Is this the Permanent Portfolio?

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jaj2276
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Is this the Permanent Portfolio?

Post by jaj2276 »

I didn't want to add this to the end of the 50 other PP threads because I know most wouldn't read them (including me) thinking that someone else was just adding a less-than-significant reply to those threads.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-01-2 ... -hedge-fun

The article/description of the All Weather fund seems SO SIMILAR to the PP, except that cash is replaced with "something else" and I'm not smart enough to decipher what that "something else" is.
wesleymouch
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Re: Is this the Permanent Portfolio?

Post by wesleymouch »

The Permanent Portfolio has a similar CAGR and did better (positive return) in 2008. There is a lot of information about it: google crawlingroad
MrMatt2532
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Re: Is this the Permanent Portfolio?

Post by MrMatt2532 »

RupertSM
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Re: Is this the Permanent Portfolio?

Post by RupertSM »

Ray Dalio on Squawk Box at this moment. Sounds like he just described a permanent portfolio, although he did not use that name nor get specific on holdings. He is speaking about a portfolio that has 1/4 of assets in something that does well in good times, 1/4 in something that does well in inflationary times, 1/4 in something that does well in deflationary times, etc.
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jaj2276
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Re: Is this the Permanent Portfolio?

Post by jaj2276 »

MrMatt2532 wrote:No, it's not.

See here:
http://m.seekingalpha.com/article/878251
Thanks for this, a very good read. Although I think your statement of "No, it's not" is a bit definitive considering my original post wasn't definitive (I.e. SO SIMILAR but not IDENTICAL) and I also mentioned how there was no cash in the All Weather.

Reading the Seeking Alpha article, I wonder if the All-Weather is a "PP-like" portfolio that's more palatable for people to hold (i.e. there isn't a huge cash component and you don't have to hold gold).
MrMatt2532
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Re: Is this the Permanent Portfolio?

Post by MrMatt2532 »

jaj2276 wrote:
MrMatt2532 wrote: Thanks for this, a very good read. Although I think your statement of "No, it's not" is a bit definitive considering my original post wasn't definitive (I.e. SO SIMILAR but not IDENTICAL) and I also mentioned how there was no cash in the All Weather.

Reading the Seeking Alpha article, I wonder if the All-Weather is a "PP-like" portfolio that's more palatable for people to hold (i.e. there isn't a huge cash component and you don't have to hold gold).
Yeah, sorry I was just responding to the subject title.

I would agree it is permanent portfolio-like. The main thing that sets these two apart (from other portfolios) is the significant holdings in commodities/gold.
Clive
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Re: Is this the Permanent Portfolio?

Post by Clive »

wesleymouch wrote:The Permanent Portfolio has a similar CAGR and did better (positive return) in 2008
And less well in 2009. Most investors should consider yearly values as short term and anticipate some volatility.

Comparing the Permanent Portfolio to a 50-50 (with small tilt) for decades 1980's, 1990's, 2000+ (after inflation (real) gains)

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75% Wellesley Balanced 25% gold achieves much the same as the Permanent Portfolio. Takes quite a bit of confidence in gold however for someone that might already be holding 100% in Wellesley to sell 25% and use the proceeds to buy gold.

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Browser
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Re: Is this the Permanent Portfolio?

Post by Browser »

Bridgewater's analysis does suggest that TIPS might be substituted for Cash in the PP: making the allocation 25% stocks, 25% long Treasury, 25% Gold/Commodities, 25% TIPS.
Using Simba's spreadsheet, which incorporates estimated TIPS returns prior to 2001, the returns and volatility from 1972-2011 are very similar for the PP with cash and the PP with TIPs. Actually, the data slightly favor the PP with TIPS: same annualized volatility but the CAGR is about 1/2% higher ( Sharpe = .59 vs. .52). This results in a total return that nearly 25% greater at the end of this 40-year period.
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MediumTex
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Re: Is this the Permanent Portfolio?

Post by MediumTex »

Over at gyroscopicinvesting we've often talked about the way Ray Dalio and other money managers will take Harry Browne's PP ideas and pass them off as their own.

Most of the financial media are so gullible about what these celebrity money managers say that they would probably never do the five minutes of research that it would take to realize that Dalio was talking about someone else's strategy.

When you read Dalio's "Manifesto" it's very obvious that he was heavily influenced by the 1970s-era libertarian thinkers like Harry Browne. If I was Dalio I would have a hard time founding a hedge fund and writing a manifesto based on Harry Browne's ideas without ever mentioning where the ideas came from that I based my whole life and career on.
"Early in life I noticed that no event is ever correctly reported in a newspaper." | -George Orwell
Call_Me_Op
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Re: Is this the Permanent Portfolio?

Post by Call_Me_Op »

MediumTex wrote:Over at gyroscopicinvesting we've often talked about the way Ray Dalio and other money managers will take Harry Browne's PP ideas and pass them off as their own.

Most of the financial media are so gullible about what these celebrity money managers say that they would probably never do the five minutes of research that it would take to realize that Dalio was talking about someone else's strategy.

When you read Dalio's "Manifesto" it's very obvious that he was heavily influenced by the 1970s-era libertarian thinkers like Harry Browne. If I was Dalio I would have a hard time founding a hedge fund and writing a manifesto based on Harry Browne's ideas without ever mentioning where the ideas came from that I based my whole life and career on.
Yes, I have been blown-away that Browne is never mentioned.

There are very few original thinkers, and Harry Browne was among them.
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Browser
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Re: Is this the Permanent Portfolio?

Post by Browser »

MediumTex wrote:Over at gyroscopicinvesting we've often talked about the way Ray Dalio and other money managers will take Harry Browne's PP ideas and pass them off as their own.

Most of the financial media are so gullible about what these celebrity money managers say that they would probably never do the five minutes of research that it would take to realize that Dalio was talking about someone else's strategy.

When you read Dalio's "Manifesto" it's very obvious that he was heavily influenced by the 1970s-era libertarian thinkers like Harry Browne. If I was Dalio I would have a hard time founding a hedge fund and writing a manifesto based on Harry Browne's ideas without ever mentioning where the ideas came from that I based my whole life and career on.
Did Harry Browne talk about "risk parity?"
We don't know where we are, or where we're going -- but we're making good time.
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MediumTex
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Re: Is this the Permanent Portfolio?

Post by MediumTex »

Browser wrote:
MediumTex wrote:Over at gyroscopicinvesting we've often talked about the way Ray Dalio and other money managers will take Harry Browne's PP ideas and pass them off as their own.

Most of the financial media are so gullible about what these celebrity money managers say that they would probably never do the five minutes of research that it would take to realize that Dalio was talking about someone else's strategy.

When you read Dalio's "Manifesto" it's very obvious that he was heavily influenced by the 1970s-era libertarian thinkers like Harry Browne. If I was Dalio I would have a hard time founding a hedge fund and writing a manifesto based on Harry Browne's ideas without ever mentioning where the ideas came from that I based my whole life and career on.
Did Harry Browne talk about "risk parity?"
I don't recall Harry Browne using the term "risk parity", but he seems to have been ahead of a lot of people when it came to the concept of risk parity.
"Early in life I noticed that no event is ever correctly reported in a newspaper." | -George Orwell
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