Investors with taxable or IRA brokerage accounts

We provide ETF model portfolios suitable for any brokerage for beginners.

We provide diversified model portfolios using no-load and no transaction fee mutual funds tailored to major brokerages. 

We also provide fixed income bond fund based portfolios that have consistently outperformed even some of the best bond mutual funds. 

See our investment methodology

How does our service work?
  1. Investors open an account or use an existing account in a brokerage such as Schwab, Fidelity or Etrade. 
  2. Investors choose a model portfolio to follow. Use our easy-to-use Get Started Guide to follow or customize a portfolio with a personal risk profile.  After that, the portfolio will be added to the dashboard and you are now following it.
  3. They then receive regular emails or notifications on how to rebalance the portfolio, usually at the end of a month. On the next trading day (the first trading day of the next month), they make trades/rebalancing in their own brokerage investment account to mimic the model portfolio --- mainly based on the percentage allocation to each fund.

 Note: all of our portfolios invest in only ETFs or no-load no transaction fee mutual funds. 

ETF Model Portfolios

What?

The core ETF model portfolios are based on our Asset Allocation Composite strategy that employs fund momentum and market condition indicator to dynamically determine allocations to risk asset (stocks) and “safe” (bonds) and fund selection. The candidate ETFs in this portfolio include the following ultra-low cost index ETFs and some total return bond ETFs:

Asset Class Ticker/Portfolio Name
US Stocks VTI (Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF)
US REITs VNQ (Vanguard REIT ETF)
Intl’ Developed Market Stocks VEA (Vanguard FTSE Developed Markets ETF)
Emerging Market Stocks VWO (Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF)
Intermediate Bonds BND (Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF)
Total Return Bonds BOND (PIMCO Total Return Active ETF)
Total Return Bonds TOTL (SPDR® DoubleLine Total Return Tact ETF)
Intermediate Corp Bonds VCIT (Vanguard Intermediate-Term Corp Bd ETF)
National Municipal Bonds (Tax-Exempt) MUB (iShares National AMT-Free Muni Bond)
High Yield Municipal Bonds (Tax Exempt) HYD (Market Vectors® High-Yield Municipal ETF)
…… ……
Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • Ultra low cost: the ETFs in the portfolios are of some lowest expense ratios, even compared with their index mutual fund counterparts.
  • Highly liquid: the ETFs have adequate daily volume to avoid too much trading friction.
  • No trading restrictions: though the portfolios don’t trade frequently, unlike mutual funds that usually can impose 3 month limits (depending on brokerages), ETFs have no minimum holding period restrictions. It gives more flexibility and a peace of mind.

Cons: 

  • Daily fluctuation pricing: this can be viewed as a flexibility or an added concern: unlike mutual funds, investors do need to care about trading prices. In general, we recommend to make rebalance trades, first sells and then buys at least 30 minutes after market opens.
  • Premium/discount: the NAV (Native Asset Value or the actual value of underlying holdings in an ETF) can be different from the market price of the ETF. Though in general, for broad base index ETFs like VTI, VEA etc., premium/discount gaps could be small  and disappear quickly.
Latest Core ETF Asset Allocation Portfolios Performance
Ticker/Portfolio Name YTD
Return**
1Yr AR 3Yr AR 5Yr AR 10Yr AR 15Yr AR
MPIQ ETF Allocation Moderate 3.2% 15.1% 0.4% 6.3% 6.5% 7.7%
VBINX (VANGUARD BALANCED INDEX FUND INVESTOR SHARES) 6.7% 21.5% 5.0% 9.0% 8.2% 10.3%
DGSIX (GLOBAL ALLOCATION 60/40 PORTFOLIO GLOBAL ALLOCATION 60/40 PORTFOLIO - INSTITUTIONAL CLASS) 5.1% 17.7% 4.5% 8.0% 6.4% 9.0%
VT (Vanguard Total World Stock Index Fund ETF Shares) 7.8% 26.6% 7.1% 11.0% 8.9% 11.6%
SPY (SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust) 10.4% 34.1% 11.4% 15.2% 13.0% 15.3%

**YTD: Year to Date

AR: Annualized Return. VBINX: Vanguard index fund with 60% US stocks/40% US bonds. DGSIX: Dimensional Fund Advisors’ moderate risk global allocation index fund. VT: Global stock index fund. These three funds are for benchmark purpose.

Mutual Fund Model Portfolios 

What?

Model portfolios are based on our Asset Allocation Composite strategy that employs fund momentum and market condition indicator to dynamically determine allocations to risk asset (stocks) and “safe” (bonds) and fund selection.

We use a custom list of candidate no load and no transaction fee low cost mutual funds for each major brokerage. The following are some of candidate funds for the Fidelity portfolio:

Asset Class Fund Ticker (Name)
US Stocks FZROX (Fidelity ZERO Total Market Index)
US REITs FSRNX (Fidelity Spartan Real Estate Idx Instl)
Intl’ Developed Market Stocks FZILX (Fidelity ZERO International Index)
Emerging Market Stocks FPADX (Fidelity Spartan Emkts Idex Advtg Insl)
Total Return Bonds FTBFX (Fidelity Total Bond)
Total Return Bonds PTTAX (PIMCO Income A)
Total Return Bonds DLTNX (DoubleLine Total Return Bond N)
Multisector Bonds PONAX (PIMCO Income A)
Multisector Bonds LSBRX (Loomis Sayles Bond)
Intermediate Term Bonds MWTRX (Metropolitan West Total Return Bond)
…… ……
Latest Mutual Fund Portfolio Performance
Ticker/Portfolio Name YTD
Return**
1Yr AR 3Yr AR 5Yr AR 10Yr AR 15Yr AR
Fidelity Core Mutual Funds Asset Allocation Composite Moderate 3.2% 14.9% 2.7% 6.0% 5.9% 9.2%
Schwab Core Mutual Funds Asset Allocation Composite Moderate 3.2% 14.6% 2.0% 5.3% 5.2% 8.8%
Etrade Core Mutual Funds Asset Allocation Composite Moderate 3.3% 9.9% 1.7% 4.6% 4.8% 8.8%
Merrill Edge Core Mutual Funds Asset Allocation Composite Moderate 4.0% 12.9% -1.0% 4.0% 4.8% 8.7%
Vanguard Core Mutual Funds Asset Allocation Composite Moderate 3.0% 13.4% -0.6% 2.7% 4.2% 7.9%
VBINX (VANGUARD BALANCED INDEX FUND INVESTOR SHARES) 6.7% 21.5% 5.0% 9.0% 8.2% 10.3%
DGSIX (GLOBAL ALLOCATION 60/40 PORTFOLIO GLOBAL ALLOCATION 60/40 PORTFOLIO - INSTITUTIONAL CLASS) 5.1% 17.7% 4.5% 8.0% 6.4% 9.0%
VT (Vanguard Total World Stock Index Fund ETF Shares) 7.8% 26.6% 7.1% 11.0% 8.9% 11.6%

**YTD: Year to Date


AR: Annualized Return. VBINX: Vanguard index fund with 60% US stocks/40% US bonds. DGSIX: Dimensional Fund Advisors’ moderate risk global allocation index fund. VT: Global stock index fund. These three funds are for benchmark purpose.

Benefits of subscription

  • FREE No-Risk one month trial for a basic subscription
  • Choose to customize and follow asset allocation model portfolios for your 401k plans, IRA, or a taxable brokerage account
  • Our asset allocation portfolios deliver better returns with less risk than a standard strategic asset allocation portfolio in the long term
  • Choose to follow our fixed income portfolios that have outperformed some of the best bond funds
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  • Detailed subscription plan comparison

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