Is It Time To Abandon Buy And Hold Investing?

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Is It Time To Abandon Buy And Hold Investing?



Wednesday March 18, 12:15 pm ET

By Simon Maierhofer


Just because you have access to water, sugar and food coloring doesn't mean you know how to make Coca Cola. The right mix is priceless. The right mix of asset classes, also called diversification, used to be considered priceless as well.
Diversification was a popular subject of discussion leading up to the 2007 stock market peak and started to lose its luster early 2008 when commodities began their freefall. Many are led to believe that holding tight will be the only option to make back their money while some die-hard diversification junkies and asset allocation aficionados are still trying to figure out the 'perfect mix.'
How did the 'perfectly allocated buy-and hold portfolio' fair from the October 2007 peak to the March 2009 bottom?
To see how a diversified portfolio stacks up against the broad U.S. equity market, we've put together a hypothetical portfolio with exposure to all main asset classes. Of course, we realize that this cookie cutter portfolio pales in comparison to some tailor-made diversification models. Nevertheless, there are only so many asset classes, all of which (with the exception of certain bonds and gold) were down.
An equal weighted mix of the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (NYSEArca: VTI - News), iShares Barclays Aggregate Bond ETF (NYSEArca: AGG - News), iShares Dow Jones US Real Estate ETF (NYSEArca: IYR - News), iShares MSCI EAFE (NYSEArca: EFA - News), iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (NYSEArca: EEM - News) and the iShares S&P GSCI Commodity ETF (NYSEArca: GSG - News) would have lost 48.12% from the market peak (October 9th, 2007) to the March 9th, 2009 lows.
As a point of reference, the S&P 500 (AMEX: SPY - News) lost 55.19% in the same period while the Dow Jones (AMEX: DIA - News) was down 52.32%. Even though a 7% advantage helps, neither result should be acceptable to investors.
Unless a diversified portfolio was disproportionally weighted in either bonds or gold, the results were quite similar. The SPDR Gold Shares (NYSEArca: GLD - News) gained 23.91%, yet the broad iShares S&P GSCI Commodity ETF (NYSEArca: GSG - News), which sports a 10% allocation to gold, lost 47.20%.
The iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond (NYSEArca: TLT - News) saw a gain of 21.90% while the iShares iBoxx High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (NYSEArca: HYG - News) melted by 32.87%.
In the aftermath of the dot.com bubble burst induced bear market, many sectors boomed while others laid dormant. The Financial Select SPDRs (NYSEArca: XLF - News) for example gained 25% in 2000 while the Technology Select Sector SPDRs (NYSEArca: XLK - News) lost 42%. Yes, diversification worked back then.
The ETF Profit Strategy Newsletter was a step ahead already in 2008. Very early on, it identified the bear market as a deflationary depression. The 'red across the board' performance of nearly all asset classes is indicative of a deflationary environment. Whether we find ourselves technically in a depression right now or not is irrelevant. Fact is that we'll end up there.
Of course, the government doesn't set the trend, it follows it. The official statement: 'we are in a recession' wasn't released until after the stock market lost some 40% in December 2008.
Quite to the contrary, the ETF Profit Strategy Newsletter recommended short ETFs until November 2008 and once again in January 2009.
In fact, on December 14th, 2008 we forecasted the following: 'Range-bound trading, as we've seen over the past several weeks, grinds and tests the patience of investors. More importantly, it gives the stock market a chance to calm extreme levels of investors' pessimism. Conversely, optimistic sentiment, which should be more visible above Dow 9,000, gives way to further declines. These should draw the indexes close to or below their November 21st lows of 7,445 for the Dow and 740 for the S&P.'
This was followed up with this statement on February 13th, 2009: 'The best target for a temporary low is 6,700 for the Dow and 700 for the S&P 500. Extreme pessimistic sentiment may drive the indexes even towards Dow 6,000 and S&P 600'. On March 9th, the Dow reached an intraday low of 6,440.
Rather than diversification, the newsletter promoted using short ETFs either to hedge long positions or simply as profit centers. Such Short ETFs included the UltraShort Financial ProShares (NYSEArca: SKF - News), UltraShort Real Estate ProShares (NYSEArca: SRS - News) and UltraShort S&P 500 ProShares (NYSEArca: SDS - News). From the January 6th 2009 highs to the March lows, those ETFs gained between 80% - 150%.
This bear market has humbled many investment gurus, stock pickers and asset allocation wizards. Yesterday a peacock, today a feather duster. If you don't want to get your nest egg scrambled, it might be time to take action and review your portfolio. The brand new issue of the ETF Profit Strategy Newsletter includes reliable short, mid and long-term forecasts for the U.S. equity markets along with winning ETF profit strategies. If you keep doing what you're doing, you'll get what you've got. Are you ready for more?



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