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NoahZunigatoday at 1:32 PM2 repliesview on HN

Judging a pension fund by how it performs in a bull market seems wrong. Like their main job is to limit your downside from market crashes (if they're not doing that then they offer nothing compared to an index fund), so its strange to not include 2008 crisis (or .com bubble popping).

Checking this shows that the top 2 performers in this graph lost more money (~8%) in 2008 than the bottom 2 (~2%)


Replies

theptiptoday at 3:42 PM

You make a good point, but I think “lowest risk” is also not the metric either. You could buy 100% bonds and be even safer.

You want some risk-adjusted return metric parameterized by average returns and also volatility.

ImPostingOnHNtoday at 2:12 PM

Judging a pension by how it performs in 2008 seems wrong. Like their main job is to perform well over long periods of time compared to other funds.

Checking this shows that 12 years is longer than 1 year, and thus is a better metric.

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