Vanguard Intermediate Term Treasury Fund (VFITX)

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.'

• The total return, or performance over 5 years of Vanguard Intermediate Term Treasury Fund is 1.5%, which is lower, thus worse compared to the benchmark SPY (89.4%) in the same period.
• During the last 3 years, the total return is 14%, which is smaller, thus worse than the value of 76.1% from the benchmark.

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 Intermediate Term Treasury Fund is 0.3%, which is smaller, thus worse compared to the benchmark SPY (13.7%) in the same period.
• Compared with SPY (20.9%) in the period of the last 3 years, the compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.5% is lower, thus worse.

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.'

• The historical 30 days volatility over 5 years of Vanguard Intermediate Term Treasury Fund is 5.6%, which is smaller, thus better compared to the benchmark SPY (17.1%) in the same period.
• Compared with SPY (15.2%) in the period of the last 3 years, the 30 days standard deviation of 5.6% is lower, thus better.

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 (11.8%) in the period of the last 5 years, the downside risk of 3.8% of Vanguard Intermediate Term Treasury Fund is lower, thus better.
• Compared with SPY (10.2%) in the period of the last 3 years, the downside risk of 3.7% is lower, thus better.

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 risk / return profile (Sharpe) of -0.39 in the last 5 years of Vanguard Intermediate Term Treasury Fund, we see it is relatively smaller, thus worse in comparison to the benchmark SPY (0.65)
• Looking at risk / return profile (Sharpe) in of 0.35 in the period of the last 3 years, we see it is relatively lower, thus worse in comparison to SPY (1.21).

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 excess return divided by the downside deviation of -0.57 in the last 5 years of Vanguard Intermediate Term Treasury Fund, we see it is relatively lower, thus worse in comparison to the benchmark SPY (0.95)
• Looking at ratio of annual return and downside deviation in of 0.54 in the period of the last 3 years, we see it is relatively smaller, thus worse in comparison to SPY (1.81).

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.'

• The Downside risk index over 5 years of Vanguard Intermediate Term Treasury Fund is 7.95 , which is lower, thus better compared to the benchmark SPY (8.42 ) in the same period.
• Compared with SPY (3.42 ) in the period of the last 3 years, the Ulcer Ratio of 2.41 is smaller, thus better.

MaxDD:

'Maximum drawdown is defined as the peak-to-trough decline of an investment during a specific period. It is usually quoted as a percentage of the peak value. The maximum drawdown can be calculated based on absolute returns, in order to identify strategies that suffer less during market downturns, such as low-volatility strategies. However, the maximum drawdown can also be calculated based on returns relative to a benchmark index, for identifying strategies that show steady outperformance over time.'

• Looking at the maximum DrawDown of -15 days in the last 5 years of Vanguard Intermediate Term Treasury Fund, we see it is relatively greater, thus better in comparison to the benchmark SPY (-24.5 days)
• Compared with SPY (-18.8 days) in the period of the last 3 years, the maximum reduction from previous high of -7 days is higher, thus better.

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 days under water of 1136 days in the last 5 years of Vanguard Intermediate Term Treasury Fund, we see it is relatively larger, thus worse in comparison to the benchmark SPY (488 days)
• Looking at maximum days below previous high in of 186 days in the period of the last 3 years, we see it is relatively higher, thus worse in comparison to SPY (87 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.'

• Compared with the benchmark SPY (119 days) in the period of the last 5 years, the average time in days below previous high water mark of 523 days of Vanguard Intermediate Term Treasury Fund is higher, thus worse.
• Looking at average days under water in of 52 days in the period of the last 3 years, we see it is relatively greater, thus worse in comparison to SPY (19 days).