In doing GIPS(R) (Global Investment Performance Standards) verifications under the new version, I’ve witnessed a few firms who insert “N/A” for years prior to 2011, when they chose not to report the 3-year annualized standard deviation. Not showing this figure is fine; “N/A” is, I believe, misleading.


N/A can mean:

• Not Applicable: but it CAN apply if there are at least 36 months of returns to run the statistic against
• Not Available: but it CAN be available; you just need to run the math.

You should just leave it blank! Just as with the example in the standards: