iShares MSCI Emerging Index Fund (EEM)

TotalReturn:

'Total return, when measuring performance, is the actual rate of return of an investment or a pool of investments over a given evaluation period. Total return includes interest, capital gains, dividends and distributions realized over a given period of time. Total return accounts for two categories of return: income including interest paid by fixed-income investments, distributions or dividends and capital appreciation, representing the change in the market price of an asset.'

• Compared with the benchmark SPY (80%) in the period of the last 5 years, the total return of 18.2% of iShares MSCI Emerging Index Fund is smaller, thus worse.
• Compared with SPY (78.8%) in the period of the last 3 years, the total return, or increase in value of 61.4% is lower, thus worse.

CAGR:

'Compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is a business and investing specific term for the geometric progression ratio that provides a constant rate of return over the time period. CAGR is not an accounting term, but it is often used to describe some element of the business, for example revenue, units delivered, registered users, etc. CAGR dampens the effect of volatility of periodic returns that can render arithmetic means irrelevant. It is particularly useful to compare growth rates from various data sets of common domain such as revenue growth of companies in the same industry.'

• Compared with the benchmark SPY (12.5%) in the period of the last 5 years, the annual performance (CAGR) of 3.4% of iShares MSCI Emerging Index Fund is lower, thus worse.
• Compared with SPY (21.5%) in the period of the last 3 years, the annual return (CAGR) of 17.4% is lower, thus worse.

Volatility:

'Volatility is a statistical measure of the dispersion of returns for a given security or market index. Volatility can either be measured by using the standard deviation or variance between returns from that same security or market index. Commonly, the higher the volatility, the riskier the security. In the securities markets, volatility is often associated with big swings in either direction. For example, when the stock market rises and falls more than one percent over a sustained period of time, it is called a 'volatile' market.'

• The 30 days standard deviation over 5 years of iShares MSCI Emerging Index Fund is 18.2%, which is larger, thus worse compared to the benchmark SPY (17%) in the same period.
• Looking at historical 30 days volatility in of 16.6% in the period of the last 3 years, we see it is relatively greater, thus worse in comparison to SPY (15.1%).

DownVol:

'The downside volatility is similar to the volatility, or standard deviation, but only takes losing/negative periods into account.'

• The downside volatility over 5 years of iShares MSCI Emerging Index Fund is 12.6%, which is greater, thus worse compared to the benchmark SPY (11.7%) in the same period.
• During the last 3 years, the downside deviation is 11.3%, which is higher, thus worse than the value of 10.1% from the benchmark.

Sharpe:

'The Sharpe ratio is the measure of risk-adjusted return of a financial portfolio. Sharpe ratio is a measure of excess portfolio return over the risk-free rate relative to its standard deviation. Normally, the 90-day Treasury bill rate is taken as the proxy for risk-free rate. A portfolio with a higher Sharpe ratio is considered superior relative to its peers. The measure was named after William F Sharpe, a Nobel laureate and professor of finance, emeritus at Stanford University.'

• Looking at the ratio of return and volatility (Sharpe) of 0.05 in the last 5 years of iShares MSCI Emerging Index Fund, we see it is relatively lower, thus worse in comparison to the benchmark SPY (0.59)
• During the last 3 years, the risk / return profile (Sharpe) is 0.89, which is lower, thus worse than the value of 1.26 from the benchmark.

Sortino:

'The Sortino ratio improves upon the Sharpe ratio by isolating downside volatility from total volatility by dividing excess return by the downside deviation. The Sortino ratio is a variation of the Sharpe ratio that differentiates harmful volatility from total overall volatility by using the asset's standard deviation of negative asset returns, called downside deviation. The Sortino ratio takes the asset's return and subtracts the risk-free rate, and then divides that amount by the asset's downside deviation. The ratio was named after Frank A. Sortino.'

• The downside risk / excess return profile over 5 years of iShares MSCI Emerging Index Fund is 0.07, which is lower, thus worse compared to the benchmark SPY (0.86) in the same period.
• Compared with SPY (1.89) in the period of the last 3 years, the excess return divided by the downside deviation of 1.31 is lower, thus worse.

Ulcer:

'The ulcer index is a stock market risk measure or technical analysis indicator devised by Peter Martin in 1987, and published by him and Byron McCann in their 1989 book The Investors Guide to Fidelity Funds. It's designed as a measure of volatility, but only volatility in the downward direction, i.e. the amount of drawdown or retracement occurring over a period. Other volatility measures like standard deviation treat up and down movement equally, but a trader doesn't mind upward movement, it's the downside that causes stress and stomach ulcers that the index's name suggests.'

• Looking at the Ulcer Ratio of 19 in the last 5 years of iShares MSCI Emerging Index Fund, we see it is relatively greater, thus worse in comparison to the benchmark SPY (8.42 )
• Looking at Downside risk index in of 4.98 in the period of the last 3 years, we see it is relatively larger, thus worse in comparison to SPY (3.39 ).

MaxDD:

'A maximum drawdown is the maximum loss from a peak to a trough of a portfolio, before a new peak is attained. Maximum Drawdown is an indicator of downside risk over a specified time period. It can be used both as a stand-alone measure or as an input into other metrics such as 'Return over Maximum Drawdown' and the Calmar Ratio. Maximum Drawdown is expressed in percentage terms.'

• Compared with the benchmark SPY (-24.5 days) in the period of the last 5 years, the maximum reduction from previous high of -37.8 days of iShares MSCI Emerging Index Fund is lower, thus worse.
• Looking at maximum DrawDown in of -17.3 days in the period of the last 3 years, we see it is relatively larger, thus better in comparison to SPY (-18.8 days).

MaxDuration:

'The Drawdown Duration is the length of any peak to peak period, or the time between new equity highs. The Max Drawdown Duration is the worst (the maximum/longest) amount of time an investment has seen between peaks (equity highs) in days.'

• Compared with the benchmark SPY (488 days) in the period of the last 5 years, the maximum days below previous high of 1060 days of iShares MSCI Emerging Index Fund is higher, thus worse.
• Looking at maximum time in days below previous high water mark in of 164 days in the period of the last 3 years, we see it is relatively greater, thus worse in comparison to SPY (87 days).

AveDuration:

'The Drawdown Duration is the length of any peak to peak period, or the time between new equity highs. The Avg Drawdown Duration is the average amount of time an investment has seen between peaks (equity highs), or in other terms the average of time under water of all drawdowns. So in contrast to the Maximum duration it does not measure only one drawdown event but calculates the average of all.'

• Compared with the benchmark SPY (119 days) in the period of the last 5 years, the average days below previous high of 465 days of iShares MSCI Emerging Index Fund is higher, thus worse.
• During the last 3 years, the average time in days below previous high water mark is 45 days, which is greater, thus worse than the value of 19 days from the benchmark.