Glossary

Every parameter this site publishes, in the words that sit behind the question mark beside it on a fund. They say what each number is and, where it matters, how we compute it — which is usually the part that cannot be looked up anywhere else.

ETFs Top SCORE↑

Cumulative Score: One number from zero to a hundred, made of four pillars: income, preservation of capital, risk-adjusted return and fund structure. Each pillar is weighed over the data that actually exists and then pulled toward neutral where that data is thin, so a young fund is damped rather than guessed at. The pillars below show which part is carrying it.
Cumulative Score Trend (1y): How far the cumulative score has moved over the last year, in points. A high score that has been falling all year and a middling one that has been climbing are different propositions, and the score alone cannot tell them apart.
Cumulative Score Trend (3m): How far the cumulative score has moved over the last three months, in points. A high score that has been falling all year and a middling one that has been climbing are different propositions, and the score alone cannot tell them apart.
Income Score: The income pillar, from zero to a hundred: how much the fund pays and how dependable that payment has been. A high score here with a low preservation score beside it is the classic yield trap.
Income Trend (1y): How far the income pillar has moved over the last year, in points. A high score that has been falling all year and a middling one that has been climbing are different propositions, and the score alone cannot tell them apart.
Income Trend (3m): How far the income pillar has moved over the last three months, in points. A high score that has been falling all year and a middling one that has been climbing are different propositions, and the score alone cannot tell them apart.
Insufficient History: Whether the fund is too young for every input to its score to have been measured. The score is still shown and is still the best answer available, but it means something different from the same score on a fund with a full history.
Preservation Score: The preservation pillar, from zero to a hundred: whether the fund is holding its capital or paying you back with it. This is the pillar the whole site exists for — a fund paying twenty percent while its price erodes scores well on income and badly here.
Preservation Trend (1y): How far the preservation pillar has moved over the last year, in points. A high score that has been falling all year and a middling one that has been climbing are different propositions, and the score alone cannot tell them apart.
Preservation Trend (3m): How far the preservation pillar has moved over the last three months, in points. A high score that has been falling all year and a middling one that has been climbing are different propositions, and the score alone cannot tell them apart.
Rank: Where the fund sits in the ranking as it is currently filtered. It is a property of this list rather than of the fund, so it moves when you change the filters even though nothing about the fund has.
Risk Score: The risk pillar, from zero to a hundred: how much return the fund produced for the volatility and the falls it put its holders through. It is scored on the REINVESTED series, where the ratio columns above are price-only — for a fund paying most of its return out those are very different questions, and this is the one the ranking asks.
Risk Trend (1y): How far the risk pillar has moved over the last year, in points. A high score that has been falling all year and a middling one that has been climbing are different propositions, and the score alone cannot tell them apart.
Risk Trend (3m): How far the risk pillar has moved over the last three months, in points. A high score that has been falling all year and a middling one that has been climbing are different propositions, and the score alone cannot tell them apart.
Signal: BUY, HOLD or SELL, read as a trend rule in the fund’s OWN volatility rather than against a fixed percentage — so a calm fund and a violent one are held to the boundaries each actually moves through. A dash means no signal, which is not the same as a neutral one.
Signal Strength: How far past the boundary the fund sits, from minus one to one, and the continuous number the BUY or SELL label is a banding of. Twenty funds all reading BUY are not equally good buys, and this is what says so.
Structure Score: The structure pillar, from zero to a hundred: cost, size and how easily the fund can be traded. It is about the vehicle rather than about the manager, and age is deliberately not part of it.
Structure Trend (1y): How far the structure pillar has moved over the last year, in points. A high score that has been falling all year and a middling one that has been climbing are different propositions, and the score alone cannot tell them apart.
Structure Trend (3m): How far the structure pillar has moved over the last three months, in points. A high score that has been falling all year and a middling one that has been climbing are different propositions, and the score alone cannot tell them apart.

