> The y-axis has actual meaning: it tells you the purchasing power of a public stock, which will never be 0.
If we are trying to visualize the total return of a given asset since 1987, how is the price of a single stock (an arbitrary unit) in 1987 or any time since, relevant data?
The ROI expressed as a percentage on the y axis (with 0% at the beginning of the period) would be a much better visualization of the relative returns among asset classes throughout the period.
Currently I get USD < VBMXFX < VFINX at the beginning of the chart, for reasons that have nothing to do with the total return since 1987.
The drawdown chart is even more confusing with the USD starting at -81%. If we were plotting a chart of drawdown of multiple currencies, the older ones would start lower (since they've had more time to be affected by inflation) which only makes it hard to visualize the answer to the question "how did they do since 1987".
If we are trying to visualize the total return of a given asset since 1987, how is the price of a single stock (an arbitrary unit) in 1987 or any time since, relevant data?
The ROI expressed as a percentage on the y axis (with 0% at the beginning of the period) would be a much better visualization of the relative returns among asset classes throughout the period.
Currently I get USD < VBMXFX < VFINX at the beginning of the chart, for reasons that have nothing to do with the total return since 1987.
The drawdown chart is even more confusing with the USD starting at -81%. If we were plotting a chart of drawdown of multiple currencies, the older ones would start lower (since they've had more time to be affected by inflation) which only makes it hard to visualize the answer to the question "how did they do since 1987".