Calculate Returns over Period of Time

Question

I\'m trying to get a time series of returns for holding a certain asset for a specific time.

My dataframe looks like this:

Date          Price
1998-01-01         


        

Answer 1

I suggest switching to a time series class, like xts or zoo. But if you just want to get it done, and learn more later, you can do it pretty easily as a data frame. Note that I have to pad the return vectors with NAs to make it line up correctly and that a hold of 20 really buy on 1 and sells on 1 + 20:

> library(xts) 
> set.seed(2001)
> n <- 50
> hold <- 20
> price <- rep(55, n)
> walk <- rnorm(n)
> for (i in 2:n) price[i] <- price[i-1] + walk[i]
> data <- data.frame(date=as.Date("2001-05-25") + seq(n), price=price)
> data <- transform(data, return=c(diff(log(price), lag=hold), rep(NA, hold)))

If you're ready for xts or zoo (this should work in either), then I suggest using rollapply to get the forward look (assuming you want the forward looking return, which makes it a lot easier to form portfolios today and see how it works into the future):

> data.xts <- xts(data[, -1], data[, 1])
> f <- function(x) log(tail(x, 1)) - log(head(x, 1))
> data.xts$returns.xts <- rollapply(data.xts$price, FUN=f, width=hold+1, align="left", na.pad=T)

The two approaches are the same:

> head(data.xts, hold+2)
         price       return  returns.xts
 [1,] 55.00000  0.026746496  0.026746496
 [2,] 54.22219  0.029114744  0.029114744
 [3,] 53.19811  0.047663206  0.047663206
 [4,] 53.50088  0.046470723  0.046470723
 [5,] 53.85202  0.041843116  0.041843116
 [6,] 54.75061  0.018464467  0.018464467
 [7,] 55.52704 -0.001105607 -0.001105607
 [8,] 56.15930 -0.024183803 -0.024183803
 [9,] 56.61779 -0.010757559 -0.010757559
[10,] 55.51042  0.005494771  0.005494771
[11,] 55.17217  0.044864991  0.044864991
[12,] 56.07005  0.025411005  0.025411005
[13,] 55.47287  0.052408720  0.052408720
[14,] 56.10754  0.034089602  0.034089602
[15,] 56.35584  0.075726190  0.075726190
[16,] 56.40290  0.072824657  0.072824657
[17,] 56.05761  0.070589032  0.070589032
[18,] 55.93916  0.069936575  0.069936575
[19,] 56.50367  0.081570964  0.081570964
[20,] 56.12105  0.116041931  0.116041931
[21,] 56.49091  0.095520517  0.095520517
[22,] 55.82406  0.137245367  0.137245367