A Vice-less Recovery?

May 27, 2009 in Culture, Markets

One theme I have been noticing during the downturn has been an uptick of people being “better people”.   Many people I know are training for marathons, triathlons, and not engaging in the vices of society as much as say…2005.   Perhaps its because I’m getting older, or maybe society is changing.  Regardless, I figured I would go to the charts on this one.

Below is a chart of the Vice Fund (VICEX) during the last bull market (which basically started at its inception), compared with the S&P 500:

As has been pointed out in the past, the VICE fund completely killed the S&P during the good times.  During this last upswing, however, things have changed.

The S&P 500 has outperformed the VICE fund by nearly 15%, which is a pretty healthy margin.

Does this mean we are having a Vice-less recovery?  Only time will tell.  We still don’t know if this is, for one, a recovery.  Also, it appears that early on during the last recovery, the Vice Fund lagged the S&P for a bit before completely blowing it away.  Perhaps as people get more disposable income they tend to allocate it more towards vices and Vice itself outperforms later in the cycle.  Only time will tell.