Yale U's Unconventional Portfolio

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 increase in value of 30.2% in the last 5 years of Yale U's Unconventional Portfolio, we see it is relatively smaller, thus worse in comparison to the benchmark SPY (88.4%)
• During the last 3 years, the total return is 0.2%, which is lower, thus worse than the value of 27.8% 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.'

• Compared with the benchmark SPY (13.5%) in the period of the last 5 years, the annual performance (CAGR) of 5.4% of Yale U's Unconventional Portfolio is lower, thus worse.
• During the last 3 years, the annual performance (CAGR) is 0.1%, which is lower, thus worse than the value of 8.5% from the benchmark.

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.'

• Looking at the volatility of 13.8% in the last 5 years of Yale U's Unconventional Portfolio, we see it is relatively smaller, thus better in comparison to the benchmark SPY (21%)
• Compared with SPY (17.4%) in the period of the last 3 years, the historical 30 days volatility of 12.6% is smaller, thus better.

DownVol:

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

• The downside volatility over 5 years of Yale U's Unconventional Portfolio is 10.2%, which is smaller, thus better compared to the benchmark SPY (15%) in the same period.
• Compared with SPY (12.1%) in the period of the last 3 years, the downside volatility of 8.8% is lower, thus better.

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 ratio of return and volatility (Sharpe) over 5 years of Yale U's Unconventional Portfolio is 0.21, which is lower, thus worse compared to the benchmark SPY (0.53) in the same period.
• Compared with SPY (0.35) in the period of the last 3 years, the risk / return profile (Sharpe) of -0.19 is lower, thus worse.

Sortino:

'The Sortino ratio, a variation of the Sharpe ratio only factors in the downside, or negative volatility, rather than the total volatility used in calculating the Sharpe ratio. The theory behind the Sortino variation is that upside volatility is a plus for the investment, and it, therefore, should not be included in the risk calculation. Therefore, the Sortino ratio takes upside volatility out of the equation and uses only the downside standard deviation in its calculation instead of the total standard deviation that is used in calculating the Sharpe ratio.'

• Looking at the ratio of annual return and downside deviation of 0.29 in the last 5 years of Yale U's Unconventional Portfolio, we see it is relatively smaller, thus worse in comparison to the benchmark SPY (0.73)
• Looking at downside risk / excess return profile in of -0.27 in the period of the last 3 years, we see it is relatively smaller, thus worse in comparison to SPY (0.5).

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 Ulcer Index over 5 years of Yale U's Unconventional Portfolio is 11 , which is larger, thus worse compared to the benchmark SPY (9.33 ) in the same period.
• Compared with SPY (10 ) in the period of the last 3 years, the Ulcer Ratio of 13 is greater, thus worse.

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 drop from peak to valley of -26.2 days in the last 5 years of Yale U's Unconventional Portfolio, we see it is relatively larger, thus better in comparison to the benchmark SPY (-33.7 days)
• Looking at maximum DrawDown in of -26.2 days in the period of the last 3 years, we see it is relatively lower, thus worse 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.'

• Compared with the benchmark SPY (488 days) in the period of the last 5 years, the maximum time in days below previous high water mark of 588 days of Yale U's Unconventional Portfolio is higher, thus worse.
• Compared with SPY (488 days) in the period of the last 3 years, the maximum days under water of 588 days is larger, 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 (122 days) in the period of the last 5 years, the average days under water of 165 days of Yale U's Unconventional Portfolio is larger, thus worse.
• Looking at average time in days below previous high water mark in of 244 days in the period of the last 3 years, we see it is relatively higher, thus worse in comparison to SPY (178 days).