Stamp Return Calculator
The formula
What the stamp return tells you
Exactly what stamp return earned: total return, the annualised CAGR that makes it comparable, and the split between price gain and income.
Calculation: Total return = (sell + income − buy) ÷ buy; CAGR = ((sell + income) ÷ buy)^(1/years) − 1. Enter your inputs and every substitution is shown below the result.
Reading the result
Compare with the boring alternative over the same window — the verdict bands anchor to long-run market returns; income-heavy gains are usually steadier than price-only ones.
Rules of thumb: Long-run real equity return sits near 6–7 % nominal CAGR plus inflation; bonds run 2–4 points lower.
Limitations and best practice
Ignoring the timing of income (reinvested vs spent) can overstate a CAGR by a few tenths; dividends spent as cash belong outside the ending value.
This calculator gives an estimate based on standard formulas; it is not professional financial, medical, legal or engineering advice. Verify anything you plan to act on with a qualified professional and your own records.
Frequently asked questions
Why does CAGR differ from average yearly return?
Are taxes included?
Source & methodology
Time-weighted return arithmetic per CFA Institute conventions.
How Stamp Return works — and what your result really means
You are comparing options that arrive in different shapes, and Stamp Return is the level playing field that makes them comparable. Searchers land on a Stamp Return page for three reasons — to plan, to compare options, and to check that somebody else’s arithmetic is honest. This tool serves all three, and everything after the calculator explains the model instead of hiding it.
Return and risk arrive as a package in Stamp Return. A result of -6.82% means little until you ask what variance sits behind it, how it compares with the boring alternative (the companion tools above compute exactly that comparison), and whether the inputs assume the good scenario or the expected one.
It helps to separate the mechanics from the interpretation. The mechanics are fixed: Total return = (sell + income − buy) ÷ buy; CAGR = ((sell + income) ÷ buy)^(1/years) − 1. Anyone, anywhere, entering the same inputs will get the same -6.82%. The interpretation is where experience counts: whether -6.82% is good, normal or alarming depends on comparisons covered below, and that is the part most articles about Stamp Return never explain.
Nothing below is stock text pasted around a number: the worked example computes total return = -6.82% from this tool’s own defaults, and the sensitivity section ranks the inputs that move the result — Buy price / invested first, at ≈151.7 % of the headline for a ten-percent error either way in that input. Work down the page and by the end you could re-derive the result in a spreadsheet from memory.
Inside the Stamp Return calculation: formula and every input
One formula, published in full: Total return = (sell + income − buy) ÷ buy; CAGR = ((sell + income) ÷ buy)^(1/years) − 1. Anything you can read, you can reproduce in a spreadsheet, and that reproducibility is the whole point of printing it rather than hiding it behind a button.
Buy price / invested ($) (example value 12,750) is a numeric input whose unit is fixed by the label; a wrong unit is a wrong answer wearing a plausible disguise. Use the figure exactly as the source document states it, not a rounded memory of it — an omitted line is the classic silent error.
Sell price / value now ($) (example value 11,500) is a measured number in the unit named by the label; the formula does not convert for you. Keep every money input in the same currency; mixing systems quietly corrupts the comparison.
Holding period (years) (example value 3) is a quantity rather than a category — precision here is cheap and worth having. If the period is partial, decide whether you mean elapsed or planned time and keep that meaning across every field.
Income received over the hold ($) (example value 380) is a plain measured quantity — the unit shown in the label is the unit the formula expects. Keep every money input in the same currency; mixing systems quietly corrupts the comparison.
A fully worked Stamp Return example
Abstract formulas are hard to trust, so here is the complete substitution using the default inputs, written the way an examiner would want it. Starting figures: Buy price / invested ($), Sell price / value now ($), Holding period (years), Income received over the hold ($). The computed total return comes out at -6.82%, which the interpretation band labels “Negative over the hold — the annualised figure below sizes the bleed”.
- Ending value incl. income = $11,500.00 + $380.00 = $11,880.00
- Total return = (11,880.00 − 12,750.00) ÷ 12,750.00 = -6.82 %
- CAGR = (11,880.00 ÷ 12,750.00)^(1/3.0) − 1 = -2.33 % a year
Annualised (CAGR) — -2.33%. Compare it against the main result of -6.82% before drawing conclusions.
Net profit — $-870.00. This is the number experienced users quote when the headline alone would mislead.
Value multiple — 0.93 ×. If your inputs change, this is usually the first companion figure to move.
Income share of gain — 0.0%. If your inputs change, this is usually the first companion figure to move.
Keep this worked example open while you enter your own figures: matching the shape of the substitution is the fastest way to spot a unit or convention mistake.
Scenario table: Stamp Return at ±10 % and ±20 % of the key input
Single-point answers invite false confidence, so the same engine was run across a band around the input that matters most here. Each row is a full recalculation of Stamp Return, not an interpolation.
| Buy price / invested setting | Total return |
|---|---|
| 80 % of the example value | 16.47% |
| 90 % of the example value | 3.53% |
| example inputs | -6.82% |
| 110 % of the example value | -15.29% |
| 120 % of the example value | -22.35% |
Across 5 settings of Buy price / invested, the result spans -22.35% to 16.47%. A decision that only works at one row of this table is a decision waiting for an input to move. Reproduce it in the form above by editing Buy price / invested alone; the substitution steps will follow your figures exactly.
