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The Global Insight

What is the expected return of the stock investment?

Author

James Olson

Updated on February 08, 2026

The average stock market return is about 10% per year for nearly the last century. The S&P 500 is often considered the benchmark measure for annual stock market returns. Though 10% is the average stock market return, returns in any year are far from average.

What is a bad ROI?

A negative ROI means the investment lost money, so you have less than you would have if you had simply done nothing with your assets.

How is the expected return of a stock calculated?

Thus, an investor might shy away from stocks with high standard deviations from their average return, even if their calculations show the investment to offer an excellent average return. It’s also important to keep in mind that expected return is calculated based on a stock’s past performance.

What is the expected return on an investment portfolio?

To illustrate the expected return for an investment portfolio, let’s assume the portfolio is comprised of investments in three assets – X, Y, and Z. $2,000 is invested in X, $5,000 invested in Y, and $3,000 is invested in Z. Assume that the expected returns for X, Y, and Z have been calculated and found to be 15%, 10%, and 20%, respectively.

What should my return be on my stock investments?

If you’re a new investor and expect to earn 15% or 20% compounded returns on your blue-chip stock holdings over decades, you expect too much. It’s not going to happen. That might sound harsh, but you need to know it. Anyone who says you’ll get returns like that is taking advantage of your greed and lack of experience.

What is the purpose of the expected return?

Expected return is simply a measure of probabilities intended to show the likelihood that a given investment will generate a positive return, and what the likely return will be. The purpose of calculating the expected return on an investment is to provide an investor with an idea of probable profit vs risk.