iShares MSCI Pacific Ex-Japan Index Fund (EPP)

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.'

• Looking at the total return, or increase in value of 22.3% in the last 5 years of iShares MSCI Pacific Ex-Japan Index Fund, we see it is relatively smaller, thus worse in comparison to the benchmark SPY (67.3%)
• Compared with SPY (46.1%) in the period of the last 3 years, the total return, or performance of 31.1% 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 (10.9%) in the period of the last 5 years, the compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.1% of iShares MSCI Pacific Ex-Japan Index Fund is lower, thus worse.
• Looking at annual return (CAGR) in of 9.5% in the period of the last 3 years, we see it is relatively lower, thus worse in comparison to SPY (13.5%).

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.'

• Compared with the benchmark SPY (13.2%) in the period of the last 5 years, the 30 days standard deviation of 15.8% of iShares MSCI Pacific Ex-Japan Index Fund is greater, thus worse.
• Looking at volatility in of 13.7% in the period of the last 3 years, we see it is relatively higher, thus worse in comparison to SPY (12.4%).

DownVol:

'Risk measures typically quantify the downside risk, whereas the standard deviation (an example of a deviation risk measure) measures both the upside and downside risk. Specifically, downside risk in our definition is the semi-deviation, that is the standard deviation of all negative returns.'

• The downside volatility over 5 years of iShares MSCI Pacific Ex-Japan Index Fund is 16.7%, which is higher, thus worse compared to the benchmark SPY (14.6%) in the same period.
• During the last 3 years, the downside volatility is 14.5%, which is greater, thus worse than the value of 14% from the benchmark.

Sharpe:

'The Sharpe ratio (also known as the Sharpe index, the Sharpe measure, and the reward-to-variability ratio) is a way to examine the performance of an investment by adjusting for its risk. The ratio measures the excess return (or risk premium) per unit of deviation in an investment asset or a trading strategy, typically referred to as risk, named after William F. Sharpe.'

• The risk / return profile (Sharpe) over 5 years of iShares MSCI Pacific Ex-Japan Index Fund is 0.1, which is smaller, thus worse compared to the benchmark SPY (0.63) in the same period.
• Compared with SPY (0.88) in the period of the last 3 years, the Sharpe Ratio of 0.51 is lower, thus worse.

Sortino:

'The Sortino ratio measures the risk-adjusted return of an investment asset, portfolio, or strategy. It is a modification of the Sharpe ratio but penalizes only those returns falling below a user-specified target or required rate of return, while the Sharpe ratio penalizes both upside and downside volatility equally. Though both ratios measure an investment's risk-adjusted return, they do so in significantly different ways that will frequently lead to differing conclusions as to the true nature of the investment's return-generating efficiency. The Sortino ratio is used as a way to compare the risk-adjusted performance of programs with differing risk and return profiles. In general, risk-adjusted returns seek to normalize the risk across programs and then see which has the higher return unit per risk.'

• The ratio of annual return and downside deviation over 5 years of iShares MSCI Pacific Ex-Japan Index Fund is 0.1, which is smaller, thus worse compared to the benchmark SPY (0.57) in the same period.
• Looking at excess return divided by the downside deviation in of 0.48 in the period of the last 3 years, we see it is relatively lower, thus worse in comparison to SPY (0.79).

Ulcer:

'The Ulcer Index is a technical indicator that measures downside risk, in terms of both the depth and duration of price declines. The index increases in value as the price moves farther away from a recent high and falls as the price rises to new highs. The indicator is usually calculated over a 14-day period, with the Ulcer Index showing the percentage drawdown a trader can expect from the high over that period. The greater the value of the Ulcer Index, the longer it takes for a stock to get back to the former high.'

• The Ulcer Index over 5 years of iShares MSCI Pacific Ex-Japan Index Fund is 12 , which is larger, thus better compared to the benchmark SPY (3.95 ) in the same period.
• Compared with SPY (4 ) in the period of the last 3 years, the Ulcer Ratio of 5.85 is greater, thus better.

MaxDD:

'Maximum drawdown is defined as the peak-to-trough decline of an investment during a specific period. It is usually quoted as a percentage of the peak value. The maximum drawdown can be calculated based on absolute returns, in order to identify strategies that suffer less during market downturns, such as low-volatility strategies. However, the maximum drawdown can also be calculated based on returns relative to a benchmark index, for identifying strategies that show steady outperformance over time.'

• The maximum drop from peak to valley over 5 years of iShares MSCI Pacific Ex-Japan Index Fund is -30.4 days, which is smaller, thus worse compared to the benchmark SPY (-19.3 days) in the same period.
• Looking at maximum drop from peak to valley in of -17.8 days in the period of the last 3 years, we see it is relatively larger, thus better in comparison to SPY (-19.3 days).

MaxDuration:

'The Maximum Drawdown Duration is an extension of the Maximum Drawdown. However, this metric does not explain the drawdown in dollars or percentages, rather in days, weeks, or months. It is the length of time the account was in the Max Drawdown. A Max Drawdown measures a retrenchment from when an equity curve reaches a new high. It’s the maximum an account lost during that retrenchment. This method is applied because a valley can’t be measured until a new high occurs. Once the new high is reached, the percentage change from the old high to the bottom of the largest trough is recorded.'

• Looking at the maximum days under water of 720 days in the last 5 years of iShares MSCI Pacific Ex-Japan Index Fund, we see it is relatively larger, thus worse in comparison to the benchmark SPY (187 days)
• Compared with SPY (131 days) in the period of the last 3 years, the maximum days below previous high of 287 days is higher, thus worse.

AveDuration:

'The Average Drawdown Duration is an extension of the Maximum Drawdown. However, this metric does not explain the drawdown in dollars or percentages, rather in days, weeks, or months. 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.'

• The average time in days below previous high water mark over 5 years of iShares MSCI Pacific Ex-Japan Index Fund is 253 days, which is larger, thus worse compared to the benchmark SPY (39 days) in the same period.
• During the last 3 years, the average time in days below previous high water mark is 70 days, which is larger, thus worse than the value of 33 days from the benchmark.