# How Royal Bank of Canada (RY) compares with the whole market and its popular alternatives

> Source: EasyCompare research, https://easycompare.io/research/ry
> Data as of October 20, 2026. Total returns include reinvested dividends. Past performance does not predict future results; nothing here is investment advice.

Built by QuantCommons' quantitative engine, this page is about relative opportunity, not data on RY alone. It places RY (Royal Bank of Canada) against 20+ popular alternatives, its neighboring categories and the entire market of over 10,000 U.S.-listed stocks and ETFs, and surfaces what has done better on consistent outperformance, return for the risk taken, behavior in real market crashes and diversification. The result is a clearer view of where RY stands in the market, and of the alternatives worth a closer look.

Period covered: RY's full trading record, from October 1995 through September 2026. All returns include reinvested dividends. Data as of October 20, 2026.

## Key findings

- **Right now:** Over the past 3 months, RY fell 4.8% while the S&P 500 rose 3.9%. Not every peer went the same way. Over the past 3 months, MUFG (Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group) rose 1.8% and BAC (Bank of America) fell 15.8%.
- **Stock or market?:** RY's 4.8% fall over the past 3 months is part of a broader banks sell-off: the banks ETF KBE (State Street SPDR S&P Bank ETF) fell 6.8%, with BAC (Bank of America, down 15.8%) and HSBC (down 5.9%). Its bank peers did not move as one over the past 3 months: MUFG (Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group) rose 1.8%, while BAC fell 15.8%.
- **Past 1 to 3 years:** RY has run far ahead of the market, rising 39.2% over the past year against 15.8% for the S&P 500 and 17.9% for the Nasdaq 100. The same gap shows up over 3 years (173% against 89.3%).
- **Long term:** RY turned $10,000 into $45,200 over the past decade, against $42,100 in the S&P 500. RY's 10-year return of 352% puts it ahead of 78% of the stocks worth at least $300 million with that much history. The S&P 500 returned 321%.
- **In a crash:** RY fell harder than the S&P 500 in five of seven sell-offs. The late-2018 sell-off was the exception: RY fell 17.1%, less than the S&P 500's 19.3%.
- **Diversification:** RY is some diversification, but not a hedge: a correlation of 0.59 with the S&P 500 over 5 years and 0.61 with the total US market, more closely than 89% of stocks worth at least $300 million. When the S&P 500 had a down month, RY usually fell with it (18 of 22 months).
- **Better options:** Among RY's popular alternatives, MUFG (Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group), SMFG (Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group) and CM (Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce) were ahead of RY in most short and long periods. Even so, nothing in the whole market did better on both counts: none of the 3,633 stocks and funds worth at least $500 million earned more than RY with less volatility over the past 5 years.

## How much would $10,000 in RY have grown?

This chart tracks a hypothetical $10,000 investment in RY over the past 29 years, with dividends reinvested, alongside the same amount in the S&P 500, investments that ended ahead of RY over the same span and RY's popular alternatives, among those that traded for the entire period.

- $10,000 invested in RY at the end of September 1997 would have grown to $442,765 by September 2026, more than the $132,907 it would have become in SPY, an S&P 500 fund.
- Five of the eight other investments on the chart ended ahead of RY, and AAPL finished highest, at $20,534,853.

## RY at a glance

This section summarizes the key facts about the stock, its returns over periods from one to ten years and the risk it has carried, with dividends reinvested throughout.

- RY's deepest decline since it began trading in 1995 was 63.1%, from October 2007 to February 2009. It took eight months from the low to climb back to its old high.
- Over 29 full calendar years, RY's best was 2009, when it returned 89.3%, and its worst was 2008, when it lost 39.4%. It lost money in seven of those years.
- RY is 8.1% below its all-time high.

- Type: Stock, Financials (Banks - Diversified)
- Trading since: October 16, 1995
- Market value: $276B
- Volatility (5 years): 18.2%; Sharpe ratio: 0.97
- Worst decline ever: −63.1%, from October 31, 2007 to February 23, 2009; back at its high by October 19, 2009

| Period | RY total return |
| --- | --- |
| 1 month | −3.5% |
| 3 months | −4.8% |
| 6 months | +12.0% |
| year to date | +18.9% |
| 1 year | +39.2% |
| 3 years | +173% |
| 5 years | +122% |
| 10 years | +352% |

## RY against the whole market

Where RY ranks among every stock and fund, and what across the market has done better.

