Methodology

Gale Finance provides transparent, repeatable calculations for comparing crypto and traditional assets. This page explains our data sources, how we align time periods, and how each metric is computed.

Data Sources

  • Crypto prices: CoinGecko API (USD spot prices, daily). Historical backfill via CoinMarketCap CSV exports for pre-2023 data.
  • Equities/ETFs: Tiingo API (daily close and adjusted close, split/dividend adjusted).
  • Precious metals (spot): Stooq historical data for XAUUSD, XAGUSD, XPTUSD.
  • Risk-free rate: FRED 3-Month Treasury Bill rate (DGS3MO), updated daily. We average the rate over each analysis period.
  • DeFi yields (when enabled): DefiLlama pool data.

We record one price per asset per day. If multiple values are present for a date, the latest ingested value is retained.

Price Series & Adjustments

For equities and ETFs, we use adjusted close when available to reflect dividends and splits. For crypto assets, we use daily USD spot prices from CoinGecko. All returns are computed from daily closing prices.

Crypto markets trade 24x7, while equities trade on exchange business days. This difference affects alignment and annualization assumptions described below.

Date Alignment & Coverage

For compare pages, we align asset series to overlapping dates so both assets are evaluated over the same time window. When comparing crypto to equities, this means weekends and market holidays are removed from the aligned series.

Each page displays the analysis period derived from the aligned data window. This period can differ from the full history of either asset.

Returns

Total return is calculated as the percentage change from the first to last available price in the analysis window. We also compute trailing returns for standard lookbacks: 30, 90, 180, and 365 calendar days.

Trailing returns use the closest available price on or before the lookback date. If an asset does not have enough data for a lookback window, the return is shown as N/A.

Volatility

Volatility is the annualized standard deviation of daily returns. Annualization uses the asset calendar: 252 for trading-day assets (equities/ETFs) and 365 for daily assets (crypto and stablecoins).

Daily volatility is derived by dividing annualized volatility by the square root of the annualization factor. Comparisons align overlapping dates, but annualization still uses the asset calendar above.

Sharpe Ratio

Sharpe ratio is calculated as (annualized return minus risk-free rate) divided by annualized volatility. We use the same annualization factor as volatility for each asset type.

The risk-free rate is the average 3-month Treasury rate (FRED series DGS3MO) over the analysis period, expressed as an annual rate. For example, if the average rate during the period was 4.5%, we use 0.045.

Max Drawdown & Recovery

Max drawdown is the largest peak-to-trough percentage decline during the analysis window. Recovery time is the number of days from the trough until the price reaches or exceeds the prior peak.

Correlation

Correlation is computed using Pearson correlation on daily returns with a rolling 30-day window. We report:

  • Current: The most recent 30-day rolling correlation value.
  • Average: The mean of all 30-day rolling correlation values across the full analysis period.
  • Min/Max: The historical range of the 30-day rolling correlation.

Correlation calculations use aligned overlapping dates for the two assets. The interpretation (strongly/moderately/weakly correlated) is based on the average correlation over the full period.

For S&P 500 correlations shown in the comparison table, we use a variable window (30-90 days depending on data availability) and report the average correlation over the overlapping period.

Data Quality & Limitations

  • Data can be delayed or revised by upstream providers.
  • Crypto trades 24x7; equity data excludes weekends and market holidays.
  • Adjusted close is used for equities when available; crypto has no dividends or corporate actions.
  • We do not model transaction costs, taxes, or slippage.

Sortino Ratio

Sortino ratio is similar to Sharpe but only penalizes downside volatility, not upside gains. It is calculated as (annualized return minus risk-free rate) divided by downside deviation.

Downside deviation measures the volatility of returns that fall below the risk-free rate (the "target return"). This makes Sortino more relevant for investors concerned with avoiding losses rather than total volatility—a large upside move doesn't hurt your Sortino ratio the way it would hurt your Sharpe.

Explore the Analysis

Start with our asset comparisons to see these metrics in action. Each comparison page includes correlation, returns, volatility, Sharpe, Sortino, and drawdown data.