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, January 7, 2019. You can also find the re-balance calendar for 2019 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.
Happy Holidays
In the upcoming holiday period, our newsletter publication will take a break and return in the week of January 7th, 2019.
We thank everyone for your trust, support and continuous help to our service. We wish you happy holidays and a very successful 2019!
Robinhood’s ‘Revolution’ Or Gimmick
Online brokerage Robinhood made a headline last week by announcing that it now offers checking and savings accounts that pay 3% annual interest to its customers. However, amid criticism from regulators and peers, it quickly backtracked and now states that it’s planning to ‘rebrand’ & relaunch the program.
Unfortunately (or fortunately for Robinhood), it was reported that this news alone has attracted over 600k new user signups.
At issue is that regulators are pointing out that this is not a conventional checking and savings offering from a real bank that has FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) insurance of up to $250,000 cash amount. This is simply a brokerage account that has insurance from SIPC (Securities Investor Protection Corporation). SIPC is an industry formed consortium while FDIC is from the federal government. The cash in a brokerage account, by definition, can be used for some purpose (such as lent out) by the broker. This means it’s less safer than a checking/savings account offered by a bank.
So in theory, cash in a brokerage account is not as safe as that in a bank albeit the extra risk is extremely small.
What actually surprised us more is the 3% annual interest from the announcement, considering currently, the best annual interests from Treasury Bills and brokered CDs (data are from Treasury, Vanguard and Fidelity):
1mo | 3mo | 6mo | 9mo | 1yr | 2yr | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
CDs (New Issues) | 2.25% | 2.45% | 2.55% | 2.60% | 2.75% | 3.10% |
U.S. Treasury | 2.32% | 2.44% | 2.56% | 2.64% | 2.67% | 2.69% |
So unless Robinhood takes excessive risk on its customer cash, it will for sure lose money from this program. So this offering is not sustainable for long.
The only plausible explanation from this is that it’s a marketing gimmick that will first serve as a loss leader to attract new customers and after a while, it will revert back to much lower interests. Since brokerage/bank accounts are usually sticky, meaning it’s too much hassle for people to move to other banks or brokerages, Robinhood wins. Talk about ‘reversing’ Robin Hood!
The ‘honest’ cash interest
Robinhood’s program is not the first one that a financial institution tries to pull in order to lock in new customers. One can find many incentives online that offer higher cash interests than major banks. But unfortunately many of them (not necessarily all of them) will revert back to some much lower rates later on so that they can make profit. Granted, it’s still unbelievable that major banks still offer meager interests. But going to another extreme to offer unsustainable rates is alarming and not trustworthy.
We have discussed many times on how to maximize cash return without incurring much risk. For example, an easy way is to invest in a low cost money market mutual fund such as Vanguard’s prime money market fund that currently yields 2.34% or a safer one Vanguard’s Treasury money market fund that has 2.24% yield. These money market funds are extremely safe (though no FDIC/SIPC insurance). In fact, the Treasury money market fund only holds Treasury bills that are considered the safest and most liquid.
If you still have doubt on money market funds from a brokerage, you can construct your own ‘Treasury money market’ that only invests in Treasury bills, assuming you can manage your cash need and are willing to spend efforts. You can open an account on TreasuryDirect.gov and purchase 1 month, 3 month, … Treasury bills without paying commission. You can do so weekly, for example, purchasing 1 month TBill every week. Doing so, you will have a ladder (or pipeline) of TBills that will expire every week. To be more flexible, you can even buy/sell Treasuries from a brokerage account. In a secondary Treasury bill market place, you can even purchase weekly expired TBills that can still offer much higher (as high as 2%) interests. What’s more, if necessary, you can sell your TBill holdings to the secondary market to raise the unexpected cash need.
The ‘do-it-yourself’ approach in the above is certainly not for many. However, doing some exercise like this will give you knowledge to understand where and how to get some ‘honest’ cash return safely and see whether a promotion is a gimmick or not.
