Callan periodic table of investment returns

First published in 1999, the  is patterned after Mendeleev's periodic table of the elements and shows returns for 9 asset classes, ranked from best to worst. Each asset class is color-coded for easy tracking.

The chart is intended to show the importance of diversification across asset classes (stocks versus bonds), investment styles (growth versus value), capitalizations (large versus small) and equity markets (U.S. versus international).

Refer to the table below (view full size). The rankings change every year, thereby demonstrating several key principles of investing:


 * Past performance does not predict future performance.
 * Diversification: By owning the entire market (all of the asset classes), susceptibility to changes in market variations is minimized.
 * Reversion-to-the-mean: Large variations over a short period of time, but tends to be stable when viewed over the long term.


 * Callan Periodic Table of Investment Returns.png

How to read the table
For example: S&P 500 Growth (a measure of the growth style for US large cap stocks). Starting at the left side, this measure ranked:


 * 1996 - 1998 - 1st (3 consecutive years)
 * 1999 - 3rd
 * 2000 - 7th
 * 2001 - 2006 - 8th (6 consecutive years)
 * 2007 - 3rd
 * 2008 - 2009 - 4th (2 consecutive years)
 * 2010 - 7th
 * 2011 - 2nd
 * 2012 - 7th
 * 2013 - 4th
 * 2014 - 2015 - 1st (2 consecutive years)