SPDR SSgA Multi-Asset Real Return ETF

RLY Summary

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Expense RatioNA
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Report Card

D+
Protect
RLY provides poor risk protection. It generates 4.2% returns above inflation with 10.3% downside volatility and 8.1% Ulcer Index. These downside risk measures rank in the bottom 40% of all funds that generate real returns.

C+
Perform
RLY provides average risk-adjusted returns. It has generated 8.3% annual returns over the last three years which ranks better than 60% of all funds. It has a 0.6 Sortino ratio and 0.7 UPI, ranking in the middle 20% of all competing funds for risk-adjusted returns.

B+
Participate
RLY provides good diversification of the S&P 500. Optimal diversification reduces downside risk by 11.0% while only reducing annual returns by 15.8% compared to SPY alone. Overall RLY diversification improves the risk-adjusted performance of the S&P 500 by -8.6% with a 1.4 UPI, ranking in the top 40% of all competing diversifiers.

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Key Performance Metrics

Protect

We measure a funds ability to protect against stock market declines by comparing various downside specific risk measures. Max drawdown is the largest decline for the security while the Ulcer Index quantifies both the depth and breath of all drawdowns. We also look at downside volatility and beta, both of which are measured relative to the S&P 500.
Statistic1 Year3 Years5 Years
Max Drawdown-10.07%-10.59%-18.94%
Recovery Time225 days432 days847 days
Ulcer Index2.63%4.05%6.57%
Downside Volatility5.60%6.63%8.16%
Downside Beta-0.68-0.330.38

Perform

We measure a securities ability to Perform by comparing net annual returns relative to our benchmarks. To measure absolute performance, we use the well-known Sharpe and Sortino ratios but prefer a risk-adjusted ratio such as Jenson's Alpha. Ultimately, performance is the most critical variable in fund selection so we take a much deeper dive into this measure.
Statistic1 Year3 Years5 Years
Annual Returns10.50%10.25%12.97%
UPI2.211.601.96
Sortino Ratio1.040.981.58
Sharpe Ratio0.670.580.97
Jensen's Alpha1.46%-4.85%3.53%

Participate

Participate measures the ability of a security to improve the effecient frontier of a stock portfolio. If the letter grade for this fund is an F, the fund does not provide any diversification or participation benefit. The Statistics presented are calculated using an either an optimal mix of RLY or, if no participation benefit exists, a 60% S&P 500 and 40% RLY.
Statistic1 Year3 Years5 Years
Ulcer Index2.63%6.26%7.58%
Downside Volatility5.45%9.62%10.85%
Annual Returns22.64%8.57%14.58%
UPI6.531.361.63
Sortino Ratio3.150.891.14

Comparison

Returns
Ulcer impact
StatisticRLYVBINX AOM MAPSA
Value Per 10K$18,397$15,446$13,089$15,987
Total Returns83.97%54.46%30.89%59.87%
Annual Returns12.97%9.08%5.53%9.84%
Standard Deviation 13.33%11.52%8.96%10.92%
Downside Deviation 8.16%7.26%5.77%5.70%
Max Drawdown -18.94%-21.61%-19.96%-17.50%
Recovery Time 847 days788 days956 days765 days
Ulcer Index 6.57%8.11%7.38%8.16%
Sharpe Ratio 0.970.780.610.89
Sortino Ratio 1.581.240.941.71
Ulcer Perf. Index 1.961.110.741.19
Beta 0.570.710.520.28
Downside Beta 0.380.750.550.22
Treynor Ratio 0.220.130.110.35
Jensen's Alpha 3.53%-2.62%-2.97%5.22%
Mac's Alpha 6.66%-3.16%-3.59%6.14%

Bottom Line

RLY is a multi-strategy fund that is market agnostic investing in several themes at once and may shift its exposure often. The fund will utilize the manager's proprietary tools for over and under-weighting various sectors or investment themes. The manager may use global/macro analysis as well as tactical investing techniques to decide which markets provide the most advantageous risk/reward opportunity. The fund may also provide some hedging tactics to limit downside risk. This fund is aimed at investors who want an active approach to the stock market. Its imperative an investor keeps close tabs on RLY as it will likely experience significant changes in how it behaves relative to the broad stock market.  Some potential disadvantages of this fund are:

  1. High expense load: This fund carries a significant management fee and may invest in securities or strategies that have additional expenses (i.e. expense layering).
  2. Misleading Historical Returns: Often times funds such as RLY are the beneficiary of "survivorship bias" or even "performance bias" where fund families only utilize a managed futures approach that has worked well historically but may not work as well going forward.  A landmark study conducted by SPIVA concluded that 86% of '40 Act Funds that out-performed over the prior 10 years, underperform in the subsequent 5 years.
  3. The fund's performance will be highly unpredictable relative to a broad-based benchmark as it is not relegated to a specific investment theme or strategy.
  4. Free-riding: There is no conclusive means of ensuring the fund manager is not free-riding the fund for his or her own benefit.
  5. Style drift: There is no guarantee the fund manager will not change the approach that has been responsible for the fund's historic returns.

Free Risk Profile Assessment

Risk management is a critical factor in creating long-term financial security, especially for those in retirement. Too often bear markets can sabotage a lifetime of savings. And quantifying risk using yesterday’s data is too often insufficient.

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  • Does my portfolio match my level of risk aversion?
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  • What is my downside risk if the S&P 500 falls 50%?
  • Is my portfolio adequately hedged for inflation?
  • What is the upside expectation for my portfolio when the S&P 500 appreciates?
  • How will my portfolio react in various economic climates?
  • Are there more effective ways to hedge risk than my current approach?