Last twelve months (LTM), also known as trailing twelve months (TTM), is the 12-month interval occurring before a given point in time.
How It Works
For example, an analyst who is issuing a report on October 15, 2012 will report last twelve months (LTW) earnings as those from October 1, 2011 to September 30, 2012.
Why It Matters
Analysts and policymakers frequently use the last twelve months to gauge economic performance and to analyze data from the past year. It is important not to confuse the last twelve months with the last fiscal year (LFY), which covers the organization's most recently-completed fiscal year.
long-term memoryIn order for material to be transferred to LTM, it must be related to things one already knows. Although there are no time or capacity limitations to LTM, there is no guarantee that one will always be able to use the information that is encoded in it.— Judith Stevens-Long and Nancy J. Cobb, Adolescence and Early Adulthood, 1983
