Asset Rotation: The Demise of Modern Portfolio Theory and the Birth of an Investment Renaissance

PROLOGUE

David and Goliath

For 40 days and 40 nights the Philistine champion Goliath stood before the Israelite army, mocking them. He challenged them to send forth one man to face him in a battle to the death. To the victor would go the war.

By biblical accounts, Goliath was a giant, standing just shy of seven feet tall. The mere sound of his thunderous voice made the men of Israel tremble in fear. No one dared to take up arms against him.

David was a young man in his early teens. He was a peasant, sent to the front lines to bring food and carry back news of the battle. When he arrived at camp, David heard Goliath’s daily provocation and he was astounded by the Israelites’ fear. Without hesitation, wearing no armor and with a sling as his only weapon, David volunteered to fight Goliath; to put an end to the war and preserve the lives of his compatriots.

David charged out to face Goliath, arming his sling with a single rock. As he approached, he hurled the stone at Goliath, striking him square in the forehead and killing him instantly. The Philistine army stood in disbelief as David decapitated the giant and held up his head for all to see. The Philistine army retreated, and the Israelites won the war. Born a peasant, David went on to become the king of Israel.

We are but one small voice, drowned out in a sea of many. In an investment world driven by large-scale institutions and corporate war chests, one might think we are ill-equipped for battle. But like David, the oft unassuming has a way of rising to the occasion.

We are witnessing a Renaissance. Conventions are being challenged, and a new way is being forged from the old.

PREFACE

We Stand on the Precipice of an Investment Renaissance

"The Renaissance was a rebirth of man’s life on earth. Freed from the shackles of authority, man’s mind was viewed as able to understand the universe. Far from being a tortured soul trapped in a deformed bodily prison, man was regarded as rational, beautiful and heroic—worthy of happiness and capable of great achievement. Man, in the Renaissance view, need not bow down in passive resignation, praying for salvation. He can choose to undertake great challenges in the face of seemingly impossible odds; he can actively pursue success, fight for victory—even slay a giant.

Michelangelo’s David is the best expression of this Renaissance sense of life. The sculpture was inspired by the story of the young shepherd boy who chose to fight a far stronger adversary in order to save his people from invasion. Wearing no armor, with a sling as his only weapon, David defeats Goliath using superior skill and courage.

—Lee Sandstead (renowned art historian)

The Renaissance Period spanned from the fourteenth to the seventeenth century and is remembered by historians today as a period of scientific, cultural, and philosophical enlightenment. At the beginning of the Renaissance, it was widely believed that the world was flat and that the Earth was the center of the universe. Throughout this period, widely accepted conventions were challenged that led us to a world of new discoveries and innovations. Without the likes of William of Ockham, Christopher Columbus, Nicolaus Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, Michelangelo, Sir Isaac Newton, and countless others we might well still find ourselves in the Dark Ages.

It was these pioneers of new thought, these architects of originality who dared to think outside of the box that provided the foundation for the world we live in today. But we fear in present times we have strayed too far away from the very principles that led us to such startling revelations.

Education rears disciples, imitators, and routinists, not pioneers of new ideas and creative geniuses. The schools are not nurseries of progress and improvement, but conservatories of tradition and unwavering modes of thought.

Ludwig von Mises (famed Austrian economist)

The virtues of Modern Portfolio Theory are taught at every business school across the country and to every aspiring individual to enter the financial services industry. During this indoctrination, one is led to believe that these guiding principles provide the bedrock to any sound investment portfolio. And yet on countless occasions, we have seen and personally experienced their failures—if not by the method itself, by the means in which investors fulfill these asset allocations and behave. The financial industry is playing a game, and we fear the vast majority of investors fail to recognize their role as pawns.

Even after experiencing repeated failures and dramatic underperformance, far too often industry professionals and retail investors alike simply maintain the status quo. Yet, taking a buy, hold, and pray approach to investing has done little to shield investors from experiencing significant losses in recent years.

As we assess our current economic landscape, these challenges may grow exponentially greater in the very near future, as capital market assumptions (the long view of anticipated returns by asset class) encounter a new paradigm—a paradigm in which what has generally held to be true over the past 40 years, and that which we understood to be safe, is no longer safe anymore.

The reality is that the investment world as we know it is changing. Even what has worked in the past may not continue to work in the future. No longer may bonds be viewed as a long-term hold and safe haven asset class. This poses a serious threat to investors aiming to preserve the purchasing power of their capital. Concurrently, the equity markets may present even greater risks, as investors in the United States historically have lost 40 percent or more in their investable assets during the average recession. So where are investors supposed to place their hard-earned savings for preservation of capital and long-term growth?

