Reversal of Fortune
Up until this year, investors made great money by investing in the U.S. and international markets and not using currency hedging. But a rally by our dollar in 2016 has undermined returns from unhedged investments and given the advantage to hedged investors. In this chart, unhedged returns are shown as the C$ numbers, while hedged returns are shown as the US$ and local currency numbers.
| Stock Index | 1 mo. % rtn (Mar 31) | YTD % rtn (Mar 31) | 1-yr % rtn (Mar 31) | 3-yr % rtn (Mar 31) | 5-yr % rtn (Mar 31) | 10-yr % rtn (Mar 31) | 20-yr % rtn (Mar 31) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S&P500 (US$) | 6.8 | 1.4 | 1.8 | 11.8 | 11.6 | 7.0 | 8.0 |
| S&P 500 (C$) | 2.0 | -5.6 | 4.0 | 21.2 | 18.1 | 8.1 | 7.7 |
| MSCI EAFE (local currencies) | 3.0 | -6.4 | -10.8 | 6.9 | 6.7 | 2.2 | 4.7 |
| MSCI EAFE (C$) | 1.8 | -9.6 | -5.9 | 11.3 | 8.8 | 3.3 | 4.3 |
Source: PWL Capital