iShares MSCI Malaysia Index Fund (EWM)

TotalReturn:

'Total return is the amount of value an investor earns from a security over a specific period, typically one year, when all distributions are reinvested. Total return is expressed as a percentage of the amount invested. For example, a total return of 20% means the security increased by 20% of its original value due to a price increase, distribution of dividends (if a stock), coupons (if a bond) or capital gains (if a fund). Total return is a strong measure of an investment’s overall performance.'

• Looking at the total return, or performance of 29% in the last 5 years of iShares MSCI Malaysia Index Fund, we see it is relatively lower, thus worse in comparison to the benchmark SPY (84.4%)
• Compared with SPY (79.6%) in the period of the last 3 years, the total return of 50.1% is smaller, thus worse.

CAGR:

'The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is a useful measure of growth over multiple time periods. It can be thought of as the growth rate that gets you from the initial investment value to the ending investment value if you assume that the investment has been compounding over the time period.'

• Compared with the benchmark SPY (13.1%) in the period of the last 5 years, the annual return (CAGR) of 5.2% of iShares MSCI Malaysia Index Fund is smaller, thus worse.
• Looking at compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) in of 14.6% in the period of the last 3 years, we see it is relatively lower, thus worse in comparison to SPY (21.6%).

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 (17.1%) in the period of the last 5 years, the 30 days standard deviation of 13.7% of iShares MSCI Malaysia Index Fund is lower, thus better.
• Compared with SPY (15.2%) in the period of the last 3 years, the volatility of 13.8% is lower, thus better.

DownVol:

'Downside risk is the financial risk associated with losses. That is, it is the risk of the actual return being below the expected return, or the uncertainty about the magnitude of that difference. 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.'

• Compared with the benchmark SPY (11.8%) in the period of the last 5 years, the downside volatility of 9.4% of iShares MSCI Malaysia Index Fund is lower, thus better.
• During the last 3 years, the downside deviation is 9.4%, which is smaller, thus better than the value of 10.1% 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.'

• Looking at the Sharpe Ratio of 0.2 in the last 5 years of iShares MSCI Malaysia Index Fund, we see it is relatively smaller, thus worse in comparison to the benchmark SPY (0.62)
• Compared with SPY (1.26) in the period of the last 3 years, the risk / return profile (Sharpe) of 0.87 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.'

• Compared with the benchmark SPY (0.9) in the period of the last 5 years, the downside risk / excess return profile of 0.29 of iShares MSCI Malaysia Index Fund is smaller, thus worse.
• Compared with SPY (1.89) in the period of the last 3 years, the downside risk / excess return profile of 1.29 is smaller, 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 Downside risk index of 11 in the last 5 years of iShares MSCI Malaysia Index Fund, we see it is relatively larger, thus worse in comparison to the benchmark SPY (8.45 )
• During the last 3 years, the Downside risk index is 6.44 , which is higher, thus worse than the value of 3.5 from the benchmark.

MaxDD:

'Maximum drawdown measures the loss in any losing period during a fund’s investment record. It is defined as the percent retrenchment from a fund’s peak value to the fund’s valley value. The drawdown is in effect from the time the fund’s retrenchment begins until a new fund high is reached. The maximum drawdown encompasses both the period from the fund’s peak to the fund’s valley (length), and the time from the fund’s valley to a new fund high (recovery). It measures the largest percentage drawdown that has occurred in any fund’s data record.'

• Compared with the benchmark SPY (-24.5 days) in the period of the last 5 years, the maximum reduction from previous high of -22.8 days of iShares MSCI Malaysia Index Fund is greater, thus better.
• During the last 3 years, the maximum reduction from previous high is -21.3 days, which is lower, thus worse than the value of -18.8 days from the benchmark.

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 time in days below previous high water mark of 705 days of iShares MSCI Malaysia Index Fund is higher, thus worse.
• During the last 3 years, the maximum time in days below previous high water mark is 280 days, which is greater, thus worse than the value of 87 days from the benchmark.

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.'

• The average time in days below previous high water mark over 5 years of iShares MSCI Malaysia Index Fund is 244 days, which is larger, thus worse compared to the benchmark SPY (119 days) in the same period.
• Looking at average days under water in of 73 days in the period of the last 3 years, we see it is relatively larger, thus worse in comparison to SPY (20 days).