### How does RY rank among all stocks?

This section ranks RY on return, volatility, risk-adjusted return and worst decline against every stock worth at least $300 million with enough history.

- RY is among the steadier stocks: its price swings rank in the top 2% of the 2,893 stocks worth at least $300 million, where the top is the calmest.

| Measure | RY | Rank |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 1-year return | +39.2% | 748 of 3,287 (top 23%) |
| 3-year return | +173% | 482 of 3,017 (top 16%) |
| 5-year return | +122% | 562 of 2,893 (top 20%) |
| 10-year return | +352% | 477 of 2,202 (top 22%) |
| Volatility, 5 years | 18.2% | 49 of 2,893 (top 2%) |
| Sharpe ratio, 5 years | 0.97 | 117 of 2,893 (top 5%) |
| Worst decline, past 10 years | −40.0% | 154 of 2,187 (top 8%) |

### What has beaten RY on both return and risk?

Each dot is an investment, placed by how much it earned a year over the past 5 years (higher is better) and how much its price swung, its volatility (further left is calmer).

- None of the 3,633 stocks and funds worth at least $500 million earned more than RY over the past 5 years with less volatility: nothing sits in the green region.

### Is there a better investment than RY?

The table below lists investments that beat RY over the past 5 years on at least one of these measures: a higher annual return with lower volatility, a higher annual return at similar volatility, a similar return with lower volatility, a higher Sharpe ratio with a smaller worst decline, a higher total return in most periods from 3 months to 10 years, or smaller losses in recent market crashes.

- Among RY's popular alternatives, MUFG, SMFG and CM were ahead of RY in most short and long periods.
- Nothing in the whole market did better on both counts: none of the 3,633 stocks and funds worth at least $500 million earned more than RY with less volatility over the past 5 years.

## RY against its popular alternatives

The investments people most often weigh against RY, compared period by period and year by year.

### How do RY's risk and return compare with its alternatives?

This map plots each investment's annual return over the past 5 years against its volatility, the size of its typical price swings.

- None of the 22 popular alternatives earned more than RY over the past 5 years with smaller price swings, so every higher return on the map came with a bumpier ride.
- Over the past 5 years, RY returned 17.3% a year, more than the S&P 500's 12.7%, with higher volatility (18.2% against 17.1%).

### Has RY consistently beaten its popular alternatives?

This section compares RY with the investments people most often weigh against it, checking each one over eight periods from one month to ten years.

- Five of the 23 popular alternatives, led by MFC, MUFG and SMFG, outperformed RY in at least 3 of 5 short-term and 2 of 3 long-term timeframes.
- MFC, MUFG and SMFG outperformed RY in every long-term period and in all but one short-term period, the most consistent record in the group.

