Which investment gives a higher return?

Asset A: HPR=10% Holding Period=8months
Asset B: HPR=-6% HP=15months
Asset C: HPR=15% HP=3years
Asset D: HPR=5% HP=18weeks

If possible, pls show how u got the answer.
Thx

Patrick's answer is a close approximation, but theoretically it is wrong. He used simple division and multiplication to arrive at his answers. That's not accurate, because interest rates will result in exponential growth, so you've gotta use exponents. The equation you want is the Annualized HPR equation given here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holding_Per...

I didn't calculate all of them, but for asset A the rate should be:
15.369% (I rounded to 3 decimal places).

Here is how you want to use that equation:

"Present Value" - this is the value after collecting the interest for each asset. I would use these numbers for the present values:

Assest A: 1.10
Assest B: 0.94 (you said the rate was -6% right? If it's 6%, this should be 1.06)
Assest C: 1.15
Assest D: 1.05

"Intermediate gains" are zero, they don't apply here.

"Initial value" is easy, this number is 1 for each example.

"number of years" is just the holding time divided by 1 year, or 12 months. So for asset A, the # of years is 8/12, or 2/3.

Then in the equation you use the reciprocal of the number of years, so for Asset A you will end up with 3/2, or 1.5
That is the exponent you are going to use outside the parentheses.

Sorry if I over-explained this. Good luck!

Oh and to answer the question, Asset D gives the highest return.

convert each return rate to a common period, like one year.
Hence 10% for 8 months equals 15% for 12 months
6% for 15 months = 4.8% for 12 months
15% for 3 years = 5% for 12 months
5% for 18 weeks = 14.44% for 12 months.