by Paul Douglas Boyer
Here are the Year-To-Date returns of the Lazy Portfolios through the end of May 2010. The components of each portfolio are listed at the end. The “Paul Boyer Permanent Portfolio” is my modification of the Harry Browne Permanent Portfolio where instead of investing 25% in the total US stock market, we invest 12.5% in US […]
Sat, May 29 2010 » Analysis, Blog » Comments Off on Lazy Portfolios Thru May 2010
In his MarketWatch article today, Mark Hulbert writes, Would you be interested in an all-weather portfolio that, despite hardly ever changing its composition, performs creditably in almost all market environments? Hulbert characterizes the Permanent Portfolio this way: Browne’s idea was to invest in a basket of asset classes, each one of which has a low […]
Wed, May 19 2010 » Analysis, Blog, Reviews » Comments Off on Mark Hulbert Writes About the Permanent Portfolio
So, how has the Harry Browne Permanent Portfolio done so far in 2010? Thru yesterday’s market turmoil, the components have done the following: VTI +2.8% (Stocks) TLT +9.2% (Bonds) SHY +1.3% (Cash) GLD +10.4% (Gold) And the total portfolio, assuming 25% in each at the start of 2010 is… +5.9% How’s that compare with YOUR […]
Fri, May 7 2010 » Analysis, Blog » Comments Off on Present Permanent Portfolio Performance…
If you have any questions about Harry Browne’s Permanent Portfolio, head over to the Permanent Portfolio Discussion Forum that CraigR just started over at CrawlingRoad.com. Experts there have studied it from all angles and can help you get it implemented yourself. And here’s the book you need to read:
Fri, April 30 2010 » Analysis, Blog, Gold, Tips » Comments Off on Permanent Portfolio Discussion Forum
Harry Browne’s Permanent Portfolio is so simple. Split your investments into equal parts stocks, bonds, cash, and gold. Is it too simple? Can it be improved yet remain simple? I used Simba’s spreadsheet (from Bogleheads.org) to back-test some alternatives from 1972 through 2009. First, the original portfolio: Stocks: VTSMX (Total US Stock Market) Bonds: VUSTX […]
Wed, March 31 2010 » Analysis, Blog, Gold » Comments Off on Permanent Portfolio to Perfect Portfolio?
The previous post looked at the effect of gold in a portfolio for the 10-year period 1990-2009. Some may say that 10 years is not statistically long enough to be meaningful. So in this post I take a look at the 38 years from 1972 through 2009. To start, I selected a widely-followed portfolio of […]
Tue, January 12 2010 » Analysis, Blog, Gold » Comments Off on Longer Term Look at Gold in a Portfolio
Should a portfolio own gold? I am on the quest to obtain the definitive answer to that question. Here are the results of one exercise in which I take a model Vanguard portfolio and compare it with the same portfolio with a 25% allocation to gold for the time period 1999 through 2009. Here is […]
Mon, January 11 2010 » Analysis, Blog, Gold » Comments Off on Portfolios: Gold or No Gold?
Let’s go back and gather up the gains for 2005 and 2006 to add to our analysis with this chart. As you can see, the Harry Browne Permanent Portfolio still has the best “top-leftedness” of these select Lazy Portfolios. It had an annualized return of 8% with an annualized standard deviation of 8.8%. That results […]
Wed, January 6 2010 » Analysis, Blog » Comments Off on Lazy Portfolio 2005 – 2009 Return vs. Risk Chart
Here is a chart that sort of goes with the previous posting’s table. I have taken just a few of the portfolios of interest and computed their standard deviation for the time period of three years. Then plotted their ANNUALIZED return on the Y axis vs. their annualized standard deviation along the X axis. Remember […]
Mon, January 4 2010 » Analysis, Blog » Comments Off on Risk vs Return Chart 2007 – 2009
Leveraged Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) such as FAZ, FAS, and SKF are designed to multiply the DAILY PERCENTAGE change of the underlying index by factors of 2 or 3. They are thus toxic to your wealth and must not be held. Here’s a simple explaination of why. Take the FAS which is the 3X of […]
Mon, April 20 2009 » Analysis, Blog » Comments Off on Levered ETFs are Toxic. Here’s Why.
On Jim Cramer’s Mad Money show on Monday February 23rd, Jim said about SKF , the 2X UltraShort Financials ETF: "…they don’t even perform as expected. The index the SKF tracks is down 14% over the past three months, so you’d figure an ETF that double or triple shorts that index would offer great returns, […]
Wed, February 25 2009 » Analysis, Blog, Cramer » Comments Off on Cramer says SKF doesn’t work right. Is he right?
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