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View Full Version : IRR of negative outflows


mrees11
Dec 16, 2009, 08:07 PM
If you have an initial outlay of 100 and then a year later you have 200 dollars that you pay out, can you find an IRR

ArcSine
Dec 17, 2009, 05:09 AM
Not if those are your only cash flows, because (by the definition of IRR) there is no r such that

\frac{-100}{1+r} \ + \ \frac{-200}{(1+r)^2} \ = \ 0

The PV will approach zero asymptotically, though, as r \ \rightarrow \ \infty , but that has no real-world significance.

But if you're asking an IRR can be found when there is more than one cash outflow within the sequence of all the cash flows, then absolutely. There might exist more than one solution, but usually there's one which 'makes sense' for realistic purposes.