simoan wrote:tjh290633 wrote:Go and look at the long term record of the FTSE3550 HY and LY indices, using the TR versions, and see which has done best since inception.
TJH
Actually, how do you look at these little used indices? The Low Yield index is not available to view as a chart on any of the websites I use. I think it's a shame you can only prove your point by using obscure indices. And both are an incredibly low bar to use to judge the performance of your portfolio because the FTSE350 HY index (and from what you say, the Low Yield equivalent too) is below where it was 5 years ago. That is just an awful performance. Whatever you do, don't overlay the S&P500 on a 5 year chart of the FTSE350.
I also don't get the fascination with "from inception" either. We aren't at inception, and never will be. The best we can do is look at the past and use it as a guide for the likely unknown future. That inception figure can be massively influenced due to a spectacular performance in its first year, and suffer from relative under performance ever since. What might that imply about the future from here?
For what it is worth I can access the TR Indices from April 1999. They may go back further but I have no access, or information on when "inception" was. Using that data you can calculate the performance from each year to today ie. you can have 22 start dates and compare which of the Low Yield or High Yield alternatives would have been the better Total Return from those respective investment "inceptions".
High Yield "wins" for 5 of those 22, being 2021, 2020, 2019, 2000 and 1999. Low Yield "wins" for the other 17.
It doesn't sound as impressive as that "from inception" argument, but if I were to rely on past data as a guide to which index to follow going forward (and I don't to be clear), I wouldn't overly rely on those 2 words "from inception".