It is our contention that Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT), like many investment methods, was merely an aberration in time, and not a blueprint for long-term success. When capital market assumptions change, MPT not only becomes fallible, it becomes a serious liability. For all of the financial planners and retail investors projecting retirement cash flow, future investment growth, Monte Carlo analysis, and the like, the realities of tomorrow may be strikingly dissimilar from what one might expect.

In the context of this book, we will present a time-tested approach to investing that has proven to be successful throughout the history of capital markets, in good times and bad. We will present a surprisingly rudimentary approach that may provide a core foundation for true modern-day portfolio management, investing in a manner where limiting losses is paramount. What we are referring to specifically is the process of asset rotation, and not asset allocation.

Rather than attempt to predict the future price of a security, or the future state of our economy (which we firmly believe to be impossible), we will focus our efforts on illustrating a simple price momentum–based approach to investing. This approach does not take into account market headlines, economic forecasts, or emotion. We believe in taking a purely systematic approach, devoid of the very intuitions that often lead investors astray. And, believe it or not, our approach requires that investors assess the state of the markets only once per month and adjust their portfolios accordingly.

In short, we believe in taking a tactical approach to investing. Despite what naysayers may proclaim—it is time in the market, not timing in the market—this can be done and with far less risk than a more traditional approach. This reminds us of a campaign we once witnessed at a large brokerage firm, trumpeting this message back in the fall 2007, right before the onset of the Great Recession. Surely, many of the investors heeding that advice are still, unfortunately, far from getting back to even. The reality is, whether the masses care to admit it or not, timing is everything.

The biggest mistake any investor can make is to buy the wrong thing at the wrong time. While this may seem like an obvious statement, the reality is none of us know when it is the wrong time. Far too often investment decisions are based on fear or greed, frequently selling when things are at their worst and buying when things are expensive. It only seems natural to buy what is working and sell what is not, but it is this very impactful psychological flaw that prevents investors from achieving superior returns. Investing requires discipline. By limiting losses, one can dramatically reduce the impact of buying at the wrong time. Avoiding prolonged declines provides the true engine for the long-term growth of an investment portfolio.

The process set forth in this text has consistently demonstrated significantly lower risk (beta) than traditional methods, with significantly lower drawdowns from peak to trough, and with low correlations to both equity and bond markets. Most important, this process provides investors with consistently strong risk-adjusted returns.

Throughout the course of this book, we will take a closer look at where we are today, the challenges that lie ahead, and what we as investors can do about it. We hope to do so in a manner that is both educational and enlightening, but, most important, compelling one to step outside of what it is they think they know and to reexamine truths currently held to be self-evident.

To the attentive observer, we are witnessing an exciting time in the investment markets. The paradigm has shifted, and we are standing on the precipice of an Investment Renaissance.

CHAPTER 1

TAKING THE 30,000-FOOT VIEW

Where We Are Today

Before we can begin to dissect all of the nuances as to why what has worked in the past may no longer work in the future, we must first start with a 30,000-foot view, putting into perspective both the realities of the individual investor’s disposition and historical performance, as well as our current economic landscape. Once we have a general understanding of the challenges at hand, we can examine these issues more intimately and ultimately provide practical solutions as to how investors can more efficiently navigate this tumultuous environment (while inherently reducing the impact of outsized risks).

THE INDIVIDUAL INVESTOR

It has often been said that when you are in the thick of things, you simply cannot see the forest for the trees. Because of all of the obstacles that surround us (some real, others imagined), our vision is impaired and it is easy for even the most astute observer to become overwhelmed; so much so that they can no longer see the path which lies ahead, nor the bigger picture at hand.

If we apply this analogy to the investment markets and the daily influx of market-moving headlines, prognostications, and so on, it is easy to see how one might get lost in the myriad of directional noise. After all, CNBC, Bloomberg, and the like need to drive ratings, and there is nothing better than sensationalizing a trivial nonevent for this purpose. For that matter, we must admit we find the circus to be mildly entertaining. In one segment, you’ll hear from some expert why the market is going up, and in the next you will hear from another why it is going down. It pains us to think how many people get their investment ideas (particularly stocks) from watching this drama play out.

In the past, we have had the good fortune of sitting in on a handful of small group presentations by renowned economist Dr. Bob Froehlich. While we may not always agree with his message, we can certainly appreciate his enthusiasm and the wildly compelling arguments he makes to support his well-articulated views. Reiterating our previous point, the one thing we heard Dr. Bob say that has stuck with us over the years was, If you see someone on TV telling you to buy a stock, it is because they own it and they need to get out at a higher price.

