Glossary · Defined term
Year-to-date
Year-to-date (YTD) measures performance from January 1 of the current year to the present day. Definition, how to read it, and an example.
Last updated Oct 2, 2026
What it means
Year-to-date, abbreviated YTD, measures performance from January 1 of the current year through the present day. A YTD return of 12% means the investment has gained 12% since the start of the calendar year. It is the standard way to answer the question of how something is doing this year, used for individual stocks, funds, indexes, and whole portfolios.
YTD figures reset every January, which makes them useful for comparing performance within the same year but tricky across years. A stock up 20% YTD in March is on a tear; the same 20% YTD in December is merely solid. Always check the as-of date, because a YTD number is a moving target that changes with every trading day.
Investors use YTD alongside benchmarks to judge relative performance: beating the index YTD means outperforming the market so far this year. Fund fact sheets, brokerage dashboards, and earnings commentary all report YTD as a matter of course, so it pays to know exactly what the window covers.
An example
For illustration, on October 1 a stock is up 12% YTD while the S&P 500 is up 8% YTD. The stock has gained 12% since January 1 and is beating the market by 4 percentage points so far this year.