I have had more than a few people ask me what is the performance of The Deep Value ETF Accumulator. I haven’t had a good answer because I don’t track it and it isn’t necessarily my primary goal. My primary goal is to build a very large portfolio of ETFs from all the great performing sectors of the market that I can find. Secondary to that is performance; which I do strive for by buying these ETFs at the best prices I can get.
My decision to not concern myself with performance was overridden by my wife’s recent question, “Well, how are we doing?” Dear readers, I should have listened to you, because, now I know, performance matters to those who take an interest in The Deep Value ETF Accumulator. Performance may not be my first priority, but when your spouse and your readers want to know, then, they deserve an answer.
Peter Drucker is attributed with the quote, “You cannot manage what you do not measure.” There is a lot of truth in that quote and I’ve often quoted it myself in my line of work and even at home. This is now obvious to me, but I really should be measuring the performance of our portfolios. Afterall, I may not be a financial services professional, but I am a manager of four separate investment portfolios. Therefore for the sake of this article, I am an investment portfolio manager. Managers are responsible for the people, processes and the things they are managing. So, I have decided that I will publish our H1 – 2017 performance.
Here are the Deep Value ETF Accumulator portfolio performance results for H1 – 2017:
As you may know, the world equity markets have done very well during this timeframe. We do not invest in just an S&P 500 fund, but compared to it we are trailing by 0.67%. While this is not our benchmark, we would like to beat it. I believe we have room for improvement. First of all, we are holding too much cash. I will endeavor to deploy more of it. Additionally, I intend to trim profits less frequently. These two steps should help boost our numbers slightly. One challenge I do face consistently, and don’t yet have a solution for, is the structure of our 401k. I can only place trades once a month with our 401k administrator and there is a 1% annual management fee to overcome. While this structure is difficult to deal with; I believe that with some smart tactics we can still improve our performance.
While I am tracking over 30 ETFs, we are currently only invested in 15 of them. As you will note in the following chart, we are very overweight in some sectors and underweight or completely out of other sectors. While many managers strive for a balanced portfolio; that is not one our goals. I do intend to invest in all 30+ ETFs as we go through economic cycles, but balancing the portfolio will not be one of our objectives. (Holdings as of 7-14-2017)
Well, there you have it folks. The main reason I like ETFs as an investment vehicle is their transparency. And now, you have a very clear window into The Deep Value ETF Accumulator performance and holdings. I am an open book, and I am willing to share everything I know about investing with my readers. If you have any questions or want anything explained on this subject, please write it in the comment block at the bottom of this article. I respond to every comment.
Thank you for taking time to read.
V/R The Deep Value ETF Accumulator, aka Micah McDonald