A
"rebalancing strategy" refers to the process of adjusting or readjusting the proportions of investments in a portfolio in order to maintain a desired level of risk and return. It ensures that the portfolio stays aligned with the target investment strategy by periodically buying or selling certain assets to maintain the intended asset allocation.
Full definition
Although
portfolio rebalancing strategies incur transaction costs and tax liabilities, there are several distinct advantages to maintaining the desired target allocation.
There is no reason to fear these market fluctuations if you are a long - term investor, have a diversified portfolio and a
discipline rebalancing strategy.
And a disciplined, rules -
based rebalancing strategy is a self - correcting mechanism that ensures no asset class has too much or too little influence for very long.
You can choose to actively manage your portfolio of funds or opt for an
auto rebalancing strategy to capitalize on market opportunities.
To make matters more complex, these robo - advisers are about to be disrupted by ETFs themselves who are offering
tactical rebalancing strategies within a single ETF.
The
optimal rebalancing strategy will differ for each investor, depending on their unique sensitivities to deviations from the target allocation, transaction frequency, and tax costs.
The Automatic
Asset Rebalancing Strategy feature automates the percentage of equity exposure your investments should have over the policy term - high in start of the policy and then gradually decreasing to conserve the fund value as you approach your goal on policy maturity.
Many investors struggle with discipline, and a
firm rebalancing strategy helps, according to Jason Lowy, a CFP and first vice president of wealth management at UBS Financial Services.
In their August 2014 paper entitled «
Testing Rebalancing Strategies for Stock - Bond Portfolios Across Different Asset Allocations», Hubert Dichtl, Wolfgang Drobetz and Martin Wambach investigate the net performance implications of different rebalancing approaches and different rebalancing frequencies on portfolios of stocks and government bonds with different weights and in different markets.
In the example at the beginning of this post, I illustrated rebalancing with only two asset classes, US stocks and bonds, but the
same rebalancing strategies apply to a portfolio with additional asset classes.
As the Vanguard researchers wrote: «An investor who had simply redirected his or her portfolio's income would have achieved most of the risk - control benefits of more labor - and transaction -
intensive rebalancing strategies at a much lower cost.»
Hopefully everyone practices good asset allocation and
rebalancing strategies so this does not become an issue during their retirement years.
Holding any contrarian position, whether it is part of a dedicated value strategy or a component in a contra -
traded rebalancing strategy, such as RAFI, is very difficult for many investors.
A recent study published by The Vanguard Group Inc., attempted to establish a
reasonable rebalancing strategy by quantifying the average annualized return and risk of two simulated portfolios for the period 1926 to 2014.
The premiums paid net of charges can be either invested in a choice of 6 funds or invested under the Automatic Asset Rebalancing Strategy
A periodic contribution or withdrawal can be specified together with the preferred
portfolio rebalancing strategy and you can compare the given portfolio allocation against multiple lazy portfolios.
That's due to the fact Romey uses
a rebalancing strategy that he read about in an academic journal.
This post continues on the rebalancing theme and looks at some ways to implement
a rebalancing strategy.
Wouldn't choosing a «glide path» be rather inflexible compared to choosing a diversify - and -
rebalance strategy, such as the Harry Browne Permanent Portfolio or one of its competitors?
«Having
a rebalancing strategy keeps investors from getting lazy in their passive investing, helps manage portfolio risk and makes it easier for investors to stay invested,» Leamnson says.
«Even though a buy - and - hold strategy of investing in equities is likely to outperform
a rebalancing strategy between stocks and bonds in the long run, risk is better controlled in the short run.»
Yun went on to explain how the US commitment towards the Asia - Pacific can best be demonstrated, noting that while security and defence - related cooperation is important, US «allies and partners... also tell us that, as we deepen our military engagement, we should continue also to emphasize the diplomatic, development, economic, and people - to - people engagement in order to demonstrate our longer - term commitment to
our rebalance strategy.»
Clinton was seen as the point person on
the rebalance strategy.
With
a rebalance strategy, you already have that in your processes.
This same principle is also applied to portfolio
rebalancing strategies, where shares of appreciated securities in a given portfolio are sold off and the proceeds used to buy more shares of another section of the portfolio where prices are depressed.
While it can be tempting to look for the «optimal»
rebalancing strategy, the experts suggest not getting bogged down in the details.
If you use a financial adviser,
your rebalancing strategy should be included in your Investment Policy Statement (IPS).
If selling some of your investments is part of
your rebalancing strategy (in a taxable account, not an IRA), don't forget about the potential tax consequences.
A rebalancing strategy involves transaction costs and may have tax consequences.
The distinction I want to draw is between counseling — which has to do with asset allocation, risk tolerance,
rebalancing strategies, etc. — and portfolio management — which has to do with picking stocks, industries, sectors, etc..
Daniel and Moskowitz (2013) and Barroso and Santa - Clara (2014) show that extreme volatility tends to be predictive of subsequent momentum crashes and Granger et al. (2014) show how optionality imbedded in
a rebalancing strategy is a timing mechanism that can help generate a higher return and a higher Sharpe ratio, albeit at a cost of altering higher moments.
To show how
the rebalancing strategies compared, we ranked each on four performance measures from 1 (higher return, lower risk) to 5 (lower return, higher risk).