Despite one sharp down day last week, the S&P 500 continued to ride the trading range and added some 4 points since my last ETF Model Portfolio report.
Upward momentum in the indexes has definitely slowed down as the Fed’s ongoing and open ended QE program no longer provides the market with what it’s been living on for the past few years, and that was “anticipation” of more QE and not its actual implementation.
We are now facing the month of October with all of its historical uncertainties, so I feel the need to sing the same song again and that is to remind you to be aware of your sell stops and execute them should the need arise.
While it may never come to that point, this is not the moment in time to take any chances as negative data points can surface suddenly and unexpectedly and pull the markets back to a level that is more aligned with underlying fundamentals.
In the meantime, take a look at the latest ETF model update:
1. ETF Trend Tracking Model Portfolio
[Click on any table to enlarge]
This is the portfolio allocation I have used predominantly in my advisor practice during the first half of 2011. Given those market conditions, and an ever growing number of global hotspots, I liked the concept of having a solid core holding in PRPFX, although we got stopped out in 2011 as a result of the wild market swings along with a sharp pullback in the metals.
Around this fund, when in buy mode, I add what I call boost components consisting of ETFs that can produce higher returns than my core holding, at least during bullish periods. When a market pullback occurs, the core holding should add an element of stability.
Nevertheless, as you know from my writings, anything I invest in involves the use of trailing sell stops, which are shown and tracked on the upper right of the table.
2. Conservative ETF Growth Portfolio
This portfolio, as are the following ones, would be typical of what is being used in the buy-and-hold community, as you can see by the 40% allocation to various bond ETFs. If you are conservative, this simple combination could work for you, but I still recommend the use of the trailing sell stops during these uncertain times.
3. Aggressive ETF Growth Portfolio
What makes this one aggressive is the small 15% allocation to bonds. If you have an aggressive streak in your personality, you could consider this one. If you use my recommended sell stop discipline, you know exactly ahead of time what your downside risk will be.
4. Moderate ETF Growth Portfolio
I call this one moderate growth, because of the higher allocation to various bond ETFs (27%) than in the aggressive set up above. It is also more diversified domestically.
5. ETF Income Portfolio
This is as simple as it gets, but during last year’s sell-off, it dropped in value quickly due to no offsetting bond positions and showed a 0% invested balance by August 2011.
It’ll be interesting to see if this simple combination can withstand the vagaries of the market place in 2012.
6. The Ivy ETF Portfolio
If you missed the recent post about the Ivy portfolio, you can read it here.
This is a simple 5-asset class portfolio with each individual component being bought when it crosses its respective trend line to the upside. Each component is being sold once it crosses its trend lines to the downside again, according to the author’s rules.
I have made 3 adjustments:
1. I apply a 39-week Simple Moving Average (SMA) to generate the Buys, while the authors use a 45-week SMA.
2. As mentioned in the blog post, I prefer using my trailing sell stop discipline for my exit strategy.
3. Personally. I favor using BND (as opposed to IEF) as my bond component, since it has shown more stability in the past.
Currently, only 4 out of the 5 components are positioned above their respective long-term trend lines and therefore in bullish territory. Should upward momentum improve, we may get to a 100% invested position.
7. The ETF Equivalent of PRPFX
As posted recently, I have created and back tested the ETF equivalent of my favorite mutual fund, PRPFX, which is a core holding in my #1 Portfolio. If you missed it, you can read the announcement here.
Take a look at the combination of ETFs:
Since these 8 ETFs represent only one fund, namely PRPFX, we can to apply a different exit strategy. For that purpose, I will not track the high points made for each ETF, as with the other 6 models, but measure my 7% drop from the high point this entire portfolio has made.
Alternatively, you can sell this entire portfolio once our domestic TTI has crossed into bear market territory or hold on to only those positions that are maintaining upward momentum. That solves the issue of “what to buy” if you had liquidated 100%.
(ETF trading costs are not included in these portfolios demonstrations. They are intended to show market effects on different scenarios only as an educational tool)
To repeat, the key to selecting a portfolio from the above list is not just performance. Personally, I’d rather lag a little on the upside but have some assurance that I will also lag when the downside comes into play.
I will update these portfolios every Wednesday.
Quick Reference:
Disclosure: I may have client holdings in some of the funds/ETFs discussed above
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Comments 4
Dear Ulli—-
On your PRPFX–#7 portfolio–
You use RWX instead of VNQI for a real estate sector investment.
They have similar holdings & VNQI is a slightly better performer with slightly lower fees. Perhaps RWX is around longer but otherwise, why this choice?
Thanks for the 7 portfolio offerrings–advice.
George,
When researching the components for this PRPFX emulation, RWX was mentioned and it worked well when running the comparable tests. I am sure VNQUI would be just as compatible.
Ulli…
Ulli, I notice that the PRPFX etf equivalent portfolio #7 has not been officially updated on your site since 10/2. Are you now updating monthly instead of weekly? Thanks for the info you provide. Its been wonderful for me.
Paul,
Hmmm, I just just checked last week’s model ETF portfolio report, and all 7 of them were updated through 10/16/12. Maybe I overlooked one in the past, but all updates are done on a weekly basis.
Ulli…