Re-balance Cycle Reminder All MyPlanIQ’s newsletters are archived here.
For regular SAA and TAA portfolios, the next re-balance will be on Monday, July 11, 2016. You can also find the re-balance calendar for 2015 on ‘Dashboard‘ page once you log in.
As a reminder to expert users: advanced portfolios are still re-balanced based on their original re-balance schedules and they are not the same as those used in Strategic and Tactical Asset Allocation (SAA and TAA) portfolios of a plan.
Please note that we now list the next re-balance date on every portfolio page.
Newsletter Summary
It’s time to have a periodical summary on the newsletters published since the last time we did this (see February 8, 2016: Newsletter Collection Update).
We regularly update our newsletter collection. It is a helpful resource for many existing users. We also strongly encouraged new users to browse through these newsletters. It classifies newsletters into several categories including portfolio management, fixed income and risk management. It can be found by clicking on Articles tab and then Newsletters. Then on the articles page, click on ‘Newsletters’ tab on the far right to reveal the link.
Newsletter Collections
Latest update: 6/6/2016
Several readers have asked us to categorize and summarize our previous newsletters as they tend to cover various topics. We believe this is a good idea as many of them provide useful information that can be useful for both new and old users. In the following, we select and list some newsletters in each category
Portfolio Management
Asset Allocation and Other Investment Strategies
Strategic:
- January 18, 2016: Strategic Asset Allocation: A Cautious Outlook
- December 7, 2015: Diversification And Global Allocation
- July 6, 2015: Fixed Income Total Return Bond Funds In Strategic Asset Allocation Portfolios
- October 20, 2014: Strategic Portfolios With Managed Volatility
- May 19, 2014: Consistency, The Most Important Edge In Investing: Strategic Case
- July 29, 2013: Strategic Asset Allocation: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly
- October 1, 2012: Strategic Asset Allocation Optimized
Tactical
- March 14, 2016: Are Tactical And Timing Strategies Losing Steam? //Tactical portfolios are underperforming, but that can be only for a period of time. In the long term, they are still solid
- January 11, 2016: Review Of Trend Following Tactical Asset Allocation
- February 23, 2015: Why Is Global Tactical Asset Allocation Not Popular?
- January 12, 2015: How Does Trend Following Tactical Asset Allocation Strategy Deliver Returns
- August 18, 2014: Consistency, The Most Important Edge In Investing: Tactical Case
- July 22, 2013: Tactical Asset Allocation: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly
Asset Behavior
- March 21, 2016: Small And Large Company Stock Performance In Different Economic Expansion Cycles // when small cap stocks underperform for a while, it usually signals trouble ahead for stock markets.
- December 14, 2015: High Yield Bonds And Their Correlation With Stocks
- October 12, 2015: What About Commodities?
- June 22, 2015: Secular Asset Trends
- May 26, 2015: Cash, Bonds and Stocks In A Rising Rate Environment
- May 11, 2015: Pain in Fixed Income?
- May 4, 2015: The Balanced Stock and Long Term Treasury Bond Portfolios
- April 27, 2015: Long Term Treasury Bond Behavior
- April 6, 2015: The Low Return Environment
Strategic and Timing
- May 9, 2016: Boost Your Dull Summer Investments // yet another effective ‘smart cash’ demonstration used in a timing strategy
- September 28, 2015: Risk Managed Strategic Asset Allocation Portfolios Revisited
- June 10, 2013: Risk Managed Strategic Asset Allocation Portfolios
Fund Selection
- May 2, 2016: Low Cost Index Fund Investing // we discuss low index funds and in general indexing approach.
- October 15, 2012: Performance From Asset Allocation And Fund Selection
Core Satellite and Multiple Strategies
- April 11, 2016: Construction of Sound And Conservative Portfolios // we propose a way to construct sound conservative portfolios that can be as good as the best conservative allocation funds.
