What is Total Return Calculation for the Performance Graph? Is it the same as Stock-Tracking?
Total Return is not the same as stock-tracking. It is much more involved, and much more difficult to calculate than simple closing price return. Total Return Calculation includes the re-investment of dividends, historical split-adjustments, special calculations for spin-offs and special dividends as well as market-capitalization and shares out-standing information. Imagine finding 5-years of historical, pricing, dividend and split data for 500 companies for the S&P 500 or 5000 for the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 Index. Not an easy task.
