Calculating your asset allocation

[modhatter]

Is there a web site you can go to and plug in all your current holdings and it will tell your your current allocations in detail (large cap, sm cap, etc) with your percentages? If so, I assume you would list your current value of that stock or fund as opposed to what you purchased it at.

Fidelity and Ameritrade do a breakdown, but not too specific, and Fidelity lists almost 50% under unknown.

[REWahoo]

Instant X-Ray Stock Fund Investment Portfolio Holdings Free Analysis Research Tool - Morningstar

And yes, list your current dollar value as per the instructions.

[LOL!]

The M* instant X-ray is a great tool, but does not have the persistence and extra features of the M* portfolio X-ray. That is, instant X-ray is the little cousin of portfolio X-ray.

You can use portfolio X-ray for free: Asset allocation tutorial?

[IndependentlyPoor]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LOL! The M* instant X-ray is a great tool, but does not have the persistence and extra features of the M* portfolio X-ray. That is, instant X-ray is the little cousin of portfolio X-ray. You can use portfolio X-ray for free: Asset allocation tutorial?

I tried the M* tool, and it has great capabilities, but it is buggy. It has the NAV of VMMXX as $0, and thinks that VBMFX is all European!
M*.gif

[rescueme]

While I'm an M* premium member and use a lot of their tools, I have found that their X-Ray is a bit of a problem since it rates my funds as they are marketed (e.g. by name) rather than actual current investment use.

For this determination, I use Financial Engines on the Vanguard site. There is an explanation on how the AA is broken down (by fund usage) rather than by pure marketing by fund name.

Looking at a snapshot of a combined portfolio view of my and DW's holdings (Vanguard and non-Vanguard funds) it shows us at 57% equity vs. 62% (a 5% difference) on M*.

I use FE for my "true" AA view. However be aware where M* will give you fractional percentages, FE is in whole numbers only (if that makes a difference to you).

Also, to use VG's FE you must be a customer, and at a certain investment level to get the free usage.

[LOL!]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rescueme ... For this determination, I use Financial Engines on the Vanguard site. There is an explanation on how the AA is broken down (by fund usage) rather than by pure marketing by fund name. ... Also, to use VG's FE you must be a customer, and at a certain investment level to get the free usage.

rescueme, thank you for the mention of Financial Engines via Vanguard. I am a long-time Vanguard customer and have used FE before via Vanguard. I looked again today and saw that it really hasn't changed any since the last time I used it. In my use, I could not determine if the AA (or "Style" as FE calls it) reported is any more or less accurate than the M* portfolio X-ray. FE simply ignored my small cap international ETFs because it didn't know what to do with them and would not allow me to edit my investments to work around that. It also came up with about 12% "other" which was strange. And unlike the M* Portfolio X-ray, it did not break down international into Large/Mid/Small. BTW, M* does not go by the fund name either, but by the fund holdings. In essence, it was just as useless to me today as it was last year. Maybe this is also why Vanguard keeps it hidden rather well on the Vanguard web site.

But I want to thank you for making me go check it out again.

[LOL!]

Quote:

Originally Posted by IndependentlyPoor I tried the M* tool, and it has great capabilities, but it is buggy. It has the NAV of VMMXX as $0, and thinks that VBMFX is all European! Attachment 7108

1. You have to put in money market funds as $CASH and not as a mutual fund.

2. VBMFX is a bond fund, but it appears to hold a smidgeon of stock or something classified as equity. And that equity is 100% from Europe and not the US. So M* has accurately reported the stock holdings of VBMFX. So look under the bond analysis for bond funds.

I'm not saying there aren't bugs, but these two are relatively minor.

[freebird5825]

Also a M* Premium member...and a numbers geek.
I use the Portfolio Manager for monthly tracking, and my own future AA plan modeling, in a very simple way. More art than science...
I make a copy or two to three of my existing real portfolio, and add or subtract MF tickers as if I had different holdings than I actually do.
When the market soars or tanks, I take a good hard look at these modeled portfolios to see real data of how a fund handles the event (months) or a longer period of time (years).
The tail end of 08 was pretty wild scary for some of my "riskier" modeled portfolios. I will sometimes use the "mellower" models to make TLH decisions or tweak my DCA levels a bit if conditions warrant.

[RonBoyd]

You could look into Cake Financial or others of that genre. That way you could also get a feel for the allocation of others of a similar investing philosophy.

While Cake has a basic Free membership category, they do have an "upgraded" version that will not only give you all the details that you could ever want on your investments but show you alternate investments to each -- and what it is costing you in fees and performance over and above the suggestions.