Market overview
All risk assets (other than gold) are now decisively in a down trend:
Major asset trend as of 12/17/2018:
Description | Symbol | 1 Week | 4 Weeks | 13 Weeks | 52 Weeks | Trend Score |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Intermediate Treasuries | IEF | -0.02% | 1.76% | 1.94% | -0.65% | 1.04% |
Mortgage Back Bonds | MBB | -0.02% | 1.28% | 1.11% | -0.08% | 0.75% |
Treasury Bills | SHV | 0.05% | 0.18% | 0.53% | 1.7% | 0.7% |
Total US Bonds | BND | 0.27% | 1.34% | 0.86% | -0.71% | 0.62% |
Gold | GLD | 0.16% | 1.9% | 3.75% | -1.55% | 0.32% |
US High Yield Bonds | JNK | -0.29% | -0.25% | -3.23% | -1.3% | -1.36% |
International REITs | RWX | -0.54% | -1.32% | -4.48% | -6.59% | -3.68% |
US Equity REITs | VNQ | -4.94% | -4.13% | -5.69% | -4.94% | -4.02% |
Emerging Market Stks | VWO | 0.31% | -2.07% | -4.18% | -12.59% | -5.86% |
Commodities | DBC | -1.17% | -5.27% | -11.12% | -4.02% | -6.78% |
US Stocks | VTI | -3.53% | -5.35% | -12.34% | -4.22% | -6.83% |
International Developed Stks | VEA | -0.76% | -4.18% | -11.12% | -13.25% | -8.43% |
The last survivor, namely US REITs that still had a positive trend score a week ago, is now fully bearish. Thus now, the last remaining US risk assets, US stocks and US REITs, have joined the rest to be in a bearish trend.
Taking a closer look, the two defensive sectors (out of the three that had positive trend scores a week before), health care and consumer staples, are also in a downtrend:
US sector trend as of 12/17/2018
Description | Symbol | 1 Week | 4 Weeks | 13 Weeks | 52 Weeks | Trend Score |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Utilities | XLU | -2.79% | -0.24% | 0.94% | 3.54% | 2.42% |
Healthcare | XLV | -4.09% | -4.05% | -6.44% | 5.24% | -1.27% |
Consumer Staples | XLP | -2.7% | -4.88% | -3.13% | -4.57% | -2.09% |
Consumer Discretionary | XLY | -3.6% | -3.89% | -13.63% | 1.75% | -6.05% |
Telecom | IYZ | -3.63% | -5.06% | -10.12% | -8.59% | -6.1% |
Technology | XLK | -3.5% | -3.67% | -14.59% | -2.01% | -7.15% |
Industries | XLI | -3.3% | -6.92% | -16.62% | -11.06% | -9.95% |
Financial | XLF | -3.07% | -10.38% | -14.62% | -13.79% | -10.87% |
Materials | XLB | -3.09% | -7.36% | -15.4% | -14.82% | -11.2% |
Energy | XLE | -3.35% | -9.23% | -18.04% | -10.11% | -11.87% |
What we can say from the above (and many other tables on 360° Market Overview) is that the current correction is broad base. Investors are abandoning stocks left and right, a typical stage in a bear market.
Up to now, S&P 500 has retreated more than 13% from its high. If we look at the three major global stock assets this year, we can see that global stocks essentially started to roll over from January this year.
At the moment, our best guess is that as fundamentals of US company earnings have not materially declined, it will still take time for this to develop into a full blown severe bear market.
Regardless, following a sound plan and managing risk is the best defense.
In terms of investments, U.S. stock valuation is still at a historically high level and it might still have a bigger correction. It is thus not a good time to take excessive risk. However, we remain optimistic about 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.
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Latest Articles
- December 10, 2018: How Defensive Are REITs?
- December 3, 2018: Conservative Core Satellite Portfolio
- November 26, 2018: Allocation Mutual Fund Review
- November 19, 2018: Is The Recent Downtrend Sustainable?
