Sortino Ratio

A reward-for-risk measure that only penalizes downside volatility, not upside swings.

Category: Optimizer & Performance

What is Sortino Ratio?

The Sortino ratio is excess return divided by downside deviation (volatility computed only from below-threshold returns). It is preferred over Sharpe when an investor genuinely cares about asymmetric outcomes.

Formula

Sortino = \frac{R_p - R_f}{\sigma_d}

Related terms

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