Here’s a great illustration of why you need dividend adjustments when analyzing funds and ETFs. QLENX (a lower risk AQR managed long short fund) has been popular with FastTrackers for a few years and it would be totally off your radar if you’re using Yahoo, CNBC, Fidelity, or any number of other free data outfits for charting and ranking.
Only FastTrack is adjusting for the 12/19/2017 dividends. Adjusting for dividends, a simple UPI ranking puts QLENX on top for the past three years. Without adjustments, QLENX’s risk/ return profile is misrepresented and pushed to #644 in the rank.
The black FastTrack chart illustrates the difference pretty clearly. The large dip towards the end of 2017 is the div payout of QLENX. The NAV drops, share price is reduced, but without accounting for the div payout you’ll get incorrect charting and ranking.
This is what FastTrack is known for. We’ve been providing this high quality, dividend adjusted data to professionals and individuals for over 27 years. Download a trial or give us a call.
