In finance, return is a profit on an investment. It comprises any change in value, and interest or dividends or other such cash flows which the investor receives from the investment.Ambiguously, return is also used to refer to a profit on an investment, expressed as a proportion of the amount invested. This is also called the holding period return.A loss instead of a profit is described as a negative return.Rate of return is a profit on an investment over a period of time, expressed as a proportion of the original investment. The time period is typically a year, in which case the rate of return is referred to as annual return.Return, in the second sense, and rate of return, are commonly presented as a percentage.ROI is an abbreviation of return on investment, i.e. return per dollar invested. It is a measure of investment performance, as opposed to size (c.f. return on equity, return on assets, return on capital employed).