INCOME↑

Distribution Growth (1y): The last twelve months of payments against the twelve before, as a percent change. It compares totals, so a fund that moved from monthly to weekly payments does not read as a cut. It can point the opposite way to Distribution Trend, which compares the rate now with the rate a year ago; both are true. Needs two years of history.
Distribution Rate: The conventional forward rate: the most recent payment times the number of payments a year the fund reports, over the latest price. One unusually large payment carries straight through to it, which is why the ranking leads with the Income Rate instead.
Distribution Trend (1y): Whether the payout rate has been rising or falling across the last year, in percentage points. It compares an ANNUALISED rate rather than the payments themselves, so a fund that moved from monthly to weekly does not read as an eighty percent cut when nothing about its income changed.
Distribution Trend (3y): Whether the payout rate has been rising or falling across the last three years, in percentage points. It compares an ANNUALISED rate rather than the payments themselves, so a fund that moved from monthly to weekly does not read as an eighty percent cut when nothing about its income changed.
Distribution Trend (5y): Whether the payout rate has been rising or falling across the last five years, in percentage points. It compares an ANNUALISED rate rather than the payments themselves, so a fund that moved from monthly to weekly does not read as an eighty percent cut when nothing about its income changed.
Distributions (12m): The total paid per share over the last twelve months, in dollars. It is the raw amount rather than a rate, so it means nothing without the price beside it.
Dividend Yield TTM: Twelve months of payments divided by the latest price, from our own records. It under-states a fund less than a year old, because part of the year had no payments, and over-states one whose price has collapsed. Shown for comparison and deliberately not scored.
Income Rate: OURS, and the rate this ranking is built on. Every payment of the last year is measured against the price on its OWN date, then annualised — so the income is weighed against the prices it was actually paid at, and not against one closing price today, which is what the two conventional rates below each do. It says what a fund HAS paid its holders, never what a buyer today receives.
Observed Payout Frequency: How often the fund’s own ex-dividend dates say it pays. Where this disagrees with the published schedule, the schedule has not caught up with what the fund is doing — and it is empty when recent gaps disagree with each other, which is itself a real answer about a fund on no fixed rhythm.
Payout Frequency: How often the fund says it pays, as its issuer publishes it. Weekly and monthly payers are the whole universe here.
Payout Variability (5y): How much the payout rate wanders around its own average over five years. Thirty-five percent means it typically moves by about a third of its own size. Lower is steadier, and steadiness is most of what an income holder is buying.
Yield-on-cost Growth (3y): What a holder who bought three years ago earns on the money they put in, against what that same purchase earned at the time — the chart above, as one number. It moves with the payment AND with the price: a fund paying more per share on a price that held reads high, and one whose payment has shrunk with its price reads deeply negative however large its quoted yield is today.
Yield-on-cost vs Quoted (3y): Yield on cost against the rate the fund quotes today. The two lines of the chart above start together, so the space between them is exactly what the PRICE has done since that purchase — this is that space, as a number. Positive means the price has risen and a holder’s income on their cost now beats the quoted rate; negative is the erosion this site exists to show.

BASICS↑

Category: The issuer’s own classification of the strategy. It is a starting point for grouping similar funds and not a statement about what the fund holds today.
Expense Ratio: The annual fee the fund charges, taken out of its assets rather than billed to you. It is already reflected in the price and the payments, so it is not a cost to add on top — but it compounds, and it is one of the few certainties on this page.
Fund Age: How long the fund has existed. Most of this universe is young, and a strategy that has never met a bad market has not been tested by one.
Fund Size Tier: How large the fund is, as a band rather than a figure. Size is published this way because the exact number moves constantly and the band is what actually matters: a very small fund can be expensive to trade and is more likely to be closed by its issuer.
History: How many trading days of price history the fund has. It is here so that every ratio above can be read against it: a Sharpe over six months and a Sharpe over six years are not the same claim, and the shorter one is not evidence.
Instrument: Whether this is a fund holding many things or a single company’s shares. Dividend-paying shares are ranked here on the same footing as funds, and they carry the same caveat a single-stock fund does: one company, no diversification behind the score.
Single Stock ETF: Whether the fund’s entire exposure is one company. These are the option-income vehicles built on a single share, and they are a quarter of this universe. It matters because there is no diversification behind their Preservation score at all — the fund is exactly as fragile as the one company under it.

