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Among mutual funds that invest in high grade corporate bonds, risk will be almost entirely determined by the average duration of the bonds. (Higher duration equals higher risk equals higher expected return.)
Even within the category of "short term bond funds," there will be some differences between funds in the average duration of their holdings, and this will produce minor differences in the standard deviations of annual returns. However, Vanguard's low expense ratio is likely to cause its return even in bad years to be better than that of funds that have higher expenses but perhaps a little less volatility.
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