| Investment | 1Y return | 3Y return | 5Y return | 10Y return | Periods ahead of RY | Verdict | Sharpe |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| RY: Royal Bank of Canada (this page) | +39.2% | +173% | +122% | +352% |  |  | 0.97 |
| [MFC](https://easycompare.io/research/mfc): Manulife Financial Corporation | +44.8% | +189% | +177% | +373% | 5/5 short-term, 3/3 long-term | all-weather | 0.97 |
| [MUFG](https://easycompare.io/research/mufg): Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc. | +41.3% | +184% | +319% | +483% | 4/5 short-term, 3/3 long-term | all-weather | 1.13 |
| [SMFG](https://easycompare.io/research/smfg): Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, Inc. | +53.5% | +181% | +327% | +474% | 4/5 short-term, 3/3 long-term | all-weather | 1.14 |
| [CM](https://easycompare.io/research/cm): Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce | +44.4% | +261% | +141% | +395% | 4/5 short-term, 3/3 long-term | all-weather | 0.93 |
| [ING](https://easycompare.io/research/ing): ING Groep N.V. | +42.5% | +209% | +201% | +339% | 3/5 short-term, 2/3 long-term | consistent | 0.87 |
| [HSBC](https://easycompare.io/research/hsbc): HSBC Holdings plc | +47.7% | +201% | +318% | +319% | 2/5 short-term, 2/3 long-term |  | 1.24 |
| [SAN](https://easycompare.io/research/san): Banco Santander, S.A. | +35.9% | +305% | +295% | +332% | 1/5 short-term, 2/3 long-term |  | 0.99 |
| [UBS](https://easycompare.io/research/ubs): UBS Group AG | +26.3% | +116% | +210% | +374% | 0/5 short-term, 2/3 long-term |  | 0.90 |
| [BCS](https://easycompare.io/research/bcs): Barclays PLC | +15.1% | +242% | +134% | +238% | 0/5 short-term, 2/3 long-term |  | 0.67 |
| [DB](https://easycompare.io/research/db): Deutsche Bank AG | −3.1% | +244% | +171% | +165% | 0/5 short-term, 2/3 long-term |  | 0.72 |
| [JPM](https://easycompare.io/research/jpm): JPMorgan Chase & Co. | +13.0% | +150% | +122% | +537% | 1/5 short-term, 1/3 long-term |  | 0.78 |
| [C](https://easycompare.io/research/c): Citigroup Inc. | +26.0% | +238% | +102% | +234% | 0/5 short-term, 1/3 long-term |  | 0.63 |
| [TD](https://easycompare.io/research/td): The Toronto-Dominion Bank | +57.5% | +141% | +109% | +310% | 5/5 short-term, 0/3 long-term |  | 0.84 |
| [BNS](https://easycompare.io/research/bns): The Bank of Nova Scotia | +50.0% | +162% | +83.1% | +187% | 5/5 short-term, 0/3 long-term |  | 0.71 |
| [SLF](https://easycompare.io/research/slf): Sun Life Financial Inc. | +35.5% | +96.3% | +74.1% | +255% | 4/5 short-term, 0/3 long-term |  | 0.67 |
| EWC: iShares MSCI Canada ETF | +21.7% | +98.3% | +69.8% | +191% | 2/5 short-term, 0/3 long-term |  | 0.70 |
| [BAM](https://easycompare.io/research/bam): Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. | −12.5% | +67.9% | — | — | 2/5 short-term, 0/3 long-term |  | — |
| [BMO](https://easycompare.io/research/bmo): Bank of Montreal | +37.6% | +146% | +89.4% | +295% | 1/5 short-term, 0/3 long-term |  | 0.71 |
| [BN](https://easycompare.io/research/bn): Brookfield Corporation | −16.8% | +85.9% | +20.8% | +226% | 1/5 short-term, 0/3 long-term |  | 0.28 |
| [WFC](https://easycompare.io/research/wfc): Wells Fargo & Company | −2.4% | +119% | +85.0% | +141% | 1/5 short-term, 0/3 long-term |  | 0.57 |
| [USB](https://easycompare.io/research/usb): U.S. Bancorp | +30.3% | +117% | +17.6% | +94.6% | 1/5 short-term, 0/3 long-term |  | 0.26 |
| [BAC](https://easycompare.io/research/bac): Bank of America Corporation | −0.6% | +107% | +21.6% | +282% | 0/5 short-term, 0/3 long-term |  | 0.28 |
| [PNC](https://easycompare.io/research/pnc): The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. | +25.3% | +120% | +25.1% | +230% | 0/5 short-term, 0/3 long-term |  | 0.30 |

### How did RY do year by year?

This table shows each investment's total return in every full calendar year since 1997, along with where RY ranked among its popular alternatives each year.

- Ranked against its popular alternatives each year, RY finished in the top quarter in eight of 29 years and in the bottom quarter in two. In 2025, it ranked 10 of 24.
- RY finished ahead of the S&P 500 in 16 of its 29 full calendar years.
- Among its popular alternatives, BN came out ahead of RY most often, in 17 of the 29 years both traded.

| Year | RY | SPY |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 2025 | +46.3% | +17.7% |
| 2024 | +23.8% | +24.9% |
| 2023 | +12.2% | +26.2% |
| 2022 | −8.0% | −18.2% |
| 2021 | +34.1% | +28.7% |
| 2020 | +8.4% | +18.3% |
| 2019 | +20.2% | +31.2% |
| 2018 | −12.9% | −4.6% |
| 2017 | +23.9% | +21.7% |
| 2016 | +31.8% | +12.0% |

## Risk and diversification

How RY has fallen, how it held up in crashes beside the S&P 500 and its popular alternatives, and what moves independently of it.

