How do I calculate holding period on certain stock?

Question

How do I calculate the holding period on a stock?? Is it to take the price of the first day after opening of the stock divided by the last dsay of the price??

Answer 1

The holding period is a period of time. Do you mean the Holding Period Return for a stock?

Most of the time, it will be equal to:

Return = (P_end + D)/P_start - 1.0

where P_start is the price at the start of the period, P_end is the price at the end of the period, and D is the sum of all dividends paid during the period.

I say "most of the time" because if there was a stock split, that complicates things. You need to adjust the starting price (and possibly the dividends) to reflect the split.