As part of my Beat the Market Experiment, I started three portfolios on November 1st, 2012:

1. $10,000 “Good Boy” Passive ETF Benchmark Portfolio that would serve as both a performance benchmark and an example portfolio that would be easy to build and maintain for DIY investors.
2. $10,000 “Bad Boy” Beat-the-Benchmark Portfolio that would simply represent the attempts of an “average guy” who is not a financial professional and gets his news from mainstream sources to get the best overall returns possible.
3. $10,000 Consumer Loan Portfolio – Split evenly between LendingClub and Prosper, this portfolio of peer-to-peer loans will have a target return of 8-10% net with the goal of beating the Benchmark portfolio over the long run.

This is the monthly update for the $10,000 Benchmark Portfolio as of December 1, 2012. I opened an account at TD Ameritrade due to their 100 commission-free ETF program, including the best low-cost, index ETFs from Vanguard and iShares. I funded it with $10,000 and bought all the ETFs required to be fully invested on 11/1/12. Due to simplicity and small portfolio size, I am going with 100% stocks and no bonds. My target asset allocation is below.

Here are the ETF components that represent each asset class:

Here are my holdings and their market value as of the end of day 11/30/12 (full screenshot):

Here’s the asset allocation:

Total value of stocks: $9,982.21
Cash balance: $24.18
Total portfolio value: $10,006.39

Not too much to talk about this month, I bought everything in a matter of minutes with no commissions at all, and a month into the experiment our total return to date is a snoozefest 0.06%. The Play Portfolio update will be up tomorrow.

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Here is my monthly update of the trailing total returns for the major asset classes that I find useful. I am using passive ETFs to track asset classes, as they represent actual investments that anyone can buy and sell. Return data was taken after market close at the end of November 2012.

Here is a chart of the 1-year trailing returns for the major asset classes above, which I use to help decide where to invest new funds and for rebalancing. Note that I do not necessarily invest in all the listed asset classes, see my personal portfolio for details.

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Here is my monthly update of the trailing total returns for the major asset classes that I find useful. I am using passive ETFs to track asset classes, as they represent “real” investments that you can buy and sell. Return data was taken after market close at the end of October 2012.

Here is a chart of the 1-year trailing returns for the major asset classes above, which I use for rebalancing. Note that I do not necessarily invest in all the listed asset classes, see my personal portfolio for more details.

I’ve barely been investing for a decade, but this month I notice that all the 10-year returns look pretty good for all the asset classes. (The 2001 dot-com crash is now left out.) Is this why everyone seems to be pretty happy with the market right now? I wonder if the good times will last.

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Here is my monthly update of the trailing total returns for the major asset classes that I find useful. I am using passive ETFs to track asset classes, as they represent “real” investments that you can buy and sell. See August 2012 asset class returns for additional background and comparison.

Here is a chart of the 1-year trailing returns for the major asset classes above, which I use for rebalancing. Note that I do not necessarily invest in all the listed asset classes, see my personal portfolio for more details.

Looks like nearly all asset classes are up from a year ago. Indeed, the US stock market is up over 30% from a year ago… find a guru or economist that predicted that! Over the past 10 years, the US stock market had an a 8.59% annualized return. The hyped “lost decade” looks a lot different once you simply move your timeframe a few years. The longer I invest, the less I pay attention to short-term market predictions from anyone.

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Now that our portfolio size has become more significant, I want to keep on top of things better while still avoiding most of the market noise. I took some ideas from how others share investment return data (see here and my 2011 year-end returns post) and will try each month to update the trailing total returns for the major asset classes that I find useful. I am using passive ETFs to track asset classes, as they represent “real” investments that you can buy and sell.

In addition, for relative comparison, I’ll update a chart each month comparing the 1-year trailing returns of the major asset classes. This should be useful in determining which areas I should be rebalancing my asset allocation. Instead of performance-chasing, I’ll be buying more of the worst-performing asset classes. Note that I do not necessarily invest in all the listed asset classes, see my personal portfolio for more details.

Listed are total returns (includes dividends and interest) as calculated by Morningstar as of 8/31/12. All periods longer than one year are annualized. NAV returns are listed except in the case of GLD, as there is not a significant premium/discount to NAV for the other ETFs and the NAV returns match the equivalent Vanguard mutual fund returns. In certain cases, I am using the long-term returns of the equivalent Vanguard mutual funds as Vanguard ETFs are simply a different share class of the mutual funds, share the same underlying investments (VXUS/VTIAX, VWO/VEIEX, VNQ/VGLSX, BND/VBLTX).