Good v/s Bad - The stock market way

If you are Generation X, you have probably heard your parents lament about how the "state of the union" (where the union = world) is bad and how we are all going through a giant wave of ethical, moral and religious degradation. Life back then was a lot more innocent and folks back then were less crime prone. Is our generation more crime prone or are we just victims of a media on steroids which has its spotlight on the tiniest of infractions. I mean seriously, when did a drunk driving incident in Hong Kong warrant CNN coverage in the US?

Nevertheless, it seemed like an interesting exercise to see if there was a single metric that would sum up our moral,ethical and religious priorities and I figured the stock market is one hell of an indicator. Take three mutual funds VICEX, AVEMX and IMANX.

VICEX: The "Vice" fund is a mutual fund that invests in companies that deal with human vice i.e. alcohol, tobacco, firearms, wars. Companies include: Philip Morris (Marlboro), Carslberg (Beer), Lockheed Martin (planes, missiles...wars?).

AVEMX: The Ave Maria Catholic Values. Invest in companies that support catholic values and meet their religious criteria. Companies include: Western Union, Sherwin-Williams, General Cable etc.

IMANX: Iman K. This fund invests in companies that adhere to Islamic values. Companies include: Google, Coca-Cola, Eli Lilly, China Mobile (I'm still researching the connection between Islam and these companies).

Over the past 10 yrs, which are a slice of the "supposed evil times" we live in, the VICEX grew 33%, AVEMX grew 10% and IMANX grew 12%.

Here's the 10yr Google chart

Of course, the same chart over 1yr, 5 yr periods shows that the good and the bad got hammered by the UGLY (the sub-prime mortage mess)

1 yr chart

5 yr chart

However, the YTD chart for 2009 are looking good for the "faith based/religious" funds. Looks like all that praying during the downfall of 2008 paid off!!.

Year to date chart