Risk and return
What returns, volatility, falls and the Sharpe ratio measure, and why a past return is not a forecast.
This explains how things work. It is not advice about what to buy, sell or hold.
Return over a period
A return over several years is easiest to compare as an Annualised return: the steady yearly rate that would have produced the same result. A single figure depends on its start and end dates, so this site also shows Rolling returns, the return of every stretch of the same length, which shows the range a buyer could have met.
How bumpy the way was
Volatility measures how widely returns swung around their average. Two funds can end at the same place, one rising steadily and the other lurching up and down; volatility tells them apart. It describes swings in both directions, not only losses.
How far it fell
The Deepest fall (maximum drawdown) is the largest drop from a high to a later low: the worst loss someone who bought at a peak would have seen before the fund recovered. This site also shows how long each recovery took, because a fall that takes years to make good is a different experience from one that reverses in weeks.
Return for the risk taken
The Sharpe ratio divides the return above a risk-free rate by the volatility, giving the return earned per unit of swing. It treats every swing as risk, and only the swings that happened, so it can miss a risk that shows up rarely and suddenly, such as a default by a borrower a debt fund has lent to.
What the past does not say
Every figure here describes what happened. None of them says what will happen: markets change, managers change and funds grow. A fund's riskometer, a SEBI label with six levels from low to very high, describes the kind of risk the scheme is built to take, which is a separate thing from how it has done.
Sources
- Zerodha Varsity zerodha.com/varsity/chapter/mutual-fund-risk-metrics/ checked 02 Oct 2026
- Zerodha Varsity zerodha.com/varsity/chapter/know-your-fund/ checked 02 Oct 2026
- Zerodha Varsity zerodha.com/varsity/chapter/rolling-returns/ checked 02 Oct 2026
- Zerodha Varsity zerodha.com/varsity/chapter/measuring-mutual-fund-returns/ checked 02 Oct 2026
- SEBI www.sebi.gov.in/sebi_data/faqfiles/sep-2024/1727242783639.pdf checked 02 Oct 2026