Gyroscopic Investing

Does anyone know of some software or a website that can be used to experiment with different rebalancing bands and timing?

Or maybe an Excel spreadsheet or something?

Well there's the "Simba spreadsheet" (Google it).  If you can implement your simulation as a spreadsheet, that might work fine.

beafet wrote: Does anyone know of some software or a website that can be used to experiment with different rebalancing bands and timing?

http://code.google.com/p/mypersonalindex/

MG

Etfreplay.com allows you to backtest some ETFs.

Simba's worksheet was just for Vanguard funds, I thought?

beafet wrote: Simba's worksheet was just for Vanguard funds, I thought?

The rows are labeled by asset classes (total stock market, large cap value, etc.) which are, for the most part, represented by Vanguard funds.  However there are a few non-Vanguard entries: gold, synthetic TIPS, etc.

Also check out ifa.com and all their tools. Lots of good backtesting. They use Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA) funds.

I started a thread on the product I used when I was making choices for my perm port.

http://ezbacktest.blogspot.com/

I like this softare a lot better than MyPersonalIndex which is complex to use.  It doesn't seem to support rebalancing bands though.

MG

gardnercr wrote: I started a thread on the product I used when I was making choices for my perm port.

http://ezbacktest.blogspot.com/

It depends on your programming skills.
If you are familiar with simple programming (Basic or C or Java Script) I recommend you look at AmiBroker www.amibroker.com , a great platform for testing your portfolio timing, allocations, rebalancing, etc. AmiBroker is pretty popular in the trading community and has a very simple scripting language similar to Basic for testing your ideas and managing your real time investment portfolios. I use it and I love it.