You can see the value of the Sortino rose in each program on our list by using the calculation outlined by Red Rock, but we know that Sortino values don’t really mean all that much. The measure is better used as a way to compare the risk adjusted performance of programs with differing risk and return profiles. Any risk adjusted ratio is really trying to just normalize the risk across programs, and then see which has the higher return per that normalized unit of risk.
So, when considering not the value of the ratio when changed, but what the changed value does to a ranking by Sortino ratio of the world’s biggest managed futures programs – what do we see? Not much, to be honest, as the top four remained in the same order. However, there was some movement in the rankings, Transtrend and Lynx switching places, as well as Aspect and Cantab, but the ranking is pretty close across the two calculation methods.
So, as a practical matter – this doesn’t really move the needle that much, and is likely a more useful tool when analyzing unique track records where all monthly losses are exactly -%5 or the like. The real discovery here seems to be Red Rock Capital – who sports a higher Sortino than some of the royalty of managed futures (i.e. AHL, Campbell, Transtrend) no matter which method is used.