Rate of return in the context of "Internal rate of return"

An interest rate is the amount of interest due per period, as a proportion of the amount lent, deposited, or borrowed. Interest rate periods are ordinarily a year and are often annualized when not. Alongside interest rates, three other variables determine total interest: principal sum, compounding frequency, and length of time.

Interest rates reflect a borrower's willingness to pay for money now over money in the future. In debt financing, companies borrow capital from a bank, in the expectation that the borrowed capital may be used to generate a return on investment greater than the interest rates. Failure of a borrower to continue paying interest is an example of default, which may be followed by bankruptcy proceedings. Collateral is sometimes given in the event of default.

Capital gain is an economic concept defined as the profit earned on the sale of an asset which has increased in value over the holding period. An asset may include tangible property, a car, a business, or intangible property such as shares.

A capital gain is only possible when the selling price of the asset is greater than the original purchase price. In the event that the purchase price exceeds the sale price, a capital loss occurs. Capital gains are often subject to taxation, of which rates and exemptions may differ between countries. The history of capital gain originates at the birth of the modern economic system and its evolution has been described as complex and multidimensional by a variety of economic thinkers. The concept of capital gain may be considered comparable with other key economic concepts such as profit and rate of return; however, its distinguishing feature is that individuals, not just businesses, can accrue capital gains through everyday acquisition and disposal of assets.

The net present value (NPV) or net present worth (NPW) is a way of measuring the value of an asset that has cashflow by adding up the present value of all the future cash flows that asset will generate. The present value of a cash flow depends on the interval of time between now and the cash flow because of the time value of money (which includes the annual effective discount rate). It provides a method for evaluating and comparing capital projects or financial products with cash flows spread over time, as in loans, investments, payouts from insurance contracts plus many other applications.

Time value of money dictates that time affects the value of cash flows. For example, a lender may offer 99 cents for the promise of receiving $1.00 a month from now, but the promise to receive that same dollar 20 years in the future would be worth much less today to that same person (lender), even if the payback in both cases was equally certain. This decrease in the current value of future cash flows is based on a chosen rate of return (or discount rate). If for example there exists a time series of identical cash flows, the cash flow in the present is the most valuable, with each future cash flow becoming less valuable than the previous cash flow. A cash flow today is more valuable than an identical cash flow in the future because a present flow can be invested immediately and begin earning returns, while a future flow cannot.

Future value is the value of a current sum of money or stream of cash flows at a specified date in the future, given an assumed rate of return or interest rate. It reflects the time value of money, which holds that a sum of money has different value at different points in time because it can earn a return if invested.

In finance and economics, future value is used to express how much a present present amount will grow when it earns simple interest or compound interest, and to compare different investment or borrowing options.

In finance, holding period return (HPR) is the return on an asset or portfolio over the whole period during which it was held. It is one of the simplest and most important measures of investment performance.

HPR is the change in value of an investment, asset or portfolio over a particular period. It is the entire gain or loss, which is the sum income and capital gains, divided by the value at the beginning of the period.