The reality is that we live in a world that is dialed into the investment markets 24/7, in the United States and abroad. Whether through TV, radio, the Internet, or a litany of industry-related publications, investors today are flooded with a plethora of information. They are inundated with commentary from very smart people weaving well-crafted messages to convey their views. These experts are backed by industry-related pedigree, impressive educational backgrounds, and fancy initials after their name—all of which leads us to believe they are qualified to know what is coming next, whether for the state of an individual company or the economy at large. But despite all of these superficial pearls of wisdom, more often than not they are wrong. It’s not their fault. It is by the conventions we have endeared ourselves to that they are obliged. They are simply purveyors of an ego-driven industry in which individuals believe they can know more than the markets.

OCKHAM’S RAZOR

Pluralitas non est ponenda sine necessitate (Entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily)

William of Ockham, a fourteenth-century Franciscan monk, born in the small village of Ockham in Surrey, England

While many of us may not be familiar with the name, historians today regard William as one of the central figures of Renaissance thought, at the epicenter of the major intellectual and political controversies of his time. William is most highly regarded for his contributions to the principles of parsimony. This later came to be known in academic circles as Ockham’s Razor and centuries later continues to provide one of life’s most important guiding principles.

Ockham’s Razor essentially states that if one can explain a phenomenon without making unnecessary assumptions, then there is no ground for assuming it, that one should always opt for an explanation in terms of the fewest possible causes, factors, or variables. Today, we know this as the KISS principle—Keep It Simple, Stupid.

When you look out into the landscape of the financial markets, you can see that we certainly don’t do a very good job of this. Click on CNBC, pick up your Wall Street Journal, or turn on your Bloomberg radio, and this much should be blatantly obvious. There is a whole army of financial wizards trying to decipher the behavior of the investment markets and sharing with us their opinion of what’s to come. The irony is that seemingly more often than not, their visions fail to come to fruition. And yet we as investors are encouraged to base our investment decisions on their collective wisdom.

Perhaps this is where William of Ockham comes in. Rather than attempt to predict the future price of a stock or the future state of our economy, encompassing a mountain of data and incalculable variables, rather than attempt the impossible by looking forward, wouldn’t it just be easier to look back?

The price movement of a security will tell you more than any analyst or economist ever could. In the spirit of Ockham’s Razor, price momentum is the one true metric we have that provides clarity to the psychological underpinnings that move the markets. These psychological forces drive both short- and long-term trends.

In the investment world, we like to make things more complex than they need to be. Our industry is famous for as much, and it seems more and more the investment vehicles or methods used today have grown increasingly complex. Whether by virtue of some sort of masochistic, egomaniacal pursuit of proving one can consistently outsmart the markets or the result of simply adhering to the rules that have been laid out before us (attempting the impossible by predicting the future), the results remain the same. Investors have a long history of underperformance.

According to the 2013 Quantitative Analysis of Investor Behavior, conducted by Dalbar, Inc., over the past 20 years (1993–2012) the average rate of return for the retail equity investor in the United States has significantly lagged that of the S&P 500:

4.25 percent average annual return for the individual investor in the United States.

8.21 percent average annual return for the S&P 500.

Pulling out our financial calculators and computing a few simple time-value-of-money calculations, this would imply that:

An investor starting with a $100,000 investment, with a 20-year compounded average annual return of 4.25 percent, would have seen their savings grow to $229,890.63 by the end of 2012.

Conversely, an investor in the S&P 500 Index starting with $100,000, with a 20-year compounded average annual return of 8.21 percent, would have seen their investment savings grow to $484,560.42.

Surely this does not paint the individual investor in the most favorable light. Daily headlines, rumors, and stock market gossip invoke emotive responses out of investors. News that should be regarded as nothing but noise serves as a catalyst for action, either to buy or to sell. Successful investors are wise not to listen.

In one of the great literary works of all time, The Intelligent Investor, the father of value investing (and mentor to the iconic Warren Buffett), Benjamin Graham, opined, Individuals who cannot master their emotions are ill-suited to profit from the investment process. On this point we wholeheartedly agree, as the psyche of the human condition is not wired to endure such gut-wrenching events as watching one’s net worth painstakingly decline by more than 50 percent. Suffice it to say this is easier said than done. History has proven as much. Therefore, it would make sense that investors adhere to an investment process devoid of emotion.

Consider the information in Table 1.1 of what it takes for investors to get back to even once they have experienced a significant loss of capital:

TABLE 1.1 It Pays to Lose Less

The great Warren Buffett once said, Unless you can watch your stock holding decline by 50 percent without becoming panic stricken, you should not be in the market. On this point, we may find some common ground. We agree that investors simply can’t take watching their investments lose significant amounts of money; they fear they will never get it back. They also fear that things will get worse. Such fears begin to consume them and they simply pull the eject lever and get out, potentially locking in a permanent impairment of capital from which they may never recover.

Consider that if an investor is down 50 percent, they will need to go up 100 percent just to get back to even. If you have $100,000 and you