Fund Performance - Should You be 🙂 Happy or 🙁 Sad?

By analyzing over 23,000 US registered fund share classes every month, the Signal Threshold Benchmark© service provides over 150 fund benchmarks across 4 major asset classes and 15 broad allocations based on how funds actually behave vs. what their fund literature might declare. The results below can help investors determine if they should be 🙂 happy or 🙁 sad with their funds and investment managers performance in April 2024.

The average across each of the Signal Threshold Major Asset Class Benchmarks for April 2024 was -1.32%. The underlying Signal Threshold Major Asset Class Benchmarks:

Asset Class	Number of Benchmark Classified Funds	Return
Equity	11,924	-2.88
Fixed Income	5,920	-0.53
Mixed Assets	4,325	-2.20
Money Market	842	0.34
Summary	23,011	-1.32

The Signal Threshold Broad Allocation Benchmarks sorted by average return within each asset class:

Allocation Benchmark	Asset Class	Number of Benchmark Classified Funds	Return
Alternatives Equity	Equity	488	0.12
World Equity	Equity	3,581	-2.33
Sector Equity	Equity	1,351	-4.34
US Diversified Equity	Equity	6,504	-4.96
Alternatives Fixed Income	Fixed Income	92	4.15
Short / Intermediate Municipal	Fixed Income	378	-0.54
Short / Intermediate Corporate	Fixed Income	1,105	-0.94
General Municipal Fixed Income	Fixed Income	1,236	-1.09
US Treasury & Government	Fixed Income	294	-1.47
General Domestic Fixed Income	Fixed Income	1,850	-1.89
World Fixed Income	Fixed Income	965	-1.92
Alternatives Mixed Assets	Mixed Assets	230	-1.27
Mixed Assets	Mixed Assets	4,095	-3.14
Money Market	Money Market	726	0.41
Municipal Money Market	Money Market	116	0.27

The top performing Signal Threshold Fund Benchmark within each broad allocation, sorted by average return:

Fund Benchmark	Allocation	Asset Class	Number of Benchmark Classified Funds	Return
Dedicated Short Bias	Alternatives	Equity	109	9.02
Precious Metals Equity	World Equity	Equity	65	4.68
Global Natural Resources	Sector Equity	Equity	53	0.89
Institutional Money Market	Money Market	Money Market	79	0.42
Loan Participation	General Domestic Fixed Income	Fixed Income	269	0.32
Tax-Exempt Money Market	Municipal Money Market	Money Market	116	0.27
Ultra-Short Obligations	Short / Intermediate Corporate	Fixed Income	242	0.06
Short Municipal Debt	Short / Intermediate Municipal	Fixed Income	115	-0.19
Short U.S. Government	US Treasury & Government	Fixed Income	72	-0.37
California Short-Intermediate Municipal	General Municipal Fixed Income	Fixed Income	44	-0.61
Energy MLP	Alternatives	Mixed Assets	102	-0.70
Global High Yield	World Fixed Income	Fixed Income	82	-0.87
Absolute Return Bond	Alternatives	Fixed Income	75	-1.09
Real Return	Mixed Assets	Mixed Assets	79	-2.17
Options Arbitrage / Options Strategies	US Diversified Equity	Equity	330	-2.90

The bottom performing Signal Threshold Fund Benchmark within each broad allocation, sorted by average return:

Fund Benchmark	Allocation	Asset Class	Number of Benchmark Classified Funds	Return
Equity Leverage	Alternatives	Equity	132	-10.60
Health / Biotechnology	Sector Equity	Equity	76	-7.50
Small-Cap Growth	US Diversified Equity	Equity	586	-6.72
General U.S. Treasury	General Domestic Fixed Income	Fixed Income	58	-5.33
Global Small-Mid-Cap	World Equity	Equity	140	-5.06
Alternative Energy	Mixed Assets	Mixed Assets	36	-4.49
International Income	World Fixed Income	Fixed Income	120	-2.71
Intermediate U.S. Government	US Treasury & Government	Fixed Income	61	-2.49
Core Bond	Short / Intermediate Corporate	Fixed Income	467	-2.44
Alternative Global Macro	Alternatives	Mixed Assets	66	-2.00
High Yield Municipal Debt	General Municipal Fixed Income	Fixed Income	222	-1.27
Absolute Return Bond	Alternatives	Fixed Income	75	-1.09
Tax-Exempt Money Market	Municipal Money Market	Money Market	116	0.27
Institutional U.S. Government Money Market	Money Market	Money Market	100	0.40

The Signal Threshold Benchmark service can be a more realistic approach to determine if investors should be happy 🙂 or sad 🙁 regarding the investment skill of an investment manager and the funds they manage as it is based on actual fund returns. To interact live online with Signal Threshold Benchmark data and view more recent updates, click here. To view the full range of over 150 benchmarks and their corresponding history of returns, subscription information can be found by clicking here.

The Threshold Benchmark service is a component of the Investics Signal service which provides analysis on investment managers and funds level of investment skill vs. luck and provides a forward looking excess return due to skill. To learn more, click here.

Investics Data Services Company, Inc - focuses on, and works in partnership with, the global investor community offering investment data and analytics capabilities, managed services and consulting. Headquartered in Weston, Massachusetts on the outskirts of Boston along “America’s Technology Highway”, Investics services clients globally. For more information on Investics’ various products and services, please visit www.investics.com.

DISCLAIMER: The underlying source data used as input to calculate the various scores, measures, rankings and ratings in the Investics Signal service is publicly available and updated monthly by the respective investment management firms. The investment theory and methodologies used are based on various research papers and presentations (which are provided to paid subscribers of Signal service), as well as other standard statistical and mathematical methods. The Signal service cannot guarantee future performance and therefore does not indicate whether an investment into a fund or with an investment manager will gain or lose value. Any information provided herein is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be personal financial advice. Instead it only determines how much of the excess return is expected based solely on the methodologies therein due to the investment manager skill vs. luck components of a derived alpha. Further, each investor is responsible for their own investment decisions. Before any investment decision is made or conclusion drawn, appropriate due diligence should be performed on both the funds and investment managers as the providers of this service (along with its partners and vendors) take no responsibility, credit or blame for any outcome, good, bad or indifferent. Investics makes best efforts to ensure that information represented in the Signal service is calculated and/or presented accurately, but makes no claim to the degree of accuracy of information collected and processed from third parties included in the Signal service. Permission to redistribute Signal results and visuals in any fashion or medium is not granted without a paid subscription to the Signal service and explicit written permission from Investics Data Services, Inc.