Vanguard Inflation Protected Securities Fund (VIPSX)

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 (60.9%) in the period of the last 5 years, the total return, or increase in value of 15.9% of Vanguard Inflation Protected Securities Fund is smaller, thus worse.
• Looking at total return, or increase in value in of 12.6% in the period of the last 3 years, we see it is relatively smaller, thus worse in comparison to SPY (34.2%).

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.'

• The annual performance (CAGR) over 5 years of Vanguard Inflation Protected Securities Fund is 3%, which is lower, thus worse compared to the benchmark SPY (10%) in the same period.
• Looking at compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) in of 4% in the period of the last 3 years, we see it is relatively smaller, thus worse in comparison to SPY (10.3%).

Volatility:

'Volatility is a rate at which the price of a security increases or decreases for a given set of returns. Volatility is measured by calculating the standard deviation of the annualized returns over a given period of time. It shows the range to which the price of a security may increase or decrease. Volatility measures the risk of a security. It is used in option pricing formula to gauge the fluctuations in the returns of the underlying assets. Volatility indicates the pricing behavior of the security and helps estimate the fluctuations that may happen in a short period of time.'

• Looking at the 30 days standard deviation of 4.8% in the last 5 years of Vanguard Inflation Protected Securities Fund, we see it is relatively lower, thus better in comparison to the benchmark SPY (18.7%)
• Compared with SPY (21.5%) in the period of the last 3 years, the 30 days standard deviation of 5% is lower, thus better.

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.'

• Looking at the downside volatility of 3.3% 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 (13.6%)
• Looking at downside deviation in of 3.4% in the period of the last 3 years, we see it is relatively lower, thus better in comparison to SPY (15.7%).

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.'

• Compared with the benchmark SPY (0.4) in the period of the last 5 years, the ratio of return and volatility (Sharpe) of 0.1 of Vanguard Inflation Protected Securities Fund is smaller, thus worse.
• Compared with SPY (0.36) in the period of the last 3 years, the Sharpe Ratio of 0.31 is smaller, 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.'

• Looking at the ratio of annual return and downside deviation of 0.15 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 (0.55)
• Compared with SPY (0.5) in the period of the last 3 years, the excess return divided by the downside deviation of 0.46 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.'

• Compared with the benchmark SPY (5.82 ) in the period of the last 5 years, the Ulcer Index of 2.05 of Vanguard Inflation Protected Securities Fund is smaller, thus better.
• During the last 3 years, the Downside risk index is 1.44 , which is lower, thus better than the value of 6.86 from the benchmark.

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.'

• Looking at the maximum reduction from previous high of -8.9 days in the last 5 years of Vanguard Inflation Protected Securities Fund, we see it is relatively larger, thus better in comparison to the benchmark SPY (-33.7 days)
• During the last 3 years, the maximum reduction from previous high is -8.9 days, which is higher, thus better than the value of -33.7 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.'

• Looking at the maximum time in days below previous high water mark of 681 days in the last 5 years of Vanguard Inflation Protected Securities Fund, we see it is relatively greater, thus worse in comparison to the benchmark SPY (187 days)
• Compared with SPY (139 days) in the period of the last 3 years, the maximum time in days below previous high water mark of 377 days is greater, 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.'

• Compared with the benchmark SPY (43 days) in the period of the last 5 years, the average days below previous high of 213 days of Vanguard Inflation Protected Securities Fund is greater, thus worse.
• During the last 3 years, the average time in days below previous high water mark is 113 days, which is higher, thus worse than the value of 39 days from the benchmark.