Hello all, I have a question about mutual fund gain percentages.

I was going over my 401k portfolio for the year and have stumbled on something. On all my funds they show a Year-To-Date percentage and also a 1 year percentage(plus other years).

Now, one of them (PRLAX) shows a YTD gain of 57.62% but a 1 year gain of 70.63%. Why would one be different than the other? Isn't the "1 year" gain the same as YTD? All my holdings show different numbers for the YTD vs. 1 year.

I'm not a CFP, but YTD would be January one to the end of the reporting period. The Last Year would be a running year- like if it was updated today, the running time frame would be Dec 18, 2004- Dec 18, 2005.

Make sense?

That's what I thought also 8track. But a coworker was showing me one she was looking at. It had 17.94% gain for the 1 year, but -0.97% on the YTD. Unless this stock tanked recently I don't know how that could happen?? Then I started wondering if YTD and 1 year were based off different charts?

8track got it correct.

Are you much of a hands on type investor or are you the put it away and forget about it type? I'm pretty obsessive about it sometimes. In case you don't know, that fund, PRLAX T. Rowe Price Latin America Fund has an average return over the last 5 years of 24%. Not bad. Not bad at all. Considering it's expense ratio of 1.41%, I'd say you're doing well with that one. Of course, you're paying for higher returns and you're getting them. Nicely done.

We use YTD percentages at work, and our YTD numbers run from the last close-out month back twelve months (Nov 31, 2004 through Dec 1, 2005), and our annual numbers represent the past full year (Jan 1, 2003- Dec 31,2004) until the close of this year.

Hope that helps.

funds are good

Tsmith, thanks for your input. That makes a lot of sense.

Herf, I'm not too bad about my holdings. I do watch them closely and keep a spreadsheet of their performances. I'll give them at least 3 months to proove themselves, if the whole market is bad then longer.

I am totally fired up on that Latin America stock. I must admit I've only owned it for two years but it has helped swell the 401k. I work long hours but we're not always busy, so there is a lot of internet time to reasearch. At work we all get together and share info on each others holdings. It has worked pretty well, I've had double digit gains for the last seven years that I've worked here. Not too bad for a bunch of blue collar refinery workers. I'm only 29 right now so it will be a while before I cash out :o)