document.write( "Question 717059: I would like to know the total % gains of an investment fund that contains 4 different items that all amount to a different percentage of the investment.
\n" ); document.write( "i.e
\n" ); document.write( "Gold is 20% of the investment and has gained 4.2%
\n" ); document.write( "Silver is 20% of the investment and has gained 6.1%
\n" ); document.write( "Platinum is 30% of the investment and has gained 10.7%
\n" ); document.write( "Palladium is 30% of the investment and has gained 25.2%\r
\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "I know that to get the average gain of the fund i simply add the 4 % gains and divide by 4 (giving 11.6%)\r
\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "But I wish to know the amount of percentage that the fund has gained in total. \n" ); document.write( "
Algebra.Com's Answer #440070 by KMST(5328)\"\" \"About 
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20% of anything means 20 out of every 100, so it is calculated by multiplying times the ratio or decimal
\n" ); document.write( "\"20%2F100=0.2\"
\n" ); document.write( "4.2% of anything means 4.2 out of every 100, so it is calculated by multiplying times the ratio or decimal
\n" ); document.write( "\"4.2%2F100=0.042\"
\n" ); document.write( "As a fraction of the total invested, the gain from just the 20% of the total amount that has gained 4.2% can be calculated as many expressions:
\n" ); document.write( " or 0.84%
\n" ); document.write( "It seems to me that the easiest way to calculate it and understand it is
\n" ); document.write( "\"0.2%2A4.2%2F100=0.84%2F100=0.84\"%
\n" ); document.write( "Since investments often are apportioned as 10% or 20% or 30% of the total amount invested (all multiples of 10%), you end up just multiplying each percent gain times an easy decimal, like 0.1, or 0.2, or 0.3.
\n" ); document.write( "Adding all the gains as a fraction of the total invested we get the total gain as a fraction of the total invested:
\n" ); document.write( "%
\n" ); document.write( "I would call that the average gain.
\n" ); document.write( "It can be called a weighted average because in this calculation you give each individual investment the correct weight based on what fraction of the total investment it represents.
\n" ); document.write( "It is the number that matters.
\n" ); document.write( "An average calculated from adding all the individual % gains and dividing by the number of different investments gives all those different investments the same weight, as if each ones represented \"1%2F4\" of the total invested. \n" ); document.write( "
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