4.1 General
(1) In responding to the requirements of this Item, an investment fund must comply with sections 15.2, 15.3, 15.9, 15.10, 15.11 and 15.14 of National Instrument 81-102 Investment Funds as if those sections applied to the annual MRFP.
(2) Despite the specific requirements of this Item, do not provide performance data for any period if the investment fund was not a reporting issuer at all times during the period.
(3) Set out in the footnotes to the chart or table required by this Item the assumptions relevant to the calculation of the performance information, including any assumptions or estimates made in order to calculate the return on the short portfolio, if applicable. Include a statement of the significance of the assumption that distributions are reinvested for taxable investments.
(4) In a general introduction to the “Past Performance” section, indicate, as applicable, that
(a) the performance information shown assumes that all distributions made by the investment fund in the periods shown were reinvested in additional securities of the investment fund;
(b) the performance information does not take into account sales, redemption, distribution or other optional charges that would have reduced returns or performance; and
(c) how the investment fund has performed in the past does not necessarily indicate how it will perform in the future.
(5) Use a linear scale for each axis of the bar chart required by this Item.
(6) The x-axis must intersect the y-axis at 0 for the “Year-by-Year Returns” bar chart.
4.2 Year-by-Year Returns
(1) Provide a bar chart, under the heading “Past Performance” and under the sub-heading “Year-by-Year Returns”, that shows, in chronological order with the most recent year on the right of the bar chart, the annual total return of the investment fund for the lesser of
(a) each of the ten most recently completed financial years; and
(b) each of the completed financial years in which the investment fund has been in existence and which the investment fund was a reporting issuer.
(2) Provide an introduction to the bar chart that
(a) indicates that the bar chart shows the investment fund’s annual performance for each of the years shown, and illustrates how the investment fund’s performance has changed from year to year; and
(b) indicates that the bar chart shows, in percentage terms, how much an investment made on the first day of each financial year would have grown or decreased by the last day of each financial year.
(3) If the investment fund holds short portfolio positions, show separately the annual total return for both the long portfolio positions and the short portfolio positions in addition to the overall total return.
4.3 Annual Compound Returns
(1) If the investment fund is not a money market fund, disclose, in the form of a table, under the sub-heading “Annual Compound Returns”
(a) the investment fund’s past performance for the ten, five, three and one year periods ended on the last day of the investment fund’s financial year; and
(b) if the investment fund was a reporting issuer for more than one and less than ten years, the investment fund’s past performance since the inception of the investment fund.
(2) Include in the table, for the same periods for which the annual compound returns of the investment fund are provided, the historical annual compound total returns or changes of
(a) one or more appropriate broad-based securities market indices; and
(b) at the option of the investment fund, one or more non-securities indices or narrowly-based market indices that reflect the market sectors in which the investment fund invests.
(3) Include a brief description of the broad-based securities market index (or indices) and provide a discussion of the relative performance of the investment fund as compared to that index.
(4) If the investment fund includes in the table an index that is different from the one included in the most recently filed MRFP, explain the reasons for the change and include the disclosure required by this Item for both the new and former indices.
(5) Calculate the annual compound return in accordance with the requirements of Part 15 of National Instrument 81-102 Investment Funds.
(6) If the investment fund holds short portfolio positions, show separately the annual compound returns for both the long and the short portfolio positions in addition to the overall annual compound returns.
INSTRUCTIONS:
(1) An “appropriate broad-based securities market index” is one that
(a) is administered by an organization that is not affiliated with any of the mutual fund, its manager, portfolio adviser or principal distributor, unless the index is widely recognized and used; and
(b) has been adjusted by its administrator to reflect the reinvestment of dividends on securities in the index or interest on debt.
(2) It may be appropriate for an investment fund that invests in more than one type of security to compare its performance to more than one relevant index. For example, a balanced fund may wish to compare its performance to both a bond index and an equity index.
(3) In addition to the appropriate broad-based securities market index, the investment fund may compare its performance to other financial or narrowly-based securities indices (or a blend of indices) that reflect the market sectors in which the investment fund invests or that provide useful comparatives to the performance of the investment fund. For example, an investment fund could compare its performance to an index that measured the performance of certain sectors of the stock market (e.g. communications companies, financial sector companies, etc.) or to a non-securities index, such as the Consumer Price Index, so long as the comparison is not misleading.
4.4 Scholarship Plans
An investment fund that is a scholarship plan must comply with this Item, except that year-by-year returns and annual compound returns must be calculated based on the scholarship plan’s total portfolio adjusted for cash flows.