Standard & Poor's states "the most correct method is to use an Arithmetic mean of historical returns."

The historical returns, of course, helped Putnam's efforts to publicize the fund.

He looks at the 10 percent historical return and subtracts three points for inflation.

"The strong historical financial returns produced by the direct players appear at risk."

The screening gets trickier in the final measurement: historical returns.

This, the professors say, all but proves that stocks' expected return should be below what their historical return has been over the past five decades.

Her money earns 10.9 percent annually, the historical long-term return for stocks of large companies.

When adding a hedge fund, they also include its historical returns.

Despite their similar historical returns, the two funds are managed quite differently.

In either case, information other than historical returns is relevant.