Where Stamp Return is fragile — and where it is not
This list was computed for this specific engine just now: each numeric input was nudged ±10 % while every other field held its example value, and the total return was recalculated from scratch. Read it as a map of where Stamp Return is fragile — drawn for the example inputs, which is the map you want when deciding what to measure carefully.
- Buy price / invested: ten percent up gives -15.29%, ten percent down gives 3.53% — ≈151.7 % of the total return either way
- Sell price / value now +10 % → Stamp Return = 2.20% · −10 % → -15.84% (the total return shifts ≈132.2 %)
- Income received over the hold +10 % → Stamp Return = -6.53% · −10 % → -7.12% (the total return shifts ≈4.4 %)
Buy price / invested is the dominant lever here: ten percent either way moves the result by about 151.7 %, from -15.29% to 3.53%. That is where a careless figure does the most damage, so check it against a source, and treat Sell price / value now as the second priority (≈132.2 % per ten percent). Everything below that can stay approximate, which is a licence to stop chasing data that would not change the decision.
Interpreting the Stamp Return verdict
The value above only becomes useful the moment you know what it is being measured against. The default case lands in the “Negative over the hold — the annualised figure below sizes the bleed” band, and bands are deliberately wide because real situations overlap. Before treating the band as fact, note its width: ten percent either way on Buy price / invested already spans -15.29% to 3.53%. The practical reading rules: ask what would have to change to move you one band. If the answer is “a small, plausible input difference”, the band itself is not the finding — the uncertainty is.
Placing this figure in context: calculators of this kind differ less in arithmetic than in what they choose to ignore. This one keeps Buy price / invested ($) explicit so that the omissions are visible rather than hidden in a preset.
Why Stamp Return results go wrong — and how to prevent it
Ignoring the timing of income (reinvested vs spent) can overstate a CAGR by a few tenths; dividends spent as cash belong outside the ending value. This calculator gives an estimate based on standard formulas; it is not professional financial, medical, legal or engineering advice. Verify anything you plan to act on with a qualified professional and your own records.
Stopping at the first plausible answer. If the result surprises you, the productive question is which input would have to be wrong for the surprise to disappear — then go check that input.
One mistake is specific to this engine: assuming every input matters equally. The computation above shows Buy price / invested dominating — a careful figure there beats false precision everywhere else.
Another is comparing across contexts: a Stamp Return computed with one set of conventions should never be lined up against a figure computed with another. Check the inputs behind both before ranking them.
Six things to confirm before acting on Stamp Return
- Re-run the calculation with a ±10 % stress on the two most sensitive inputs.
- Compare the result with one independent method or published benchmark.
- Put Buy price / invested under a magnifier; the sensitivity table above is the reason why.
- Check that every field the formula needs actually arrived from a document, not from recollection.
- Confirm the example values are plausible for your own situation before replacing them.
- Repeat the ±10 % test on the inputs that matter and see whether the decision — not just the number — still holds.
How to use the Stamp Return tool properly
Using a calculator well sounds trivial, but the difference between a decision-grade figure and a throwaway one lives entirely in the routine. The routine for Stamp Return takes a minute to learn and applies to every input above.
Step 1 — collect, then type. Everything this tool asks for is listed above (buy price / invested ($), sell price / value now ($), holding period (years), income received over the hold ($)). Pull each figure from something you can point at — paperwork, a dashboard, a label — before touching a field. Guesswork at the input stage cannot be repaired at the interpretation stage. Estimates improve most when the worst case is written down in ink.
Step 2 — enter the conservative case first. Resist the flattering scenario. Type the inputs you would defend in front of a sceptical reader, read the Total return (-6.82% for the example values), and note the verdict band. Re-running a number costs seconds; retracting a decision costs considerably more.
Step 3 — measure what deserves measuring. The ranked levers above tell you where a careful figure pays off. Everything else can stay approximate, which is a licence to stop hunting for data you do not need. A figure nobody can reproduce is a figure nobody will act on twice.
Step 4 — stress before you commit. A decision that survives a ten-percent squeeze on its two biggest inputs needs no luck to be sound. One that does not survive is a decision about hope, not about arithmetic. The fastest sanity test is to guess the answer first and see how far the calculation disagrees.
Step 5 — write the one-line memo. “Total return = -6.82% on this date, from these inputs.” That line is the entire deliverable; everything else on this page is how you earned the right to write it. Rounding early is the quietest way to introduce a permanent error.
The real-world conversations Stamp Return settles
In Alternative Investments the figure computed here is usually the first one somebody asks to see. Having it — with the formula behind it — changes your position in the conversation from participant to reference. Precision is a promise you make about your data; make sure your inputs can keep it.
The companion outputs — Annualised (CAGR) and Net profit — exist for the second stage of that screen: the headline sizes the prize, while the companions describe the trade-off you are accepting to get it. Precision is a promise you make about your data; make sure your inputs can keep it.
