发表机构
Washington University in St. Louis（华盛顿大学圣路易斯分校）
机构由 AI 辅助整理，请以论文原文为准。AI 中文总结
提出 Return-to-Present (RTP) 曲线，以连续固定终点图形整合累计收益图与滚动收益表，展示入场日期敏感性及投资比较，用于历史决策支持。
AI 中文摘要
投资业绩通常以两种方式呈现：一种是传统的累计收益图，它固定一个历史起始日期并向前追踪业绩；另一种是滚动收益表，它固定当前终点但仅报告一小部分预设的持有期。这两种展示方式具有互补的局限性：固定起始日期的比较依赖于所选起点，而滚动收益仅提供底层固定终点收益函数的离散快照。我们提出 Return-to-Present (RTP) 曲线作为一种连续的固定终点表示，通过将评估日期固定而允许假设的历史购买日期在可用历史范围内变化，从而将这两种视角结合起来。因此，常见的 1 个月、3 个月、6 个月、1 年及更长的滚动收益成为连续曲线上的选定点。当多个投资叠加显示时，RTP 直接展示入场日期敏感性、持续的相对优势、交叉点以及分离的时点和幅度，而无需选择单一的历史起点。这种基于终点的构造自然地适应了起始日期不等的投资、定期购买以及追溯性的投资组合轮动决策（其中卖出和替换购买日期可能不同）。我们使用真实投资数据说明这些用途，并讨论其与动量的关系。RTP 并未定义新的收益度量；其贡献在于对熟悉的已实现收益进行简单的图形化组织，用于历史比较和决策支持，而非预测或统计推断。
英文摘要
Investment performance is commonly presented either as a conventional cumulative-return chart, which fixes a historical starting date and traces performance forward, or as a trailing-return table, which fixes the current endpoint but reports only a small set of prespecified horizons. These two displays have complementary limitations: fixed-start comparisons are conditional on the selected origin, whereas trailing returns provide only discrete snapshots of the underlying fixed-endpoint return function. We present the Return-to-Present (RTP) curve as a continuous fixed-endpoint representation that brings these perspectives together by holding the evaluation date fixed while allowing the hypothetical historical purchase date to vary over the available history. Familiar 1-month, 3-month, 6-month, 1-year, and longer trailing returns therefore become selected points on a continuous curve. When multiple investments are overlaid, RTP directly displays entry-date sensitivity, persistent relative advantage, crossings, and the timing and magnitude of separation without requiring selection of a single historical origin. The same endpoint-based construction naturally accommodates investments with unequal inception dates, recurring purchases, and retrospective portfolio rotation decisions in which sale and replacement-purchase dates may differ. We illustrate these uses with real investment data and discuss its relationship to momentum. RTP does not define a new return measure; its contribution is a simple graphical organization of familiar realized returns for historical comparison and decision support rather than prediction or statistical inference.
