Vintage year.

In plain English

A vintage year labels a private fund by when it first put money to work, the way a wine is labeled by harvest. It exists because entry prices and exit windows differ enormously depending on when a fund started, so comparing funds from different vintages tells you as much about timing as about skill. Performance tables group funds by vintage and rank them within the group, usually by quartile. A fund that bought at high prices before a downturn faces a different task than one that started buying after prices fell. Definitions vary slightly, since some use the first capital call and some use the final close.

01Why it matters

A fund can look excellent or terrible mostly because of the year it started, so knowing the vintage tells you whether a track record reflects judgment or timing.

02The math, step by step

Say two funds each return 1.6 times the money invested. One is a vintage that entered when prices were high, and its peer group averaged 1.2 times. The other entered when prices were low, and its peer group averaged 2.0 times. Same 1.6, top quartile in one group and bottom in the other.

Illustrative example. The amounts here are hypothetical, chosen to show how the math works, not real quoted rates or figures.

03What this is NOT

04Receipts

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