Treat Stamp Return like a smoke alarm rather than a painting — its value is in being tested periodically, not in being admired once. If the verdict changes with a ten-percent nudge, report the nudge alongside the number.
The questions that come up most about Stamp Return
What affects Stamp Return the most?
The short answer: Buy price / invested. The longer answer is the sensitivity table on this page, where every numeric input was probed by ten percent and the total return recalculated — Buy price / invested moved it furthest, by roughly 151.7 % (-15.29% to 3.53%).
Which matters more: sell price / value now or buy price / invested?
For Stamp Return, Buy price / invested wins the head-to-head (≈151.7 % against ≈132.2 % per ten-percent change). Knowing which input dominates is the difference between careful work and merely slow work.
What is a typical Stamp Return?
There is no honest universal average for Stamp Return, but there is a reference point: the defaults on this page produce -6.82% (Negative over the hold — the annualised figure below sizes the bleed). Replace the inputs with your own and compare — that comparison is the useful meaning of “typical”.
How do I calculate Stamp Return by hand?
Use the stated model — Total return = (sell + income − buy) ÷ buy; CAGR = ((sell + income) ÷ buy)^(1/years) − 1 — and substitute in the order the tool prints (it starts from Ending value incl. income = $11,500.00 + $380.00 = $11,880.00). On the example inputs the hand route lands on -6.82%, exactly what the calculator shows. A spreadsheet reproduces it in two or three cells; doing it once by hand is what makes the automated answer trustworthy.
What happens to Stamp Return if buy price / invested changes by 10 %?
On these inputs a ±10 % change in buy price / invested takes Stamp Return to -15.29% against the -6.82% example — around 151.7 % of the headline. The same test on every other field is in the sensitivity section.
Is the Stamp Return result of -6.82% good or bad?
Neither, on its own — the label “Negative over the hold — the annualised figure below sizes the bleed” is the band this figure falls in for the example inputs, and your own inputs will place you elsewhere on the same ladder. Judge the number against your history and your alternatives, and remember that a ten-percent error in Buy price / invested alone moves it by ≈151.7 %.
How often should I check Stamp Return?
Whenever an input changes by more than a few percent, and otherwise on the rhythm of your decisions — before a purchase, a review, a renewal. Stamp Return is a snapshot, not a subscription; stale snapshots are the most common silent error in Investing & Markets planning.
Can Stamp Return be negative or empty?
Yes, and that is informative rather than broken: a negative Stamp Return usually means the inputs encode an outflow or a shortfall, and the verdict band above labels exactly that situation instead of hiding it.
Why does CAGR differ from average yearly return?
CAGR compounds — it is the single steady rate that turns the start into the end, while arithmetic averages flatter volatile paths.
Are taxes included?
No, this is the pre-tax picture; subtract tax drag on gains and income before comparing with a tax-sheltered alternative.
Is my data private on this page?
Yes — computation happens locally in your browser, with no account, no tracking of your inputs and nothing sent to a server. The printed formula is the whole story of what happens to your figures.
Glossary for Stamp Return
- Annualised (CAGR)
- -2.33% in the default Stamp Return calculation — one of the secondary figures an experienced reader checks before trusting the primary number.
- Net profit
- $-870.00 in the default Stamp Return calculation — one of the secondary figures an experienced reader checks before trusting the primary number.
- Value multiple
- 0.93 × on the example inputs — a companion figure printed beside the headline of Stamp Return so that no result is read in isolation.
- Total return
- The primary output of this tool: -6.82% for the default inputs, computed exactly from Total return = (sell + income − buy) ÷ buy; CAGR = ((sell + income) ÷ buy)^(1/years) − 1.
- Worked example
- Every substitution in order, from the example inputs to -6.82% — the audit trail for the headline figure.
- Verdict band
- The plain-language label — here “Negative over the hold — the annualised figure below sizes the bleed” — mapping the computed figure onto experience-based ranges for Investing & Markets.
- Sensitivity (±10 %)
- How far the Stamp Return moves when a single input is nudged ten percent either way; the ranked list on this page is computed live from this engine.
The provenance of this Stamp Return calculation
Everything above runs on one stated formula, applied without hidden coefficients: Total return = (sell + income − buy) ÷ buy; CAGR = ((sell + income) ÷ buy)^(1/years) − 1. Source of record: Time-weighted return arithmetic per CFA Institute conventions. Where a professional version of this calculation differs, it differs in inputs and jurisdiction-specific coefficients, not in the algebra — which is why re-checking your inputs beats hunting for a second calculator.
Treat the output as a precise answer to the question you typed: exact arithmetic, transparent formula, published source, no hidden rounding. The design constraint was set by usefulness rather than by comfort: an estimate you can interrogate beats an answer you have to trust.
Next steps after the calculation
Pair this figure with the companion outputs above — the headline sizes the prize, the companions describe the risk.
This page was written for investors and founders comparing opportunities on equal terms, and the promise is that nothing above required trust. Bookmark the tool, re-run it whenever an input moves by more than a few percent, and keep the date with the number.