One of the fundamental concepts of financial theory is to find compromise between risk and return. In the traditional approach to ratio of risk and return – higher yield faces a higher risk. It does not take into consideration the timeframe of investments. Purpose of this article is to analyze the risk-profitability ratio of financial instruments depending on the investment period in developed and emerging markets. The analysis showed that the prolongation of the investment period reduces the risk indicators, and the yield remains almost constant. At long time periods shares indicate higher returns with lower risk.