comparing income stocks

raydel

I have 2 income stocks with very similar holdings and both write covered calls. One is an income trust which when held in a nontaxable account should have tax advantages. I configured a chart to help me measure relative performance by using the underscore before the tickers and overlaying in a separate window then doing the same using dividend adjusted values and finally a ratio. Which simply confuses me.
My question is not which to buy, but is my chart set up correctly to give me the information I desire? And what is that damn ratio telling me?
schrts.co/5hcavV

markd

Maybe someone who's better at chart formatting can answer this more clearly, but:

I think you want to set your price performance indicators to:

FTN.TO:INC/UN.TO

_FTN.TO:_INC/UN.TO

The resulting line for each indicates how FTN.TO is doing in terms of INC/UN.TO.

So if FTN.TO advanced 11% since the first bar on the chart (let's say six months ago), and INC/UN.TO advanced 10%, FNT.TO outperformed INC/UN.TO by 10% and the the line would be above zero.

If FTN.TO consistently out performed INC.TO since the first bar, the line would be rising.

If FTN.TO only sometimes outperformed, the line would be wavy or jagged.

Note the index of out or under performance - 10% in the example - will vary depending on the time period chosen. For instance, on a 3 month chart, the number might be only 5% if INC/UN.TO has been improving in the last few months.