Vanguard High Yield Corporate Fund (VWEHX)

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 performance of 21% in the last 5 years of Vanguard High Yield Corporate Fund, we see it is relatively smaller, thus worse in comparison to the benchmark SPY (80%)
• Compared with SPY (31.8%) in the period of the last 3 years, the total return of 2.6% is smaller, 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.'

• Looking at the annual performance (CAGR) of 3.9% in the last 5 years of Vanguard High Yield Corporate Fund, we see it is relatively lower, thus worse in comparison to the benchmark SPY (12.5%)
• Looking at annual return (CAGR) in of 0.9% in the period of the last 3 years, we see it is relatively smaller, thus worse in comparison to SPY (9.7%).

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.'

• Compared with the benchmark SPY (21.3%) in the period of the last 5 years, the historical 30 days volatility of 6.7% of Vanguard High Yield Corporate Fund is lower, thus better.
• Looking at historical 30 days volatility in of 5.6% in the period of the last 3 years, we see it is relatively lower, thus better in comparison to SPY (17.6%).

DownVol:

'The downside volatility is similar to the volatility, or standard deviation, but only takes losing/negative periods into account.'

• Compared with the benchmark SPY (15.3%) in the period of the last 5 years, the downside volatility of 4.9% of Vanguard High Yield Corporate Fund is lower, thus better.
• Looking at downside deviation in of 3.9% in the period of the last 3 years, we see it is relatively smaller, thus better in comparison to SPY (12.3%).

Sharpe:

'The Sharpe ratio was developed by Nobel laureate William F. Sharpe, and is used to help investors understand the return of an investment compared to its risk. The ratio is the average return earned in excess of the risk-free rate per unit of volatility or total risk. Subtracting the risk-free rate from the mean return allows an investor to better isolate the profits associated with risk-taking activities. One intuition of this calculation is that a portfolio engaging in 'zero risk' investments, such as the purchase of U.S. Treasury bills (for which the expected return is the risk-free rate), has a Sharpe ratio of exactly zero. Generally, the greater the value of the Sharpe ratio, the more attractive the risk-adjusted return.'

• Looking at the Sharpe Ratio of 0.21 in the last 5 years of Vanguard High Yield Corporate Fund, we see it is relatively lower, thus worse in comparison to the benchmark SPY (0.47)
• Compared with SPY (0.41) in the period of the last 3 years, the Sharpe Ratio of -0.29 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.'

• Compared with the benchmark SPY (0.66) in the period of the last 5 years, the downside risk / excess return profile of 0.29 of Vanguard High Yield Corporate Fund is smaller, thus worse.
• Compared with SPY (0.58) in the period of the last 3 years, the excess return divided by the downside deviation of -0.42 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.'

• Looking at the Ulcer Index of 5.18 in the last 5 years of Vanguard High Yield Corporate Fund, we see it is relatively lower, thus better in comparison to the benchmark SPY (9.43 )
• During the last 3 years, the Ulcer Ratio is 5.96 , which is lower, thus better than the value of 10 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.'

• Looking at the maximum reduction from previous high of -19.7 days in the last 5 years of Vanguard High Yield Corporate 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 -13.8 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). Many assume Max DD Duration is the length of time between new highs during which the Max DD (magnitude) occurred. But that isn’t always the case. The Max DD duration is the longest time between peaks, period. So it could be the time when the program also had its biggest peak to valley loss (and usually is, because the program needs a long time to recover from the largest loss), but it doesn’t have to be'

• Compared with the benchmark SPY (480 days) in the period of the last 5 years, the maximum days below previous high of 480 days of Vanguard High Yield Corporate Fund is greater, thus worse.
• Looking at maximum days under water in of 480 days in the period of the last 3 years, we see it is relatively higher, thus worse in comparison to SPY (480 days).

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.'

• Looking at the average days below previous high of 124 days in the last 5 years of Vanguard High Yield Corporate Fund, we see it is relatively greater, thus worse in comparison to the benchmark SPY (119 days)
• Compared with SPY (174 days) in the period of the last 3 years, the average days under water of 179 days is greater, thus worse.