The long-term portfolio
The Index Strategist
Owning the market is a decision too. Buying the whole thing and leaving it alone is a strategy. The part nobody writes down is the allocation itself, and what would have to happen to change it.
Where it sits
What you hold for years. A strategic allocation you keep, and a tactical one you move around it.
Who does this for a living
A pension fund
Known for it
Jack Bogle
The loop
Read, thesis, decision, review.
Read
What you already own, and what it is actually exposed to.
Thesis
The split you are betting on, written down: equities, bonds, geography, horizon.
Decision
A target allocation and a rule for adding to it, so contributions are not a mood.
Review
Rebalance on a schedule, not on the news. That is most of the job.
The problem
Buy and hold is a decision. Nobody wrote it down.
Equities against bonds, home against global, how much goes in each month, and what would have to happen for any of it to change. Those four choices decide most of the outcome, and they are usually made once, quickly, years ago, and recorded nowhere. So when the market drops there is nothing to check the impulse against.
Being written now.
This is the one on the desk. It is being authored from the founder's own process, and founding members read it as it lands rather than when it is finished.
Get serious
Discipline beats impulse. Process beats luck.
Welcome, Finaketeers.