Description

The investment seeks to provide inflation protection and income consistent with investment in inflation-indexed securities. The fund invests at least 80% of its assets in inflation-indexed bonds issued by the U.S. government, its agencies and instrumentalities, and corporations. It may invest in bonds of any maturity; however, its dollar-weighted average maturity is expected to be in the range of 7 to 20 years. At a minimum, all bonds purchased by the fund will be rated investment-grade or, if unrated, will be considered by the advisor to be investment-grade.

Statistics (YTD)

What do these metrics mean? [Read More] [Hide]

TotalReturn:

'The total return on a portfolio of investments takes into account not only the capital appreciation on the portfolio, but also the income received on the portfolio. The income typically consists of interest, dividends, and securities lending fees. This contrasts with the price return, which takes into account only the capital gain on an investment.'

Applying this definition to our asset in some examples:
  • Looking at the total return, or increase in value of 13.1% in the last 5 years of Vanguard Inflation Protected Securities Fund, we see it is relatively lower, thus worse in comparison to the benchmark SPY (67.9%)
  • Compared with SPY (44.5%) in the period of the last 3 years, the total return, or performance of 0.3% 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.'

Using this definition on our asset we see for example:
  • The compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) over 5 years of Vanguard Inflation Protected Securities Fund is 2.5%, which is lower, thus worse compared to the benchmark SPY (10.9%) in the same period.
  • Looking at annual return (CAGR) in of 0.1% in the period of the last 3 years, we see it is relatively smaller, thus worse in comparison to SPY (13.1%).

Volatility:

'In finance, volatility (symbol σ) is the degree of variation of a trading price series over time as measured by the standard deviation of logarithmic returns. Historic volatility measures a time series of past market prices. Implied volatility looks forward in time, being derived from the market price of a market-traded derivative (in particular, an option). Commonly, the higher the volatility, the riskier the security.'

Which means for our asset as example:
  • The 30 days standard deviation over 5 years of Vanguard Inflation Protected Securities Fund is 6.4%, which is smaller, thus better compared to the benchmark SPY (21.4%) in the same period.
  • Looking at 30 days standard deviation in of 6.8% in the period of the last 3 years, we see it is relatively lower, thus better in comparison to SPY (18.7%).

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.'

Which means for our asset as example:
  • Compared with the benchmark SPY (15.4%) in the period of the last 5 years, the downside risk of 4.5% of Vanguard Inflation Protected Securities Fund is smaller, thus better.
  • Compared with SPY (13.3%) in the period of the last 3 years, the downside risk of 4.8% is lower, thus better.

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.'

Using this definition on our asset we see for example:
  • Looking at the Sharpe Ratio of 0 in the last 5 years of Vanguard Inflation Protected Securities Fund, we see it is relatively lower, thus worse in comparison to the benchmark SPY (0.39)
  • Compared with SPY (0.56) in the period of the last 3 years, the ratio of return and volatility (Sharpe) of -0.36 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.'

Using this definition on our asset we see for example:
  • The downside risk / excess return profile over 5 years of Vanguard Inflation Protected Securities Fund is 0, which is lower, thus worse compared to the benchmark SPY (0.55) in the same period.
  • Compared with SPY (0.79) in the period of the last 3 years, the excess return divided by the downside deviation of -0.5 is smaller, thus worse.

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.'

Which means for our asset as example:
  • Looking at the Downside risk index of 4.99 in the last 5 years of Vanguard Inflation Protected Securities Fund, we see it is relatively smaller, thus better in comparison to the benchmark SPY (9.47 )
  • Compared with SPY (10 ) in the period of the last 3 years, the Ulcer Ratio of 6.32 is smaller, thus better.

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.'

Using this definition on our asset we see for example:
  • Looking at the maximum DrawDown of -14.1 days in the last 5 years of Vanguard Inflation Protected Securities Fund, we see it is relatively higher, thus better in comparison to the benchmark SPY (-33.7 days)
  • During the last 3 years, the maximum drop from peak to valley is -14.1 days, which is greater, thus better than the value of -24.5 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.'

Using this definition on our asset we see for example:
  • Looking at the maximum days below previous high of 391 days in the last 5 years of Vanguard Inflation Protected Securities Fund, we see it is relatively higher, thus worse in comparison to the benchmark SPY (354 days)
  • Compared with SPY (354 days) in the period of the last 3 years, the maximum time in days below previous high water mark of 391 days is larger, thus worse.

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.'

Using this definition on our asset we see for example:
  • Compared with the benchmark SPY (79 days) in the period of the last 5 years, the average days under water of 92 days of Vanguard Inflation Protected Securities Fund is greater, thus worse.
  • During the last 3 years, the average days below previous high is 121 days, which is larger, thus worse than the value of 102 days from the benchmark.

Performance (YTD)

Historical returns have been extended using synthetic data.

Allocations ()

Allocations

Returns (%)

  • Note that yearly returns do not equal the sum of monthly returns due to compounding.
  • Performance results of Vanguard Inflation Protected Securities Fund are hypothetical, do not account for slippage, fees or taxes, and are based on backtesting, which has many inherent limitations, some of which are described in our Terms of Use.