Hello,
I was checking out the new PortfolioMaker feature, and I noticed something that I had noticed before, when using the same feature on The Grid. Let’s take, for example, the system “Gold Survivor Energy Portfolio”.
On the system page, it says that the compounded annual return is 63.9%. On The Grid, it says the annual return is 72.9%. I believe it was said that this is because the system page shows compound return, while The Grid doesn’t. But shouldn’t compound return be greater than simple?
Anyway, the thing is that when using PortfolioMaker, it shows an annual return of 116.6%, so now I have three figures of annual return for one system. How is this interpreted?
Thanks!
Mathew I sure wish you would fix this. When I present this web site to fellow traders here locally I never know how to explain this.
Matthew, care to shed some light on this issue?
Basically, the problem is that the site has two “annual returns” stats calculated for each system: (1) Compound, and (2) Arithmetic… and, further complicating the matter, each of these stats may either be real-time or cached (i.e. meaning that the stat is delayed such that it is calculated using delayed data). Thus, effectively we have 4 numbers floating around for each system! Yuck.
I need to work on reconciling all of the references to annual returns here at C2, making sure I document which form of annual return is used. I’ll also rationalize the use of cached data… I should either use caching everywhere or nowhere.
I know this entire issue is a vast annoyance, and needs to be fixed, but the project keeps getting bumped due to other pressing issues. I’ll try to get to it sometime in June.
I apologize that it has taken me so long to address.
Matthew
If you’re gonna “unify” the annual return figures, I recommend you choose the most realistic one. In the example I mentioned, the return shown in PortfolioMaker is almost twice as that from The Grid. If someone had been autotrading the system, which is the return he would’ve gotten? After all, that’s what most of us want to know, not some theoretical figure. I do realize other systems don’t have such large differences, but still.
Cheers 
