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What % of your portfolio is "experimental"?
Old 11-07-2013, 05:55 AM   #1
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What % of your portfolio is "experimental"?

The majority of my portfolio consists of index funds and VG Wellington and Wellysly. About 92%. I also have about 3% in cash.

Then I have a Fidelity account that I use to play around with Sector funds. I have been keeping track of my core funds rate of return since 2009 (and of course my FIDO fun account)

So far the fun account is ahead by about .6%. But I might still hit a home run with one of the Sector funds and then is "Go on a cruise time"
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Old 11-07-2013, 05:59 AM   #2
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My whole portfolio (66% equities / 5% bonds / 29% cash) is considered "experimental" as I do not trust any of them to be really safe, meaning guaranteeing positive returns, or not losing to inflation.

However, I try to conduct only "safe" experiments, hoping that nothing is going to blow up in my face.
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Old 11-07-2013, 06:00 AM   #3
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I have used a little as play money, but never that much. Less than 1%. None at the moment though.
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Old 11-07-2013, 06:03 AM   #4
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Old 11-07-2013, 06:07 AM   #5
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Depends on your definition of experimental, but using my deviation from Four Pillars as a benchmark, the 5% of my portfolio in VGELX (Energy Sector) might be considered "experimental" - though it's just Large Caps so hardly experimental IMO. Otherwise my holdings are all classic Four Pillars with small, value, emerging markets tilts.

I also have half my bond holdings in VFSUX (Short Term Investment Grade) if the OP considers that experimental.
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Old 11-07-2013, 07:18 AM   #6
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I probably have about 1% in my "experimental, which sounds more experimental than some of the others. I own a few biotech companies and some shares in other small companies that could "hit it big"....or not.
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Old 11-07-2013, 07:32 AM   #7
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I call it my "fun" portfolio as I sell/buy funds much more aggressively than my other funds. Don't consider it necessarily unsafe as I've spread the $ out among about 7 sectors. This is the one area I will use "timing" to buy sectors that I feel are undervalued. In 8 years I have not had any "disasters" but no doubles or triples either.
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Old 11-07-2013, 07:56 AM   #8
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None for me, but I have considered carving out a portion and making bets on individual stocks. I used to play individual stocks a long time ago and had mixed results.
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Old 11-07-2013, 08:00 AM   #9
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I don't have a huge portfolio and it only consists of IBonds, CDs, and 2 Vanguard index funds. But I did put about 10k in Intel earlier this year, just to have more fun looking at my daily results as the index funds barely move on a day to day basis. I liked the 4% dividend. I doubt I ever do this again.
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Old 11-07-2013, 08:12 AM   #10
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My entire portfolio is indexed - except for a little over 2.5%, which is/was held in 4 different individual equities. One of them, MAKO, I bought at the wrong time, got out of it and ended up losing money on. The other 3, GOOG, BIDU and RAX are doing fine - GOOG particularly so

If I ever pursue my idea of living in an RV with my 3 kitties, these equities could end up providing the RV seed money. I do plan on selling these stocks and being all indexed eventually.
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Old 11-07-2013, 09:28 AM   #11
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Old 11-07-2013, 10:00 AM   #12
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2-3% - 'a few good stocks'. Football season is the worse time of year. Also look at new pickup trucks but usually resist.

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Old 11-07-2013, 10:04 AM   #13
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About 3%, experimenting can be a great way to learn.
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Old 11-07-2013, 10:20 AM   #14
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Old 11-07-2013, 11:22 AM   #15
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Less than 1%, actually 0.7%.

My experimental part has done so poorly that it is barely holding its own. After having it for over a decade I think I am about fed up with the whole idea, because I am hardly ever fiddling with it any more. So, I might merge it with the rest of my portfolio.
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Old 11-07-2013, 11:52 AM   #16
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Much of my portfolio would probably be considered experimental here (individual stocks and bonds, partnerships, trusts, precious metals, foreign RE, etc...).
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Old 11-07-2013, 12:27 PM   #17
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With the Fed doing things like QE that's in uncharted territory, even Treasuries become experimental. Heh heh heh...
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Old 11-07-2013, 12:32 PM   #18
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If we're talking about things like "alternative" asset classes, probably about 8%, mostly in various natural resource plays. But I don't really have the "Vegas money" bucket (of about 5%) that I used to have when I was working.
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Old 11-07-2013, 01:17 PM   #19
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None. I quit experimenting long ago.
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Old 11-07-2013, 02:16 PM   #20
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Much of our portfolio consists of strategic allocations ... maybe they would be called experimental. But it's based on a lot of backtests with decades of data sets and has to pass the believable test (not based on butter production in Bangladesh) . Overall this might get 1% or 2% more return over time ... if I'm lucky. Still the objective is to not stray too far from buy-hold and to reduce risk when straying.

Seems to me "experimental" is in the eye of the beholder. One could call life a great experiment. My feeling is that this whole universe is one huge wild experiment.
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