### What were RY's worst declines?

A drawdown is the decline from a peak to the lowest point before a new high.

- In all five of RY's worst declines, the S&P 500 held up better over the same dates.
- The slowest recovery came after RY fell 40.2% from April to August 1998; it did not regain that peak until August 2000, two years later.

| Decline | Peak | Low | Back at the high | SPY over the same dates | Market event |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| −63.1% | October 31, 2007 | February 23, 2009 | October 19, 2009 | −50.3% | 2008 financial crisis |
| −40.2% | April 14, 1998 | August 31, 1998 | August 17, 2000 | −13.9% |  |
| −40.0% | February 21, 2020 | March 23, 2020 | November 20, 2020 | −32.8% | Covid crash |
| −37.3% | September 18, 2014 | January 20, 2016 | December 13, 2016 | −5.1% | 2015 China and oil sell-off |
| −32.8% | April 29, 2011 | November 25, 2011 | December 5, 2012 | −13.9% | 2011 euro debt crisis |

### How did RY do in stock market crashes?

This section measures how far RY, the S&P 500 and each alternative fell from peak to trough during every major market crash since 2000.

- None of its popular alternatives fell less than RY in most of the crashes they both traded through.
- RY fell further than the S&P 500 in five of the ten crashes it has traded through. The clearest case was the 2015 China and oil sell-off, when RY fell 23.1% and the S&P 500 fell 12.8%.

| Crash | Dates | RY fall | SPY fall |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Dot-com bust | March 10, 2000 to October 9, 2002 | −21.6% | −47.5% |
| Global financial crisis | October 9, 2007 to March 9, 2009 | −63.1% | −55.2% |
| Flash crash | May 6, 2010 to May 7, 2010 | 0.0% | −1.5% |
| Euro debt crisis | July 22, 2011 to October 3, 2011 | −21.8% | −17.9% |
| China devaluation & oil rout | August 10, 2015 to February 11, 2016 | −23.1% | −12.8% |
| Volmageddon | February 2, 2018 to February 9, 2018 | −5.7% | −6.5% |
| Q4 2018 selloff | September 21, 2018 to December 24, 2018 | −17.1% | −19.3% |
| COVID crash | February 19, 2020 to March 23, 2020 | −40.0% | −33.7% |
| 2022 bear market | January 4, 2022 to October 12, 2022 | −26.0% | −24.5% |
| SVB / regional bank stress | March 8, 2023 to March 13, 2023 | −3.8% | −3.4% |

### How closely does RY move with the S&P 500?

Upside capture measures how much of the S&P 500's gains an investment kept in the months the market rose, and downside capture how much of its losses it took in the months the market fell.

- MUFG took just 42% of the S&P 500's losses, against 88% for RY, while still keeping 84% of its gains.
- Over the past 10 years, RY captured 97% of the S&P 500's gains in rising months and 88% of its losses in falling months, with a beta of 0.88. That is a defensive profile: it gave up some of the market's upside in exchange for smaller losses.
- Four of the 22 popular alternatives had a higher capture ratio (upside capture divided by downside capture) than RY's 1.11, led by MUFG, SMFG and HSBC.