- November 12, 2018: The Staggering Low Interest Rates From Big Banks
- November 5, 2018: The ‘Right’ Or ‘Wrong’ Decision
- October 29, 2018: Taxable Total Return Bond Plus Muni Bond Fund Based Portfolios
- October 22, 2018: DoubleLine Shiller CAPE 10 Based Fund Review
- October 15, 2018: Newsletter Collection Update
- October 8, 2018: Asset Trend Review
- October 1, 2018: Taxable vs. Tax Exempt High Yield Bonds
- September 24, 2018: High Yield Bonds In A Rising Rate Environment
- September 10, 2018: Value, Growth And Blend Stock Style Investing
- August 27, 2018: Money Market ETFs?
- August 20, 2018: How Momentum Investing Stacks Up?
- August 13, 2018: Total Return Bond ETF
- August 6, 2018: Fidelity Zero-Fee Index Funds
- July 30, 2018: Tax Efficient Portfolios
- July 23, 2018: Municipal Bond Funds And Portfolios
- July 16, 2018: A Guide To Conservative Portfolios
- July 9, 2018: Conservative Allocation Mutual Funds Based Portfolios
- July 2, 2018: Small Cap Stocks For The Long Term
- June 25, 2018: What Can We Learn From GE’s Removal From Dow Jones Index?
- June 18, 2018: The ‘Best’ Balanced Portfolio Continues To Excel
- June 11, 2018: Is 10 Year Long Enough For Portfolio Comparison?
- June 4, 2018: Action Plan: Risk Review For Investments
- May 21, 2018: Rising Rates, Consumer Staples And Stock Index
- May 14, 2018: Newsletter Collection Update
- May 7, 2018: Money Market Fund Taxonomy
- April 30, 2018: Momentum Investing Review
- April 23, 2018: Commodities In Current Environment
- April 16, 2018: Municipal Bonds As A Fixed Income Asset Class
- April 9, 2018: Exponential Or Compounding Nature In Investing
- April 2, 2018: Inside Of The Stock Chaos
- March 26, 2018: Total Return Bond Update
- March 19, 2018: Treasury Bills vs. Brokered CDs
- March 12, 2018: Defensive Conservative Portfolio Review
- March 5, 2018: Warren Buffett’s Advices
- February 26, 2018: Pros And Cons of Strategic And Tactical Portfolios In 2018
- February 12, 2018: Trend Review
- February 5, 2018: Market Selloff And Long Term Investing
- January 29, 2018: The New Addition To Our Total Return Bond Fund Candidates
- January 22, 2018: Where Are Bonds Heading?
- January 15, 2018: Tactical Portfolios Review
- January 8, 2018: Strategic Portfolios Review
- December 18, 2017: Record Highs And Risk
- December 11, 2017: Cash Return And Interest Rate Update
- December 4, 2017: Mutual Fund Star Ratings: Are They Useful?
- November 20, 2017: Thankful And Mindful
- November 13, 2017: Is This A Good Time For Retirees Or Would Be Retirees?
- November 6, 2017: Newsletter Collection Update
- October 30, 2017: Rising Interest Rates
- October 23, 2017: A Primer For Portfolios
- October 16, 2017: REITs As An Asset Class
- October 9, 2017: Conservative Portfolios Revisited
- October 2, 2017: The Role of Short Term Bond Funds
- September 25, 2017: Fees In Cash Investments
- September 18, 2017: Conservative Portfolios Review
- September 11, 2017: International Diversification Effect
- September 4, 2017: Invest And Speculate Revisited
- August 28, 2017: Total Return Bond Fund Portfolios: Where Do They Fit?
