ROI is only half the story
ROI tells you the return but not the risk you took to get it. A big ROI on a trade that could have wiped you out is not skill, it is survivorship. Pair this with the position size calculator and risk of ruin calculator to judge whether the return was worth the risk.
ROI without time context is almost useless
50% return sounds good. 50% over 3 years is 14.5% annualized β roughly what the S&P 500 averaged in bull markets. 50% in 3 months is 300%+ annualized β unlikely to be repeatable. The number alone means nothing.
Formula: ROI = (final β initial) Γ· initial Γ 100. For CAGR (annualized): (final/initial)^(1/years) β 1. A $1,000 investment that grew to $1,500 over 2 years is 50% total ROI, 22.5% CAGR.
Crypto complicates this with DCA (multiple entry prices), fees, and tax events. If you bought multiple times, your real ROI uses weighted average cost basis, not the first purchase price. This calculator handles single entry; for multiple purchases use the DCA calculator or average entry calculator.
Fees are subtracted on both sides of every ROI calculation above β a tighter schedule keeps more of the gross gain as realized ROI:
Related: CAGR calculator, annualized return, profit goal calculator.