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.'

Which means for our asset as example:
  • The total return, or performance over 5 years of Vanguard Inflation Protected Securities Fund is 13.1%, which is smaller, thus worse compared to the benchmark SPY (80%) in the same period.
  • Compared with SPY (31.8%) in the period of the last 3 years, the total return, or increase in value of -5.1% is lower, thus worse.

CAGR:

'The compound annual growth rate isn't a true return rate, but rather a representational figure. It is essentially a number that describes the rate at which an investment would have grown if it had grown the same rate every year and the profits were reinvested at the end of each year. In reality, this sort of performance is unlikely. However, CAGR can be used to smooth returns so that they may be more easily understood when compared to alternative investments.'

Which means for our asset as example:
  • Compared with the benchmark SPY (12.5%) in the period of the last 5 years, the compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.5% of Vanguard Inflation Protected Securities Fund is lower, thus worse.
  • During the last 3 years, the annual performance (CAGR) is -1.7%, which is smaller, thus worse than the value of 9.7% from the benchmark.

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.'

Which means for our asset as example:
  • The historical 30 days volatility over 5 years of Vanguard Inflation Protected Securities Fund is 6.5%, which is smaller, thus better compared to the benchmark SPY (21.3%) in the same period.
  • Looking at historical 30 days volatility in of 6.9% in the period of the last 3 years, we see it is relatively lower, thus better in comparison to SPY (17.6%).

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.'

Using this definition on our asset we see for example:
  • Compared with the benchmark SPY (15.3%) in the period of the last 5 years, the downside volatility of 4.5% of Vanguard Inflation Protected Securities Fund is lower, thus better.
  • Compared with SPY (12.3%) in the period of the last 3 years, the downside volatility of 4.9% 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.'

Which means for our asset as example:
  • The Sharpe Ratio over 5 years of Vanguard Inflation Protected Securities Fund is 0, which is lower, thus worse compared to the benchmark SPY (0.47) in the same period.
  • Looking at ratio of return and volatility (Sharpe) in of -0.61 in the period of the last 3 years, we see it is relatively lower, thus worse in comparison to SPY (0.41).

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.'

Applying this definition to our asset in some examples:
  • The excess return divided by the downside deviation over 5 years of Vanguard Inflation Protected Securities Fund is 0, which is smaller, thus worse compared to the benchmark SPY (0.66) in the same period.
  • During the last 3 years, the ratio of annual return and downside deviation is -0.87, which is lower, thus worse than the value of 0.58 from the benchmark.

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.'

Using this definition on our asset we see for example:
  • The Downside risk index over 5 years of Vanguard Inflation Protected Securities Fund is 6.26 , which is lower, thus better compared to the benchmark SPY (9.43 ) in the same period.
  • Compared with SPY (10 ) in the period of the last 3 years, the Ulcer Ratio of 8.03 is smaller, thus better.

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.'

Which means for our asset as example:
  • Looking at the maximum drop from peak to valley of -14.5 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)
  • Looking at maximum drop from peak to valley in of -14.5 days in the period of the last 3 years, we see it is relatively larger, thus better in comparison to SPY (-24.5 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.'

Applying this definition to our asset in some examples:
  • Compared with the benchmark SPY (480 days) in the period of the last 5 years, the maximum days under water of 514 days of Vanguard Inflation Protected Securities Fund is larger, thus worse.
  • Compared with SPY (480 days) in the period of the last 3 years, the maximum days under water of 514 days is greater, 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.'

Applying this definition to our asset in some examples:
  • The average days below previous high over 5 years of Vanguard Inflation Protected Securities Fund is 129 days, which is greater, thus worse compared to the benchmark SPY (119 days) in the same period.
  • Compared with SPY (174 days) in the period of the last 3 years, the average days below previous high of 191 days is greater, thus worse.

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.