Vanguard Short Term Investment Grade Fund (VFSTX)

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.'

• Compared with the benchmark SPY (98.7%) in the period of the last 5 years, the total return, or performance of 11.6% of Vanguard Short Term Investment Grade Fund is lower, thus worse.
• Looking at total return, or increase in value in of 18.8% in the period of the last 3 years, we see it is relatively smaller, thus worse in comparison to SPY (73.7%).

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 return (CAGR) over 5 years of Vanguard Short Term Investment Grade Fund is 2.2%, which is smaller, thus worse compared to the benchmark SPY (14.8%) in the same period.
• Looking at annual return (CAGR) in of 5.9% in the period of the last 3 years, we see it is relatively lower, thus worse in comparison to SPY (20.3%).

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.'

• The volatility over 5 years of Vanguard Short Term Investment Grade Fund is 2.9%, which is smaller, thus better compared to the benchmark SPY (17.1%) in the same period.
• Compared with SPY (15.7%) in the period of the last 3 years, the historical 30 days volatility of 3% is smaller, thus better.

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.'

• The downside risk over 5 years of Vanguard Short Term Investment Grade Fund is 1.9%, which is smaller, thus better compared to the benchmark SPY (11.8%) in the same period.
• During the last 3 years, the downside volatility is 1.8%, which is lower, thus better than the value of 10.4% from the benchmark.

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.'

• The Sharpe Ratio over 5 years of Vanguard Short Term Investment Grade Fund is -0.09, which is lower, thus worse compared to the benchmark SPY (0.72) in the same period.
• During the last 3 years, the ratio of return and volatility (Sharpe) is 1.14, which is greater, thus better than the value of 1.14 from the benchmark.

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 (1.05) in the period of the last 5 years, the downside risk / excess return profile of -0.15 of Vanguard Short Term Investment Grade Fund is lower, thus worse.
• Looking at ratio of annual return and downside deviation in of 1.89 in the period of the last 3 years, we see it is relatively greater, thus better in comparison to SPY (1.71).

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 Ratio of 3.36 in the last 5 years of Vanguard Short Term Investment Grade Fund, we see it is relatively lower, thus better in comparison to the benchmark SPY (8.42 )
• During the last 3 years, the Ulcer Index is 0.62 , which is lower, thus better than the value of 3.62 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.'

• Compared with the benchmark SPY (-24.5 days) in the period of the last 5 years, the maximum reduction from previous high of -9 days of Vanguard Short Term Investment Grade Fund is higher, thus better.
• During the last 3 years, the maximum drop from peak to valley is -2.1 days, which is larger, thus better than the value of -18.8 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'

• Looking at the maximum days under water of 698 days in the last 5 years of Vanguard Short Term Investment Grade Fund, we see it is relatively larger, thus worse in comparison to the benchmark SPY (488 days)
• Compared with SPY (87 days) in the period of the last 3 years, the maximum time in days below previous high water mark of 126 days is higher, 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.'

• Compared with the benchmark SPY (120 days) in the period of the last 5 years, the average days under water of 221 days of Vanguard Short Term Investment Grade Fund is higher, thus worse.
• Compared with SPY (21 days) in the period of the last 3 years, the average days below previous high of 24 days is greater, thus worse.