Do you rebalance?

[gummy]

Some rebalance to maintain a certain allocation: 30% of this + 20% of that + etc.
This may be periodically (monthly? annually?) or whenever their current allocation deviates significantly from their desired allocation.
The reasons may be increased returns, decreased volatility or risk, etc.

It'd be interesting to know whether YOU rebalance (for whatever reason).

I've been playing here:
http://www.gummy-stuff.org/rebalancing2.htm
trying to avoid mathematical or financial arguments for or against.
I found the results interesting.

[LurkyDismal]

I tend to rebalance annually if needed, and direct my monthly savings to keep my allocation in check.

[agape]

Rebalance ? YES ! This is more of a trading market than an investing market , IMO.

Those creative ETF's can come in handy here. Picking a stock is a real task.

[AltaRed]

I rebalance if my AA gets too far out of whack, e.g. if it gets to 80/20 or 60/40 on a 70/30 preferred AA. I tend to end up towards 80/20 when there are buying opportunities in the market, e.g. the present time. I have no set calander schedule.

Then I raise cash again after markets have recovered preferably by taking profits on my best performing equities (or through tax loss harvesting in those hopefully few times I have big losers).

[gummy]

[j45]

Yes, but I do not schedule my rebalancing. I adjust it as I go with inflows of savings......I base this on market conditions and targets.

[jf]

Yes, I rebalance... and right now, I'm toying around with the idea of doing Value Averaging. I know that VA is not perfect but I'll try to adapt it to my tastes and tolerance.

[couponstrip]

Great spreadsheet gummy.

For my asset allocation rebalanced won 54% of the time. Unscientifically, I noted that many of those rebalanced wins were small wins. When not rebalanced won, it tended to win BIG.

Your timing for this post is good since I am just on the verge of adding new cash to my portfolio to rebalance.....or should I?

[twa2w]

Yes I rebalance - If I have cash I immediately rebalance back to 100% equities.
Does that count
Cheers
J

[Arby]

Same as what Alta said, (except for the spelling of calendar ).

I rebalance if my AA gets too far out of whack, e.g. if it gets to 80/20 or 60/40 on a 70/30 preferred AA. ... I have no set calander schedule.

[AltaRed]

Same as what Alta said, (except for the spelling of calendar ).

Spelling has never been my strong suit.

[gossg]

My personal accounts are poorly controlled. But when other people are involved, I put them into an allocation model, rebalanced every two years or less.

That includes my wife's RRSPs when she was alive, and the two trusts I'm maintaining for her niece and nephew's college funds out of the will.

In my own accounts, I will look at allocation ratios, and occasionally make a change, but more often will change the model to reflect what I wanted to do.

[Peculiar_Investor]

Yes I rebalance to my AA. My IPS allows +/- 5% in each asset class, which provides some latitude. In my view, rebalancing somewhat enforces a sell high, buy low process.

That all said, I've noticed that "Mr. Market" has done a nice job recently of bringing my AA back towards target.

[sydney2]

We are just in the process of doing a swap from the non-reg to the rsp accounts with straight interest bearing investments.

[dakota]

...and I'm moving money from my RRSP to my non-registered acct. to reduce my RRSP. I don't specifically rebalance, I take profits when I think I should and add to others or buy some stocks I haven't got that I think are a bargain.

[parvus]

Yes I rebalance - If I have cash I immediately rebalance back to 100% equities.
Does that count
Cheers
J

Moi aussi.

[Taggart]

The Wall Street Journal

MARCH 7, 2009

'Rebalancing' Your Portfolio Can Be a Tough Ride

By JASON ZWEIG

Another market truism -- regular rebalancing of your portfolio guarantees higher return and lower risk -- has bit the dust.

Rebalancing ensures that you buy low and sell high. It can work. But that doesn't mean it always works.

[patriot1]

I have no timetable for rebalancing, but I consider it when my AA gets more than 10% or so out of whack. I sold off a good sized chunk of equities around the beginning of 2007, and will most likely be buying in the fall of this year when some of my FI matures.