When comparing Bitcoin in a linear price chart sid by side with Decred, it is hard to even see the Decred's price evolution. It happens because the scale of value of Bitcoin unity, being almost 150x greater then one unity of Decred. An adequately comparison can be done in a log scale, where it is possible to see the Decred’s yearly evolution compared with BTC prices
Along 2017, the Bitcoin face value grew 10x. The Decred grew 100x, from less than $1 to near $100 in 31-Dec-2017!
The cumulative returns chart for Decred is equally astonishing. Decred returns, as can be seen in the log prices chart was better than Bitcoin returns, which already are impressive past year:
Using as risk free rate the 3-Month Treasury Bill, the following table brings some risk/return indicators comparing BTC and DCR
The cumulative returns of Bitcoin were 1,158.9% and Decred returned 16,842.7%. As can be confirmed by former charts, the Decred had an annualized volatility of 178.4% against 78,5% of Bitcoin. This volatility caused the DCR holder to took a daily risk of loosing 20% of this portfolio while the BTC holder just took 8%.
According the classical investment theory, meanwhile DCR had a bigger volatility than BTC, the DCR returns completely paid for it. The Sharpe Ratio says that the low BTC risk makes the quality of its returns similar to DCR. On the other hand Calmar Ratio says, that DCR was better looking for the draw downs in both coins. Another interesting indicator is the Tail Rate, which says DCR positive returns over 95th percentile outperforms the 5th percentile, or in plain english, Decred had more positive returns than negative ones in 2017.
Other indicators tells more about some info that charts alread shows.