A Survey of 15 Top Asset Allocation Strategies

General Discussion on the Permanent Portfolio Strategy

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MachineGhost
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Re: A Survey of 15 Top Asset Allocation Strategies

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dragoncar wrote: Sure, I get that.  I just didnt find any discussion of the actual mechanics of selling at a good price-- wait for multiple bids? Try again tomorrow?  Or maybe the markup will be consistent so it doesn't matter and you should just take the first bid?  I always hear how liquid the treasuries market is, but my experience is that it takes way longer to execute (hours/minutes not minutes/seconds for SPY) with the three brokers I've used. 

Buying the bonds was simple- they told you the price they'd sell and that was that.
Well, the problem is there's no centralized exchange like there is for stocks, so you never know what the heck you're accessing when you're asking for bids: inhouse stock, centralized clearinghouse, bank counterparty, etc.  It's especially suspect when you're dealing with just one broker.  This is much more of an issue when dealing with corporate bonds than Treasuries.  All you can do is get quotes from as many places as possible to ensure you're getting a fair price.

I do believe E-Trade and Fidelity offer access to a centralized price clearinghouse, but I can't confirm that is applicable to Treasuries.
"All generous minds have a horror of what are commonly called 'Facts'. They are the brute beasts of the intellectual domain." -- Thomas Hobbes

Disclaimer: I am not a broker, dealer, investment advisor, physician, theologian or prophet.  I should not be considered as legally permitted to render such advice!
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MachineGhost
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Re: A Survey of 15 Top Asset Allocation Strategies

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Libertarian666 wrote: ETA: Actually I'm not sure that would really fit into my program, since it is forward-looking and therefore by definition cannot have the data on relevant (future) returns. I do let the user put in assumed rates of return for cash and portfolio assets in general, but I think trying to be much more specific than that would be misleading...
I'm not sure I understand.  What do return projections have to do with automating the nitty gritty tasks that help provide more portfolio return?  The way I'm envisioning it is having the software do the monitoring and alerting when whatever needs to be done.  Forward-looking projections of risk metrics would only effect portfolio composition/rebalancing and that kind of thing ought to be optional anyway, it's not kosher to purists.

Anyway, WealthFront's CEO has some interesting words about Schwab selling out its founding values (basically they screw you over on the non-opt out cash sweep allocation to their bank, costing you a .75% equivalent management fee): https://medium.com/@adamnash/broken-val ... d550a27629
Last edited by MachineGhost on Tue Mar 10, 2015 2:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"All generous minds have a horror of what are commonly called 'Facts'. They are the brute beasts of the intellectual domain." -- Thomas Hobbes

Disclaimer: I am not a broker, dealer, investment advisor, physician, theologian or prophet.  I should not be considered as legally permitted to render such advice!
Libertarian666
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Re: A Survey of 15 Top Asset Allocation Strategies

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MachineGhost wrote:
Libertarian666 wrote: ETA: Actually I'm not sure that would really fit into my program, since it is forward-looking and therefore by definition cannot have the data on relevant (future) returns. I do let the user put in assumed rates of return for cash and portfolio assets in general, but I think trying to be much more specific than that would be misleading...
I'm not sure I understand.  What do return projections have to do with automating the nitty gritty tasks that help provide more portfolio return?  The way I'm envisioning it is having the software do the monitoring and alerting when whatever needs to be done.  Forward-looking projections of risk metrics would only effect portfolio composition/rebalancing and that kind of thing ought to be optional anyway, it's not kosher to purists.

Anyway, WealthFront's CEO has some interesting words about Schwab selling out its founding values (basically they screw you over on the non-opt out cash sweep allocation to their bank, costing you a .75% equivalent management fee): https://medium.com/@adamnash/broken-val ... d550a27629
The purpose of my program is to tell people how to optimize their withdrawal strategy during retirement, by projecting tax brackets, etc., into the future and running simulations to see which strategy allows the most total withdrawals without running out of money, taking tax effects into consideration. To do these calculations, I have to make assumptions as to future account balances, and therefore future return(s) on assets.
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MachineGhost
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Re: A Survey of 15 Top Asset Allocation Strategies

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Here's a contrary argument about the value of the continuous tax harvesting:

http://gyroscopicinvesting.com/forum/pe ... #msg115873
Last edited by MachineGhost on Wed Mar 11, 2015 12:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"All generous minds have a horror of what are commonly called 'Facts'. They are the brute beasts of the intellectual domain." -- Thomas Hobbes

Disclaimer: I am not a broker, dealer, investment advisor, physician, theologian or prophet.  I should not be considered as legally permitted to render such advice!
LC475
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Re: A Survey of 15 Top Asset Allocation Strategies

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dragoncar wrote: Three whole dollars?  Have you seen the PP performance recently???
Actually, no.  I assume it's doing fine.  And I couldn't check because Ryan's site was down (and that's the extent of the effort I'm willing to put forth to check).

Now, it's back, and I see:

http://www.stableinvesting.com/p/recent ... mance.html

Looks like it's gone down a bit in recent weeks.  Nothing too substantial.  The chart looks fine to me.  Everything just gliding along, according to plan.
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