduce the notion of “sustainable return” as the rate of withdrawal consistent with preservation of real capital.
Read the Complete Article in the Financial Analysts Journal CFA Institute Member Content
woman reviewing a report
Publish in the Financial Analysts Journal

Interested in having your article published in the Financial Analysts Journal? Submit your article here.

Abstract

We assess measures of long-horizon investment outcomes and clarify underlying trading strategy interpretations. We focus attention on a measure we call the “sustainable return,” defined as the rate of periodic withdrawal for consumption consistent with the preservation of real capital. We use this notion to highlight the role of return sequence risk, which is distinct from risk in the overall level of returns. We illustrate this and several other long-horizon measures in a global stock sample, emphasizing limitations of the arithmetic and geometric means of short-interval returns and the necessity in many contexts to consider the reinvestment of interim cash flows.

We're using cookies, but you can turn them off in Privacy Settings. Otherwise, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Learn more in our Privacy Policy.