Measured over the past 10 years of monthly returns against SPY.

| Investment | Upside capture | Downside capture | Beta |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| RY: Royal Bank of Canada (this page) | 97.0% | 88.0% | 0.88 |
| [MFC](https://easycompare.io/research/mfc): Manulife Financial Corporation | 110% | 110% | 1.10 |
| [MUFG](https://easycompare.io/research/mufg): Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc. | 84.0% | 42.0% | 0.66 |
| [SMFG](https://easycompare.io/research/smfg): Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, Inc. | 84.0% | 43.0% | 0.65 |
| [CM](https://easycompare.io/research/cm): Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce | 108% | 106% | 1.07 |
| [ING](https://easycompare.io/research/ing): ING Groep N.V. | 136% | 155% | 1.36 |
| [HSBC](https://easycompare.io/research/hsbc): HSBC Holdings plc | 79.0% | 53.0% | 0.58 |
| [SAN](https://easycompare.io/research/san): Banco Santander, S.A. | 101% | 92.0% | 1.02 |
| [UBS](https://easycompare.io/research/ubs): UBS Group AG | 116% | 120% | 1.18 |
| [BCS](https://easycompare.io/research/bcs): Barclays PLC | 113% | 131% | 1.26 |
| [DB](https://easycompare.io/research/db): Deutsche Bank AG | 102% | 118% | 1.21 |
| [JPM](https://easycompare.io/research/jpm): JPMorgan Chase & Co. | 117% | 103% | 1.09 |
| [C](https://easycompare.io/research/c): Citigroup Inc. | 131% | 165% | 1.49 |
| [TD](https://easycompare.io/research/td): The Toronto-Dominion Bank | 89.0% | 80.0% | 0.88 |
| [BNS](https://easycompare.io/research/bns): The Bank of Nova Scotia | 97.0% | 120% | 1.05 |
| [SLF](https://easycompare.io/research/slf): Sun Life Financial Inc. | 87.0% | 85.0% | 0.96 |
| EWC: iShares MSCI Canada ETF | 88.0% | 102% | 0.95 |
| [BMO](https://easycompare.io/research/bmo): Bank of Montreal | 104% | 112% | 1.12 |
| [BN](https://easycompare.io/research/bn): Brookfield Corporation | 125% | 162% | 1.42 |
| [WFC](https://easycompare.io/research/wfc): Wells Fargo & Company | 96.0% | 129% | 1.13 |
| [USB](https://easycompare.io/research/usb): U.S. Bancorp | 89.0% | 130% | 1.05 |
| [BAC](https://easycompare.io/research/bac): Bank of America Corporation | 127% | 146% | 1.36 |
| [PNC](https://easycompare.io/research/pnc): The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. | 108% | 127% | 1.15 |

### What diversifies RY?

Correlation measures how closely two investments move together, on a scale from 1 (in lockstep) through 0 (unrelated) to -1 (in opposite directions).

- Moving a fifth of the money in RY into GLD would have cut the portfolio's volatility by 17% over the past 5 years and raised its annual return (+18.8% for RY alone, +19.3% for the mix).
- Among large ETFs, DXJ, EMLP and HDV have moved largely independently of RY over the past 5 years, with correlations of 0.48 or lower, and each still earned a positive 5-year return.
- FIX made money in four of the seven calendar years in which RY lost money.

| Investment | Correlation with RY | 5Y return | Volatility | Sharpe | Rose in RY's 7 down years |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| DXJ: WisdomTree Japan Hedged Equity Fund | 0.26 | +225% | 19.1% | 1.34 | 2 of 7 |
| EMLP: First Trust North American Energy Infrastructure Fund | 0.44 | +101% | 14.5% | 1.04 | 1 of 7 |
| HDV: iShares Core High Dividend ETF | 0.48 | +83.3% | 13.0% | 1.00 | 1 of 7 |
| [SMH](https://easycompare.io/research/smh): VanEck Semiconductor ETF | 0.39 | +323% | 36.9% | 0.97 | 0 of 7 |
| [GLD](https://easycompare.io/research/gld): SPDR Gold Shares | 0.06 | +126% | 18.9% | 0.96 | 1 of 7 |
| [XLE](https://easycompare.io/research/xle): State Street Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF | 0.20 | +177% | 25.5% | 0.93 | 2 of 7 |
| EWT: iShares MSCI Taiwan ETF | 0.47 | +153% | 24.2% | 0.89 | 1 of 7 |
| AMLP: Alerian MLP ETF | 0.27 | +111% | 18.9% | 0.89 | 1 of 7 |

## Common questions

### What was RY's worst drawdown?

RY's deepest decline since it began trading in 1995 was 63.1%, from October 2007 to February 2009. It took eight months from the low to climb back to its old high.