- November 30, 2015: Investors and Speculators Combined
- October 5, 2015: Core Satellite Portfolios In A 401k Account
- September 14, 2015: Core Satellite Portfolios In Market Turmoil
- April 13, 2015: Total Return Bond Funds As Smart Cash
- September 15, 2014: Equity And Total Return Bond Fund Composite Portfolios
- February 3, 2014: Alternative Investment Funds & Diversified Portfolios
- December 2, 2013: Versatile Multiple Portfolio Construction
- July 15, 2013: Portfolio of Portfolios & Core Satellite Portfolios
- November 12, 2012: Multiple Portfolios As Another Diversification Dimension
Momentum Strategies and their behavior. How various asset allocation strategies work in different market cycles
- July 27, 2015: Performance Dispersion Among Momentum Based Portfolios
- August 11, 2014: What To Do In Overvalued Stock Markets
- July 7, 2014: Portfolio Behavior During Market Corrections
- November 11, 2013: Tactical Asset Allocation In Overvalued Stock Markets
- November 4, 2013: Wisdom from a Long Time Practitioner Using Multi-Asset Relative Strength/Momentum
- October 28, 2013: What Can We Learn From The 1987 Stock Market Crash?
- April 1, 2013: Momentum Over Stocks, Sector And Style Funds
- September 10, 2012: Taxonomy Of Momentum, Relative Strength And Trend Following
- July 16, 2012: Understand The Behavior of Investment Strategies
- December 10, 2012: How Asset Allocation Strategies Performed In Secular Market Trends
- October 8, 2012: Asset Allocation Strategies Have Cycles Too
Strategy and Portfolio Evaluation
- July 20, 2015: Global Balanced Portfolio Benchmarks
- December 1, 2014: Two Key Issues of Investment Strategies
- March 11, 2013: How To Evaluate Investing Strategies
- October 29, 2012: Sharpe, Maximum Draw Down And Sortino Ratios
Risk Parity, Four Pillar and Permanent Portfolios
More newsletters can be found in these articles:
- May 30, 2016: Swensen Portfolio And Permanent Portfolios //Swensen’s portfolio construction principle is very much aligned with the permanent portfolio’s. One can construct these portfolios of various risk levels using the same principle.
- January 25, 2016: Alternative Portfolios Review
- November 16, 2015: Permanent, Risk Parity And Alternative Portfolios Review
- July 21, 2014: Permanent Portfolios & Four Pillar Foundation Based Framework
- February 25, 2013: Risk Parity All Weather & Permanent Portfolio Review
- August 6, 2012: Four Pillar Foundation Based Portfolio Review
Portfolio Rebalance & Daily Management
- February 29, 2016: Smart Strategic Asset Allocation Rebalance When Market Trend Changes //Using a simple moving average as a guide to time rebalancing could be beneficial
- August 17, 2015: ETF or Mutual Fund Based Portfolios
- September 7, 2015: Market Rout Creates An Opportunity to Reposition Your Portfolios
- June 29, 2015: Core ETF Commission Free Portfolios
- March 30, 2015: Brokerage Specific Core Mutual Fund Portfolios 2
- March 16, 2015: Brokerage Specific Core Mutual Fund Portfolios
- December 8, 2014: Implementing Core Asset Portfolios In a Brokerage
- June 2, 2014: Tips On Portfolio Rebalance
- May 12, 2014: How To Handle An Elevated Overvalued Market
- March 24, 2014: Time Diversification In Portfolio Rebalance
Risk Management & Investor Behavior
Portfolio risk management techniques and issues.
- September 21, 2015: Quest For The Best Investment Strategy
- March 23, 2015: Investment Arithmetic for Long Term Investments
- February 2, 2015: Risk Management Everywhere
- January 5, 2015: When Forecast Fails
- December 22, 2014: Long Term Asset Returns: How Long Is Long?
- October 27, 2014: Investment Loss, Mistakes And Market Cycles
- August 25, 2014: Remember Risk
- July 28, 2014: Stock Musings
- June 9, 2014: The Arithmetic of Investment Mistakes
- December 9, 2013: What Is Long Term Investing?
- August 26, 2013: Risk Management: Implementation Risk
- August 19, 2013: Risk Management: Upside Risk
- August 12, 2013: Risk Management: Downside Risk
- September 17, 2012: 8 Harmful Behaviors For Your Portfolios
- March 4, 2013: Systematic Investing vs. Market Noises
- July 23, 2012: The Difference Between Investment Loss & Investment Mistakes
Investment Philosophy
- September 1, 2014: Risk & Diversification: Mint.com Interview
- June 16, 2014: There Are Always Lottery Winners
- January 20, 2014: Become an Enlightened Investor
Fixed Income, Dividend, Total Return Bond Funds & Conservative Allocation
The following newsletters address many concerns for retiree, conservative and income investors.
