In finance, Return on Investment, usually abbreviated as ROI, is a common, widespread metric used to evaluate the forecasted profitability on different investments. Before any serious investment opportunities are even considered, ROI is a solid base from which to go forth. The metric can be applied to anything from stocks, real estate, employees, to even a sheep farm; anything that has a cost with the potential to derive gains from can have an ROI assigned to it. While much more intricate formulas exist to help calculate rate of return on investments accurately, ROI is lauded and still widely used due to its simplicity and broad usage as a quick-and-dirty method. Many money-making schemes involve several businessmen seated at a table during lunch talking about potential investments to dive into, until one of them exclaims about one with a very high ROI after doing the calculations on a napkin.