RISK↑

Alpha: Jensen’s alpha over the last year: the fund’s total return above the Treasury bill, less what its beta says the index’s total return above the bill would have earned it, from daily returns against SPY. A steady, low-movement fund can show a positive alpha while badly trailing the index in plain return, so read it beside Excess Return rather than instead of it. It is not scored.
Beta: How far the fund tends to move when the index moves, from the last year of daily total returns against SPY. One means it tracks the market’s size of move, below one means it moves less. Sites measuring monthly over three years read somewhat differently. It describes behaviour rather than judging it, and it is not scored.
Calmar (1y): Annual growth with every distribution reinvested, set against the worst fall of that reinvested value over the last year. Higher is better. Both ends of the growth are measured from a month’s average rather than from one day’s close, so a single wild session at the edge of the window cannot set the answer.
Calmar (Long): Annual growth with every distribution reinvested, set against the worst fall of that reinvested value over the longest window the fund’s history allows. Higher is better. Both ends of the growth are measured from a month’s average rather than from one day’s close, so a single wild session at the edge of the window cannot set the answer.
Calmar Window: How many trading days the long-window Calmar beside it actually covered. It is published rather than folded in because a three-year figure and an eighteen-month one are different measurements, and comparing two funds means knowing which you are holding.
Drawdown PR (Current): How far below its own all-time high the PRICE is trading right now, with distributions left out. A large number beside a small Drawdown TR (Current) means the fund has paid its holders while its price has not come back.
Drawdown PR (Unrecov.): How much of its worst PRICE fall the fund has still not made back: 80% means four fifths of the way down from its peak, 10% nearly recovered. On the price a fund paying its return out may never recover, which is itself the finding.
Drawdown PR (Worst): The largest fall of the PRICE from a peak to the following trough anywhere in the fund’s history, with distributions left out. For a fund that pays most of its return out the price can keep falling while its holders are paid well, which is the erosion this site exists to show.
Drawdown TR (Current): How far below its best-ever reinvested value the fund is right now. Near zero means a holder reinvesting is at or close to the best they have ever been; a large number means they have not recovered from something.
Drawdown TR (Unrecov.): How much of its worst fall, with distributions reinvested, the fund has still not made back: 80% means four fifths of the way down, 10% nearly recovered. Read beside the Drawdown PR (Unrecov.), which asks the same about the price alone.
Drawdown TR (Worst): The largest fall from a peak to the following trough anywhere in the fund’s history, with every distribution counted as reinvested — the drawdown other sites publish. It is the worst a holder who bought at the wrong moment has lived through, and it never improves as time passes.
Excess Return (12m): How far the fund’s total return ran above or below SPY’s over the same year, in percentage points, from the first close to the last on both sides. Distributions count on both sides, which matters for funds that pay most of their return out. This is the plain answer to “did it beat the index”, and Alpha is not.
Excess Return (1m): How far the fund’s total return ran above or below SPY’s over the same month, in percentage points, from the first close to the last on both sides. Distributions count on both sides, which matters for funds that pay most of their return out. This is the plain answer to “did it beat the index”, and Alpha is not.
Excess Return (6m): How far the fund’s total return ran above or below SPY’s over the same six months, in percentage points, from the first close to the last on both sides. Distributions count on both sides, which matters for funds that pay most of their return out. This is the plain answer to “did it beat the index”, and Alpha is not.
Omega (1y): Everything the fund earned above cash on its good days divided by everything it fell short of cash on its bad ones, across the last year. Above 1 means the gains outweighed the shortfalls. It uses daily TOTAL returns, distributions reinvested, above the 3-month Treasury bill, with the most extreme 1% of days at each end clipped.
Omega (3y): Everything the fund earned above cash on its good days divided by everything it fell short of cash on its bad ones, across the last three years. Above 1 means the gains outweighed the shortfalls. It uses daily TOTAL returns, distributions reinvested, above the 3-month Treasury bill, with the most extreme 1% of days at each end clipped.
Price CAGR (1y): The annual rate at which the price alone grew over the last year, from the first close to the last, with distributions excluded. For a fund that pays most of its return out this is MEANT to look weak, and a deeply negative number beside a high income rate is the erosion this site exists to show.