- April 25, 2016: Tax Free Municipal Bond Funds & Portfolios // proposes some effective municipal bond mutual fund based portfolios
- March 28, 2016: Total Return Bond ETFs Review // we are still anxious to see whether the total return bond ETFs can be for a prime time. Still not yet.
- March 7, 2016: Defined Maturity Bond Fund Analysis //reviews defined maturity bond funds and points out their benefits
- February 15, 2016: Bond ETF Portfolios //discusses using bond ETFs (including total return bond ETFs) to construct a fixed income portfolio
- February 1, 2016: Total Return Bond Fund Portfolios In A Volatile Period
- October 26, 2015: Total Return Bond Fund Review
- June 15, 2015: Giving Up Bonds?
- March 2, 2015: Total Return Bond ETFs
- September 22, 2014: Why Total Return Bond Funds?
- April 21, 2014: Total Return Bond Investing In The Current Market Environment
- June 3, 2013: Total Return Bond Fund Portfolios For Major Brokerages
- May 27, 2013: Conservative Allocation Mutual Fund Portfolios
- February 18, 2013: Dividend & Income Funds In Asset Allocation
- September 16, 2013: Fixed Income No More?
- August 5, 2013: Total Return vs. High Yield Investing
- March 18, 2013: Are Bond Investors Doomed?
Fund Review
- May 16, 2016: The PIMCO (Dis)Advantages // reviews pros and cons of PIMCO’s enhanced index funds
- November 23, 2015: Active Stock Fund Performance Consistency
- November 9, 2015: Broad Base Core Mutual Fund Review
- November 2, 2015: Broad Base Index Core ETFs Review
- August 31, 2015: Review of Asset Allocation Funds and Portfolios
- February 9, 2015: How Have Asset Allocation Funds Done?
- May 5, 2014: Asset Allocation Funds Review
- April 7, 2014: The Unbeatable US Stocks And Bonds Balance Portfolio?
- February 3, 2014: Alternative Investment Funds & Diversified Portfolios
Financial Planning & Retirement
- February 22, 2016: Be Cash Smart //we urge investors not to ignore their cash and invest smartly instead, especially in this ultra low rate environment
- April 20, 2015: 529 College Savings Plan Rebalance Policy Change
- October 6, 2014: Tips For 401k Open Enrollment
- December 30, 2013: How To Benchmark Portfolios
- December 16, 2013: Tax Efficient Portfolio Planning
- April 29, 2013: Goal Based Financial Planning And Investing
- July 8, 2013: When To Retire And Bear Market Impact On Retirement Income And Spending
- December 17, 2012: Financial Repression: What To Do With Your Investments
- November 26, 2012: College Savings 529 Plan Investment Portfolio Management
- November 5, 2012: 401K Investment Portfolio Management
Features & System Q&As
These newsletters address new features and how to for our system usage.
- May 23, 2016: AAII Article And Some Web Changes //AAII article on MyPlanIQ and some new portfolio additions/changes
- May 20, 2013: New Features: FolioInvesting One-Click, Portfolio Dividend & Static Portfolio Change
- April 22, 2013: Portfolio Rebalance – Ease of Use
- March 25, 2013: New Feature: Advanced Static Portfolios & Lazy Portfolio Asset Allocations
- February 4, 2013: Day To Day Portfolio Management
- December 3, 2012: Asset Trends & Correlations For Portfolio Construction
- September 24, 2012: Tax Efficient Investing
- March 26, 2012: A Few Good Sources To Help On Deciding Risk Profiles
- February 13th 2012: Static (Lazy) Porfolios and Re-balance Utility for My Actual Holdings
- March 12, 2012: Setting The Right Risk Profile
Existing Portfolio Performance Reviews
In general, we review various portfolio performance in each newsletter. However, you can get latest up to date performance result and comparison by clicking on links below portfolio comparison tables listed in our quarterly or annual review newsletters:
- October 19, 2015: Advanced Portfolio Review
- July 13, 2015: Pain in Tactical Portfolios
- January 19, 2015: Fixed Income Investing Review
- November 17, 2014: Retirement Spending Portfolios Update
- September 8, 2014: Momentum Based Portfolios Review
- June 30, 2014: Half Year Brokerage ETF and Mutual Fund Portfolios Review
- May 26, 2014: In Praise Of Low Cost Core Asset Class Based Portfolios
- March 17, 2014: Variable Annuity Portfolio Review
- March 3, 2014: Schwab Portfolios Review
- February 24, 2014: Fidelity Portfolios Review
- February 17, 2014: Versatile Portfolios Review
- December 23, 2013: Vanguard ETF, Mutual Fund & Retirement Income ETF Plans Update
- September 30, 2013: Quarter End Review
- July 1, 2013: Half Year Portfolio Review
- April 8, 2013: First Quarter Review: Trends Are In Place But Can They Sustain?
