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Drawdown functions from PerformanceAnalytics

No investments book or paper that I can think of represents returns as 
whole numbers.  "Correct" or not, that's the way it is.  You get crazy 
results from the math otherwise.

In your example, use geometric=FALSE (which is correct for daily returns 
in most cases, again, crazy results if you assume geometric)

That said, a return series is based on a percentage of your then-current 
capital.  If you want to assume no reinvestment, then you have a 
different series.

This is consistent with the literature, and the functions are, I 
believe, correct per the Bacon reference in the documentation.

The arithmetic works in both geometric and non-geometric cases, and 
produces the expected result.

For example:

Drawdowns(xts(c(0,0.10,-0.10,-0.01,0.01,0.02,.1,.01,.01), 
Sys.Date()-9:1),geometric=FALSE)

#####
                   [,1]
2010-08-24  0.00000000
2010-08-25  0.00000000
2010-08-26 -0.09090909
2010-08-27 -0.10000000
2010-08-28 -0.09090909
2010-08-29 -0.07272727
2010-08-30  0.00000000
2010-08-31  0.00000000
2010-09-01  0.00000000

I wouldn't mind seeing a function for calculating 'no-reinvestment' 
returns where the amount available to invest does not change (where your 
period returns basically generate dividends in a different 
account/portfolio) from a set of simple cash proceeds, but no such 
function currently exists.

Regards,

    - Brian
On 09/02/2010 08:33 AM, Mark Breman wrote: