Periodic table of annual returns

From year to year, there’s no telling which asset classes will be the best performers in the following years, which is a strong argument for portfolio diversification. The periodic table of annual returns, patterned after Mendeleev's periodic table of the elements, shows this concept graphically.

Periodic table
Refer to the table below. This table represents the annual total returns (income plus price changes) in terms of Canadian dollars for a variety of asset classes over the past ten years. The foreign asset class returns are adjusted for year-end to year-end foreign exchange fluctuations to put them in Canadian dollar terms.




 * + Periodic Table of Annual Returns for Canadians
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Asset classes represented
The following table provides a legend for terms represented above, including links to the underlying index provider (if available).

Interpreting the table
At a glance, one can see how the returns vary from year-to-year. For example, the Wilshire 5000 Total Market Index measures performance of all U.S. equity securities with readily available price data. Canadians may be more familiar with the S&P 500, also shown in the table.

Starting at the left side, take a look at how a couple of asset classes performed, represented by the Wilshire 5000 and the S&P/TSX Composite.

This unpredictability demonstrates the variation of year-to-year investor returns. Holding a diversified portfolio (one which contains several asset classes) will help minimize the variation.