- January 21, 2013: Year End Review Of Brokerage Specific ETF and Mutual Fund Portfolios
- January 14, 2013: Year End Review Of Advanced Portfolios
Portfolios suggested by advisors and brokerages
Market Overview
Even though the Federal Reserve has indicated its intention to raise interest rate, economy fundamental has shown its inconsistent and anemic nature that has been typical in this recovery cycle: the last Friday’s jobs report was underwhelming. Stock markets are again betting on a goldilocks situation and have kept rising. For now, risk assets are in favor. We again maintain our cautious position but in the meantime, we will follow the trend.
For more detailed asset trend scores, please refer to 360° Market Overview.
We would like to remind our readers that since the financial crisis in 2008-2009, we have not seen substantial structural change in the U.S., European and emerging market economies. Economies have heavily relied on low interest debts. Capital might be misallocated to unproductive investments and consumption. U.S. stock valuation is at a historically high level. It is thus not a good time to take excessive risk. However, we remain optimistic on U.S. economy in the long term and believe much better investment opportunities will arise in the future.
We again would like to stress for any new investor and new money, the best way to step into this kind of markets is through dollar cost average (DCA), i.e. invest and/or follow a model portfolio in several phases (such as 2 or 3 months) instead of the whole sum at one shot.
Latest Articles
- May 30, 2016: Swensen Portfolio And Permanent Portfolios
- May 23, 2016: AAII Article And Some Web Changes
- May 16, 2016: The PIMCO (Dis)Advantages
- May 9, 2016: Boost Your Dull Summer Investments
- May 2, 2016: Low Cost Index Fund Investing
- April 25, 2016: Tax Free Municipal Bond Funds & Portfolios
- April 18, 2016: Asset Class Trend Review
- April 11, 2016: Construction of Sound And Conservative Portfolios
- March 28, 2016: Total Return Bond ETFs Review
- March 21, 2016: Small And Large Company Stock Performance In Different Economic Expansion Cycles
- March 14, 2016: Are Tactical And Timing Strategies Losing Steam?
- March 7, 2016: Defined Maturity Bond Fund Analysis
- February 29, 2016: Smart Strategic Asset Allocation Rebalance When Market Trend Changes
- February 22, 2016: Be Cash Smart
- February 15, 2016: Bond ETF Portfolios
- February 8, 2016: Newsletter Collection Update
- February 1, 2016: Total Return Bond Fund Portfolios In A Volatile Period
- January 25, 2016: Alternative Portfolios Review
- January 18, 2016: Strategic Asset Allocation: A Cautious Outlook
- January 11, 2016: Review Of Trend Following Tactical Asset Allocation
- January 4, 2016: What Worked And Didn’t In 2015
- December 21, 2015: Distressed Assets
- December 14, 2015: High Yield Bonds And Their Correlation With Stocks
- December 7, 2015: Diversification And Global Allocation
- November 30, 2015: Investors and Speculators Combined
- November 23, 2015: Active Stock Fund Performance Consistency
- November 16, 2015: Permanent, Risk Parity And Alternative Portfolios Review
- November 9, 2015: Broad Base Core Mutual Fund Review
- November 2, 2015: Broad Base Index Core ETFs Review
- October 26, 2015: Total Return Bond Fund Review
- October 19, 2015: Advanced Portfolio Review
- October 12, 2015: What About Commodities?
