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Sunday, May 25, 2014

PSPRS investment returns through March 2014

The following table shows PSPRS' fiscal year investment returns (gross of fees*) versus the S&P 500 through the end of March 2014:
 

PSPRS PSPRS S&P 500 S&P 500
Report Date Month End Fiscal YTD Month End Fiscal YTD
7/31/2013 1.94% 1.94% 4.95% 4.95%
8/30/2013 -0.04% 1.90% -3.13% 1.67%
9/30/2013 1.98% 3.92% 2.97% 4.68%
10/31/2013 2.43% 6.44% 4.46% 9.35%
11/30/2013 0.54% 7.02% 2.80% 12.42%
12/31/2013 0.64% 7.70% 2.36% 15.07%
1/31/2014 -1.09% 6.53% -3.56% 10.97%
2/28/2014 2.43% 9.11% 4.31% 15.75%
3/31/2014 1.17% 10.39% 0.69% 16.55%
4/30/2014   ?     ? 0.62% 17.28%

As can be seen, PSPRS' investments had another good month.  PSPRS is still well ahead of its expected rate of return of 7.85%, and it is right on its benchmark target of 10.37%.  Hopefully, the last quarter of the fiscal year will continue along the same lines.

*It is always important to note when talking about investment returns that these returns are gross of fees.  Approximately 0.50%, representing fees paid to outside companies, should be subtracted from the fiscal YTD return.

2 comments:

  1. Why is the PSPRS return lagging the S&P by 6%? Is that typical?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for your comment. I can not speak to what is typical for PSPRS as I have only looked back a year. However, the PSPRS investment strategy has recently moved away from the equity-heavy portfolio of the past. The current strategy used multiple investment vehicles and is designed to capture as much of the market gains as possible but limit the downside risk. This tradeoff means that some of the potential of high gains in a bull market is foregone in order to be protected when the market drops. This slow and steady approach so far seems to be working as designed.

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