Price CAGR (3y): The annual rate at which the price alone grew over the last three years, from the first close to the last, with distributions excluded. For a fund that pays most of its return out this is MEANT to look weak, and a deeply negative number beside a high income rate is the erosion this site exists to show.
Price CAGR (5y): The annual rate at which the price alone grew over the last five years, from the first close to the last, with distributions excluded. For a fund that pays most of its return out this is MEANT to look weak, and a deeply negative number beside a high income rate is the erosion this site exists to show.
Price Trend: The TOTAL price change across the trailing year, not an annual rate, measured from a short average at each end rather than from two single closing prices. The averaging is not cosmetic: a trend line fitted through a fund that crashed and recovered reports the wrong SIGN, which is why this is a plain change rather than a slope.
Sharpe (1y): Average daily return above cash divided by how much it bounced around, over the last year, annualised. Zero means it earned what a Treasury bill did; higher is better. It uses daily TOTAL returns, distributions reinvested, above the 3-month Treasury bill, with the most extreme 1% of days at each end clipped. A good day counts as risk just as a bad one does, which is what Sortino is for.
Sharpe (3y): Average daily return above cash divided by how much it bounced around, over the last three years, annualised. Zero means it earned what a Treasury bill did; higher is better. It uses daily TOTAL returns, distributions reinvested, above the 3-month Treasury bill, with the most extreme 1% of days at each end clipped. A good day counts as risk just as a bad one does, which is what Sortino is for.
Sortino (1y): Sharpe with only the shortfalls below cash counted as risk, over the last year. Higher is better. It uses daily TOTAL returns, distributions reinvested, above the 3-month Treasury bill, with the most extreme 1% of days at each end clipped. Shortfalls are averaged over every day, Sortino’s own definition; sites averaging the losing days alone read lower.
Sortino (3y): Sharpe with only the shortfalls below cash counted as risk, over the last three years. Higher is better. It uses daily TOTAL returns, distributions reinvested, above the 3-month Treasury bill, with the most extreme 1% of days at each end clipped. Shortfalls are averaged over every day, Sortino’s own definition; sites averaging the losing days alone read lower.
Total Return CAGR (1y): The annual rate at which the fund grew over the last year, from the first close to the last, with every distribution counted as if it had been reinvested. This is the growth figure other sites publish; the price-only one beside it is what a holder taking the income in cash would have watched happen.
Total Return CAGR (3y): The annual rate at which the fund grew over the last three years, from the first close to the last, with every distribution counted as if it had been reinvested. This is the growth figure other sites publish; the price-only one beside it is what a holder taking the income in cash would have watched happen.
Total Return CAGR (5y): The annual rate at which the fund grew over the last five years, from the first close to the last, with every distribution counted as if it had been reinvested. This is the growth figure other sites publish; the price-only one beside it is what a holder taking the income in cash would have watched happen.
Ulcer (1y): How deep the fund’s falls were and how long it stayed down, over the last year, measured on the PRICE. Lower is better. Unlike a worst-fall figure it counts TIME underwater, so a fund that dropped a fifth and recovered in a month reads far better than one that sat there for a year.
Ulcer (3y): How deep the fund’s falls were and how long it stayed down, over the last three years, measured on the PRICE. Lower is better. Unlike a worst-fall figure it counts TIME underwater, so a fund that dropped a fifth and recovered in a month reads far better than one that sat there for a year.
Ulcer (Lifetime): How deep the fund’s falls were and how long it stayed down, over the fund’s whole history, measured on the PRICE. Lower is better. Unlike a worst-fall figure it counts TIME underwater, so a fund that dropped a fifth and recovered in a month reads far better than one that sat there for a year.

FUND QUALITY↑

Net Flows (3m): Money that has come into or left the fund over the last quarter, net. Steady outflows are how a fund shrinks toward being closed, which is the risk this figure exists to show.

ABOUT↑

Name: The fund’s registered name, as its issuer files it. Names describe a strategy rather than what a fund holds, so treat it as a label rather than as evidence.
Ticker: The symbol the fund trades under on its US listing. It is what you would type into a broker, and it is how every figure on this page is joined together.

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