Portfolio Shield™ remains hedged for March. I am pleased to report the Simplify funds continue to reduce some the downside risks in the equity market and the long-term bond hedge has started mitigating some of the downside move in technology stocks.
The underperformance in the portfolios with an allocation to AGG has largely been due to the poor performance of corporate bonds over the past two years which AGG has an allocation to, in addition to U.S. Treasuries and Mortgage-Backed Securities. I believe going forward we should see the returns from AGG stabilize and perform in line with its long-term averages.
There were only very slight changes to the allocation for March.
As a reminder, all strategies are rebalanced on the first trading day of each month and at that time, any new monies are invested according to the model strategy you are in.
For those who want to change between strategies, changes will occur at the next rebalance on the first trading day of each month.
There is only a 0.3% allocation to cash in each model. Due to a misreporting between Morningstar® and the ETF providers, the Asset Allocation box on the fact sheets may show a higher cash position than is actually in the model.
If you have any questions or would like to change which Portfolio Shield™ strategy you are invested in, please let me know.
Linked below are the latest Morningstar® Investment Detail Reports for the Portfolio Shield™ family.
Thank you,
Steven Van Metre, CFP®