- October 5, 2015: Core Satellite Portfolios In A 401k Account
- September 28, 2015: Risk Managed Strategic Asset Allocation Portfolios Revisited
- September 21, 2015: Quest For The Best Investment Strategy
- September 14, 2015: Core Satellite Portfolios In Market Turmoil
- September 7, 2015: Market Rout Creates An Opportunity to Reposition Your Portfolios
- August 31, 2015: Review of Asset Allocation Funds and Portfolios
- August 24, 2015: Market Rout And Your Portfolios
- August 17, 2015: ETF or Mutual Fund Based Portfolios
- August 10, 2015: Updated Newsletter Collection
- August 3, 2015: Slippery Asset Trends
- July 27, 2015: Performance Dispersion Among Momentum Based Portfolios
- July 20, 2015: Global Balanced Portfolio Benchmarks
- July 13, 2015: Pain in Tactical Portfolios
- July 6, 2015: Fixed Income Total Return Bond Funds In Strategic Asset Allocation Portfolios
- June 29, 2015: Core ETF Commission Free Portfolios
- June 22, 2015: Secular Asset Trends
- June 15, 2015: Giving Up Bonds?
- June 1, 2015: Summer Blues?
- May 26, 2015: Cash, Bonds and Stocks In A Rising Rate Environment
- May 18, 2015: Portfolio Update
- May 11, 2015: Pain in Fixed Income?
- May 4, 2015: The Balanced Stock and Long Term Treasury Bond Portfolios
- April 27, 2015: Long Term Treasury Bond Behavior
- April 20, 2015: 529 College Savings Plan Rebalance Policy Change
- April 13, 2015: Total Return Bond Funds As Smart Cash
- April 6, 2015: The Low Return Environment
- March 30, 2015: Brokerage Specific Core Mutual Fund Portfolios 2
- March 23, 2015: Investment Arithmetic for Long Term Investments
- March 16, 2015: Brokerage Specific Core Mutual Fund Portfolios
- March 9, 2015: Newsletter Collection Update
- March 2, 2015: Total Return Bond ETFs
- February 23, 2015: Why Is Global Tactical Asset Allocation Not Popular?
- February 16, 2015: Where Are Permanent Portfolios Going?
- February 9, 2015: How Have Asset Allocation Funds Done?
- February 2, 2015: Risk Management Everywhere
- January 26, 2015: Composite Portfolios Review
- January 19, 2015: Fixed Income Investing Review
- January 12, 2015: How Does Trend Following Tactical Asset Allocation Strategy Deliver Returns
- January 5, 2015: When Forecast Fails
- December 22, 2014: Long Term Asset Returns: How Long Is Long?
- December 15, 2014: Beaten Down Assets
- December 8, 2014: Implementing Core Asset Portfolios In a Brokerage
- December 1, 2014: Two Key Issues of Investment Strategies
- November 24, 2014: Holiday Readings
- November 17, 2014: Retirement Spending Portfolios Update
- November 10, 2014: Fixed Income Or Cash
- November 3, 2014: Asset Trend Review
- October 27, 2014: Investment Loss, Mistakes And Market Cycles
- October 20, 2014: Strategic Portfolios With Managed Volatility
- October 13, 2014: Embrace Volatility
- October 6, 2014: Tips For 401k Open Enrollment
- September 29, 2014: What Can We Learn From Bill Gross’ Departure From PIMCO?
- September 22, 2014: Why Total Return Bond Funds?
- September 15, 2014: Equity And Total Return Bond Fund Composite Portfolios
- September 8, 2014: Momentum Based Portfolios Review
- September 1, 2014: Risk & Diversification: Mint.com Interview
- August 25, 2014: Remember Risk
- August 18, 2014: Consistency, The Most Important Edge In Investing: Tactical Case
- August 11, 2014: What To Do In Overvalued Stock Markets
- August 4, 2014: Is This The Peak Or Correction?
- July 28, 2014: Stock Musings
- July 21, 2014: Permanent Portfolios & Four Pillar Foundation Based Framework
- July 14, 2014: Composite Portfolios Review
- July 7, 2014: Portfolio Behavior During Market Corrections
- June 30, 2014: Half Year Brokerage ETF and Mutual Fund Portfolios Review
- June 23, 2014: Newsletter Collection Update
- June 16, 2014: There Are Always Lottery Winners
- June 9, 2014: The Arithmetic of Investment Mistakes
- June 2, 2014: Tips On Portfolio Rebalance
- May 26, 2014: In Praise Of Low Cost Core Asset Class Based Portfolios
- May 19, 2014: Consistency, The Most Important Edge In Investing: Strategic Case
- May 12, 2014: How To Handle An Elevated Overvalued Market
- May 5, 2014: Asset Allocation Funds Review
- April 28, 2014: Now The Economy Backs To The ‘Old Normal’, Should Our Investments Too?
- April 21, 2014: Total Return Bond Investing In The Current Market Environment
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