We don't usually think about absolute return as much as we do return conditioned on an acceptable level of risk. You can almost think of risk as currency, i.e.

We don't usually think about absolute return as much as we do return conditioned on an acceptable level of risk. You can almost think of risk as currency, i.e. each addition unit of risk opens you to strategies with higher expected return. But you can also access strategies for which you're able to "pay" the risk (basically fits into your tolerances).