returns: Compute Returns

In PMwR: Portfolio Management with R

Compute Returns

Description

Convert prices into returns.

Usage

returns(x, ...)

## Default S3 method:
returns(x, t = NULL, period = NULL, complete.first = TRUE,
        pad = NULL, position = NULL,
        weights = NULL, rebalance.when = NULL,
        lag = 1, na.rm = TRUE, ...)

## S3 method for class 'zoo'
returns(x, period = NULL, complete.first = TRUE,
        pad = NULL, position = NULL,
        weights = NULL, rebalance.when = NULL, lag = 1, na.rm = TRUE, ...)

## S3 method for class 'p_returns'
print(x, ..., year.rows = TRUE, month.names = NULL,
      zero.print = "0", plus = FALSE, digits = 1,
      na.print = NULL)

## S3 method for class 'p_returns'
toLatex(object, ...,
        year.rows = TRUE, ytd = "YTD", month.names = NULL,
        eol = "\\\\", stand.alone = FALSE)

## S3 method for class 'p_returns'
toHTML(x, ...,
       year.rows = TRUE, ytd = "YTD", month.names = NULL,
       stand.alone = TRUE, table.style = NULL, table.class = NULL,
       th.style = NULL, th.class = NULL,
       td.style = "text-align:right; padding:0.5em;",
       td.class = NULL, tr.style = NULL, tr.class = NULL,
       browse = FALSE)

.returns(x, pad = NULL, lag)

Arguments

x	for the default method, a numeric vector (possibly with a dim attribute; i.e. a matrix) of prices. returns also supports x of other classes, such as zoo or NAVseries. For time-series classes, argument t should be NULL. For .returns, x must be numeric (for other classes, .returns may not work properly).
t	timestamps. See arguments period and rebalance.when.
period	Typically a string. Supported are "hour", "day", "month", "quarter", "year", "ann" (annualised), "ytd" (year-to-date), "mtd" (month-to-date), "itd" (inception-to-date) or a single year, such as "2012". Instead of "itd", "total" may also be used. The value of ‘period’ is used only when timestamp information is available: for instance, when t is not NULL or with zoo/xts objects. The exception is "itd", which can be computed without timestamp information. Holding period "ytd" produces a warning if the current year (as obtained from Sys.Date) differs from the latest timestamp of the series. Specifying period as "ytd!" suppresses the warning. All returns are computed as simple returns. They will only be annualised with option "ann"; they will not be annualised when the length of the time series is less than one year. To force annualising in such a case, use "ann!". Annualisation can only work when the timestamp t can be coerced to class Date. The result will have an attribute is.annualised, which is a logical vector of length one.
complete.first	logical. For holding-period returns such an monthly or yearly, should the first period (if incomplete) be used.
pad	either NULL (no padding of initial lost observation) or a value used for padding (reasonable values might be NA or 0)
na.rm	logical; see Details
position	either a numeric vector of the same length as the number of assets (i.e. ncol(x)), or a numeric matrix whose dimensions match those of prices (i.e. dim(x) must equal dim(weights)), or a matrix with as many rows as rebalance.when has elements
weights	either a numeric vector of the same length as the number of assets (i.e. ncol(x)), or a numeric matrix whose dimensions match those of prices (i.e. dim(x) must equal dim(weights)), or a matrix with as many rows as rebalance.when has elements
rebalance.when	logical or numeric. If x is a time-series class (such as zoo), it may also be of the same class as the time index of x.
...	further arguments to be passed to methods
year.rows	logical. If TRUE (the default), print monthly returns with one row per year.
zero.print	character. How to print zero values.
na.print	character. How to print NA values. (Not supported yet.)
plus	logical. Add a ‘+’ before positive numbers? Default is FALSE.
lag	The lag for computing returns. A positive integer, defaults to one; ignored for time-weighted returns or if t is supplied.
object	an object of class p_returns (‘period returns’)
month.names	character: names of months. Default is an abbreviated month name as provided by the locale. That may cause trouble, notably with toLatex, if such names contain non-ASCII characters: a safe choice is either the numbers 1 to 12, or the character vector month.abb, which lives in the base package.
digits	number of digits in table
ytd	header for YTD
eol	character
stand.alone	logical or character
table.class	character
table.style	character
th.class	character
th.style	character
td.class	character
td.style	character
tr.class	character
tr.style	character
browse	logical: open table in browser?

Details

returns is a generic function. It computes simple returns: current values divided by prior values minus one. The default method works for numeric vectors/matrices. The function .returns does the actual computations and may be used when a ‘raw’ return computation is needed.

Holding-Period Returns

When a timestamp is available, returns can compute returns for specific calendar periods. See argument period.

Portfolio Returns

returns may compute returns for a portfolio specified in weights or position. The portfolio is rebalanced at rebalance.when; the default is every period. Weights need not sum to one. A zero-weight portfolio, or a portfolio that never rebalances (e.g. with rebalance.when set to FALSE), will result in a zero return.

rebalance.when may either be logical, integers or of the same class as a timestamp (e.g. Date).

Handling missing values

Removing missing values (i.e. setting na.rm to TRUE) only has effects when period is specified.

Value

If called as returns(x): a numeric vector or matrix, possibly with a class attribute (e.g. for a zoo series).

If called with a period argument: an object of class "p_returns" (period returns), which is a numeric vector of returns with attributes t (timestamp) and period. Main use is to have methods that pretty-print such period returns; currently, there are methods for toLatex and toHTML.

In some cases, additional attributes may be attached: when portfolio returns were computed (i.e. argument weights was specified), there are attributes holdings and contributions. For holding-period returns, there may be a logical attribute is.annualised, and an attribute from.to, which tells the start and end date of the holding period.

Author(s)

Enrico Schumann <[e-mail]>

References

Schumann, E. (2023) Portfolio Management with R. http://enricoschumann.net/R/packages/PMwR/; in particular, see
http://enricoschumann.net/R/packages/PMwR/manual/PMwR.html#computing-returns

See Also

btest, pl

Examples

x <- 101:105
returns(x)
returns(x, pad = NA)
returns(x, pad = NA, lag = 2)


## monthly returns
t <- seq(as.Date("2012-06-15"), as.Date("2012-12-31"), by = "1 day")
x <- seq_along(t) + 1000
returns(x, t = t, period = "month")
returns(x, t = t, period = "month", complete.first = FALSE)

### formatting
print(returns(x, t = t, period = "month"), plus = TRUE, digits = 0)

## returns per year (annualised returns)
returns(x, t = t, period = "ann")  ## less than one year, not annualised
returns(x, t = t, period = "ann!") ## less than one year, *but* annualised

is.ann <- function(x)
    attr(x, "is.annualised")

is.ann(returns(x, t = t, period = "ann"))   ## FALSE
is.ann(returns(x, t = t, period = "ann!"))  ## TRUE


## with weights and fixed rebalancing times
prices <- cbind(p1 = 101:105,
                p2 = rep(100, 5))
R <- returns(prices, weights = c(0.5, 0.5), rebalance.when = 1)
## ... => resulting weights
h <- attr(R, "holdings")
h*prices / rowSums(h*prices)
##             p1        p2
## [1,] 0.5000000 0.5000000  ## <== only initial weights are .5/.5
## [2,] 0.5024631 0.4975369
## [3,] 0.5049020 0.4950980
## [4,] 0.5073171 0.4926829
## [5,] 0.5097087 0.4902913

PMwR documentation built on Oct. 19, 2023, 9:09 a.m.