- August 21, 2017: Portfolio Performance: A Walk In The Past
- August 14, 2017: Fidelity Commission Free ETFs Update
- August 7, 2017: I Didn’t Learn Anything — Mistake vs. Temporary Underperformance
- July 31, 2017: Asset Classes And Fund Choices: A Primer
- July 24, 2017: Total Return Bond Fund Portfolios And Cash
- July 17, 2017: Long Term Stock Holding Periods For Retirement
- July 10, 2017: Half Year Asset Trend Review
- June 26, 2017: How To Beat The Best Balanced Allocation Fund
- June 19, 2017: Newsletter Collection Update
- June 12, 2017: A Mixed Bag Performance of Momentum Investing
- June 5, 2017: How To Start A New Portfolio
- May 29, 2017: Alternative Assets And Their Role In Portfolios
- May 22, 2017: Summer Seasonality And Portfolio Management
- May 15, 2017: Cash: Banking Or Investing?
- May 8, 2017: Holding Period of Long Term Timing Portfolios
- May 1, 2017: Debate on Risk vs. Volatility
- April 24, 2017: The Long Term Stock Market Timing Return Since 1871
- April 17, 2017: Risk vs. Volatility: Long Term Stock Market Returns
- April 10, 2017: Total Return Bond ETFs And Portfolios
- April 3, 2017: Quarter End Asset Trend Review
- March 27, 2017: Practical Consideration For IRAs And 401k Accounts
- March 20, 2017: Fund Fees: That’s (Still) Outrageous
- March 13, 2017: Long Term Stock Valuation Review
- March 6, 2017: Asset Classes for Retirement Investments
- February 27, 2017: Fidelity Total Bond Fund Review
- February 20, 2017: Long Term Stock Timing Based Portfolios And Their Roles
- February 13, 2017: Alternative Investment Portfolios Review
- February 6, 2017: Tax Free Municipal Bond Investments Review
- January 30, 2017: Brokerage Specific Conservative Portfolios
- January 23, 2017: Fixed Income Portfolio Review
- January 16, 2017: Long Term Trend Following Portfolio Review
- January 9, 2017: Tactical Asset Allocation Review
- January 3, 2017: Strategic Asset Allocation Review
- December 12, 2016: Enhanced Index Funds
- December 5, 2016: Review Of Broad Base Core Mutual Funds For Brokerages
- November 28, 2016: Core Index ETFs Review
- November 21, 2016: International Exposure Of U.S. Large Companies
- November 14, 2016: Asset Trends After The Election
- November 7, 2016: Rising Rate And Current Bond Trend
- October 31, 2016: Economy Power And Long Term Stock Returns
- October 24, 2016: Current Commodity Trend And Managed Futures
- October 17, 2016: Investment Mistakes And Good Or Bad Investment Strategies
- October 10, 2016: Momentum Investing Review
- October 3, 2016: Survey & Feedback
- September 26, 2016: Fixed Income Investing: Actively Managed Funds vs. Index Funds
- September 19, 2016: Stock Investing: Actively Managed Funds vs. Index Funds
- September 12, 2016: Newsletter Update
- September 5, 2016: Overvalued Markets And Long Term Timing Strategies
- August 29, 2016: Your 401K Finally Draws Attention
- August 22, 2016: Inflation Protected Securities TIPS For Current Overvalued Markets
- August 15, 2016: Risk On: Emerging Market Stocks And Small Cap Stocks
- August 8, 2016: Portfolio Construction Using Stock ETFs And Bond Mutual Funds
- August 1, 2016: Adding Value To Your Own Investments
- July 25, 2016: Tactical Asset Allocation Funds Review
- July 18, 2016: Strategic Asset Allocation & Lazy Portfolio Review
- July 11, 2016: Asset Trend Review
- June 27, 2016: Secular Cycles For Tactical And Strategic Investment Strategies
- June 20, 2016: A World of Debt
- June 13, 2016: Managed Futures For Portfolio Building
- June 6, 2016: Newsletter Summary
- May 30, 2016: Swensen Portfolio And Permanent Portfolios
- May 23, 2016: AAII Article And Some Web Changes
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- 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
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- 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