Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.
The Low Risk 200 index has historically outpaced its Global 1800 benchmark and has produced a higher Sharpe ratio in about two thirds of the years since 2006. In months and years when the market fell, low risk outperformed. The strategy’s worst relative performance came when the market rose sharply. In 2020, however, when the market was down, the Low Risk 200 fell even more, and then continued to underperform (as expected) in the subsequent market recovery. Overall, that made for a very difficult year for Low Volatility investors...
I have pretty much given up on most "global" funds. At the moment I still own GLFOX.
Global never seems to add the extra sauce. Just seems to make everything mushy. At this point I'ld rather own foreign or US in most scenarios.
The other problem I had with VMVFX was the high turnover due to chasing whatever seems to be least volatile at the moment. So you never really know where the portfolio is going to be.
I often wonder whether factor-based funds are really better than allocation funds. I tried them several years ago but they were eliminated in favor of active managed allocation funds.
No strategy can work all of the time. I'm a holder of VMVFX as it's an EASY hold at least for now. If it gets better great and if not I can dump. To soon to give up on this one. I followed the same strategy with FMIJX, balanced out its losing performance last year with my big winner over time, JOHAX. Also bought SPHD on the huge swoon last spring. So far, so good.
In 2020, I did seed an investment in FCTR which has performed well and I have since added assets extracted from higher beta funds. Still not sure I fully understand the Lunt strategy which is the basis, but it seems to be working.
Comments
https://qontigo.com/low-volatility-strategies-why-the-wheels-came-off-temporarily-in-2020-blog/
CONCLUSION
The Low Risk 200 index has historically outpaced its Global 1800 benchmark and has produced a higher Sharpe ratio in about two thirds of the years since 2006. In months and years when the market fell, low risk outperformed. The strategy’s worst relative performance came when the market rose sharply. In 2020, however, when the market was down, the Low Risk 200 fell even more, and then continued to underperform (as expected) in the subsequent market recovery. Overall, that made for a very difficult year for Low Volatility investors...
Global never seems to add the extra sauce. Just seems to make everything mushy. At this point I'ld rather own foreign or US in most scenarios.
The other problem I had with VMVFX was the high turnover due to chasing whatever seems to be least volatile at the moment. So you never really know where the portfolio is going to be.
Stay Safe, Derf