Metric guide

Return/Vol Ratio

1Y return relative to volatility

Standalone ranking availableFoxScore methodology

Plain-language summary

What this metric tells you

Return/Vol Ratio compares 1-year return with annualized volatility. It tries to answer whether the recent payoff was large relative to the amount of instability you had to accept.

Key takeaway

This is a fast and intuitive efficiency shortcut. It is useful, but simpler and rougher than more formal risk-adjusted measures.

FoxScore context

How FoxScore uses it

FoxScore uses Return/Vol Ratio as a pragmatic bridge between raw performance and risk-adjusted thinking.
It is easier for non-experts to grasp than some formal finance ratios.
The ratio works especially well when comparing assets that had similar 1-year gains but very different ride quality.

What it measures

Whether strong recent return came with comparatively modest volatility.
A quick efficiency tradeoff between reward and noise.
Which assets turned a 1-year move into a better risk-adjusted headline than peers.

How to read it

Higher is better because the asset delivered more return per unit of volatility.
Very low or negative values mean the return did not justify the instability.
Extremely high values deserve a sanity check because tiny volatility can mechanically boost the ratio.

What can mislead

Whether downside risk was controlled specifically.
Volatility is unusually low for a short period and flatters the ratio.
One severe drawdown is hidden behind otherwise calm trading.

Most useful when

You want a simpler efficiency metric than Sharpe or Sortino.
You compare two strong performers and want to know which one got there more cleanly.
You need one quick number before opening deeper risk pages.

Important limits

Whether downside risk was controlled specifically.
Whether one large crash is hiding behind otherwise calm trading.
Whether the result is driven by unusually low volatility that may not persist.

Methodology and sources

Technical definition, calculation notes and sources stay available here without dominating the explanation.

Description

This metric is simple: it relates the 1-year return to volatility.

Two assets can deliver the same return - the one with less volatility looks more efficient/stable.

Calculation

1) 1-year return (ret_1y)
2) Annualized 365d volatility (vol_365d_ann)
3) ret_1y / abs(vol_365d_ann)

Interpretation

Higher is better.
Very high values can occur when volatility is extremely low - in that case it’s worth checking drawdowns as a sanity check.

Source

web.stanford.edu

Open source

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Related hubs

Continue into connected score and metric explanations.

Scores
Open related score explanations.
Overall score Performance Stability Trend
Metrics
Open related metric explanations.
Return 1 Year Return (3y)Return (5y)Return (10y)Volatility (365d, annualized)Max Drawdown (365d)

Read together with

These related metrics add the context this metric cannot provide on its own.

Return 1 Year

Use Return 1 Year to see the raw payoff behind the ratio.

Volatility (365d, annualized)

Use Volatility (365d, annualized) to see the risk denominator directly instead of only the combined ratio.

Sharpe (90d)

Use Sharpe (90d) when you want a shorter, more formal recent efficiency lens.