Year-To-Date

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Year-To-Date is a period starting January 1 of the current year and ending today. Year-to-date is used in many contexts, mainly for recording results of an activity in the time between today's date and the beginning of either the calendar or fiscal year.

In the context of finance, YTD is often provided in financial statements detailing the performance of a business entity. Providing current YTD results, as well as YTD results for one or more past years as of the same date, allows owners, managers, investors, and other stakeholders to compare the company's current performance to that of past periods.

YTD describes the return so far this year. For example: the year to date (ytd) return for the stock is 8%. This means from 1st of January of current year to date, stock has appreciated by 8%.

Another example: the year to date (ytd) rental income of a property (whose Fiscal Year End is 3/31/09) is $1000.00 as of 06/30/08. This means that the property brought in $1000.00 of rental income during the period 04/01/08 through 06/30/08 (= the ytd period for the property).

Comparing YTD measures can be misleading if not much of the year has occurred, or the date is not clear. YTD measures are more sensitive to early changes than late changes. Contrast YTD with the concept of 12-months-ending (or Year-ending), which are more resistent to seasonal influences.