Strategies
How portfolios are built: indexing, dividend income, value, growth and rebalancing.
11 articles
How to measure your portfolio's return honestlyThe difference between opening and closing balances credits the portfolio with growth that came from contributions.
When to change a strategy and when to sit tightTelling a broken approach from an ordinary bad patch is difficult and necessary. There are checkable criteria.
How many securities to holdToo few is concentration; too many is an index with extra costs. Where the boundary lies.
A trading journal: why no learning happens without oneMemory rewrites the past into a convenient shape. A note made before the outcome is the only defence.
The value approach: buying below what it is worthLooking for a gap between price and value. It requires a valuation of your own — otherwise it is just buying whatever is cheap on multiples.
The benchmark: what to compare your result against honestlyA portfolio that beat a deposit is not necessarily good. Compare it with what you could have bought instead at the same risk.
A strategy without exit rules is not a strategyEveryone makes the decision to buy. Almost nobody makes the decision to sell — and that is what decides the result.
A dividend strategy: income instead of growthA portfolio built around regular payouts. The logic is clear and the traps are predictable.
Asset allocation: the decision that shapes everything elseThe proportions between asset classes affect the result more than the choice of individual securities within them.
Rebalancing: returning to the target weightsA mechanical rule forcing you to sell what rose and buy what fell. It works because it contradicts intuition.
The index approach: buying the whole marketGiving up the choice of individual securities in favour of owning the entire market at minimal cost.