When making investment comparisons, most investors look first at the average annual 1, 3, 5 and 10 year returns in deciding where to put their money. While this makes sense, most investors do not take the annual return comparison to the next level and see how the annual average returns were achieved. This next level is looking at the volatility of the investment, how much it went up and down over the return period which created the average annual return numbers. The volatility of the return sequence can make a large difference in the total return. (more…)