### What were RY's best and worst years?

Over 29 full calendar years, RY's best year was 2009, when it returned 89.3%. Its worst was 2008, with a return of -39.4%.

### Is there a better investment than RY?

Among RY's popular alternatives, MUFG, SMFG and CM were ahead of RY in most short and long periods. Nothing in the whole market did better on both counts: none of the 3,633 stocks and funds worth at least $500 million earned more than RY with less volatility over the past 5 years.

### Is RY more volatile than the S&P 500?

Yes. RY's volatility over the past 5 years was 18.2%, 1.1 times the S&P 500's 17.1%. Volatility measures how widely returns swing around their average: in roughly two years out of three, RY's return lands within 18.2% of its average, either way. The higher it is, the rougher the ride and the harder it is to hold through a slump.

### What is RY's Sharpe ratio?

RY's Sharpe ratio over the past 5 years was 0.97, against 0.79 for the S&P 500, so RY earned more for each unit of risk than an index fund did. The Sharpe ratio is the return earned above cash for each unit of volatility: two investments with the same return are not equal if one got there with far bigger swings.

### How correlated is RY with the S&P 500?

Over the past 5 years, RY's monthly returns had a correlation of 0.59 with the S&P 500. Correlation runs from 1 (moving in lockstep) through 0 (unrelated) to −1 (moving in opposite directions). They often move together: some diversification next to an index fund, but not a cushion. In the table, the correlation column measures each option against RY instead: the lower it is, the more that option would diversify a RY holding.

### What are the best alternatives to RY?

Of the 23 popular alternatives we compared, five outperformed RY in at least 3 of 5 short-term and 2 of 3 long-term timeframes, with dividends reinvested: MFC, MUFG and SMFG.

### Did RY outperform the S&P 500?

RY finished ahead of the S&P 500 (SPY) in 16 of 29 full calendar years. In 2025, it returned +46.3%, against +17.7% for the index.

### How did RY do in stock market crashes?

RY fell less than the S&P 500 (SPY) in four of the ten major crashes it has traded through, and further in five. The clearest case was the 2015 China and oil sell-off, when RY fell 23.1% and the S&P 500 fell 12.8%.

### What diversifies RY?

These had a low correlation with RY over the past 5 years and still earned a positive 5-year return: among large ETFs, DXJ (correlation 0.26), EMLP (correlation 0.44) and HDV (correlation 0.48); among large stocks, CAH (correlation 0.19), CLS (correlation 0.24) and FIX (correlation 0.28). A correlation near zero means the two have moved largely independently.

## More research

- [Manulife Financial (MFC) Performance, Alternatives and Market Rank](https://easycompare.io/research/mfc)
- [Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) Performance, Alternatives and Market Rank](https://easycompare.io/research/mufg)
- [Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG) Performance, Alternatives and Market Rank](https://easycompare.io/research/smfg)
- [Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CM) Performance, Alternatives and Market Rank](https://easycompare.io/research/cm)
- [ING Groep (ING) Performance, Alternatives and Market Rank](https://easycompare.io/research/ing)
- [HSBC Performance, Alternatives and Market Rank](https://easycompare.io/research/hsbc)
- [Banco Santander (SAN) Performance, Alternatives and Market Rank](https://easycompare.io/research/san)
- [UBS Group (UBS) Performance, Alternatives and Market Rank](https://easycompare.io/research/ubs)
- [Barclays (BCS) Performance, Alternatives and Market Rank](https://easycompare.io/research/bcs)
- [Deutsche Bank (DB) Performance, Alternatives and Market Rank](https://easycompare.io/research/db)
- [JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) Performance, Alternatives and Market Rank](https://easycompare.io/research/jpm)
- [Citigroup (C) Performance, Alternatives and Market Rank](https://easycompare.io/research/c)

## Explore further

- Full page with charts: https://easycompare.io/research/ry
- All research pages: https://easycompare.io/llms.txt
- Compare the entire market against RY live: https://betterthanspy.com/?b=RY&utm_source=easycompare&utm_medium=research