ITA Portfolios: Summarizing Investing Approaches

Utah Scenery

Whether you are a ten year reader or new to ITA Wealth Management, knowing something about the portfolios tracked here on this blog site is useful as you construct and manage your own portfolios.  Investors need to know that the focus of ITA is on diversification and for that reason we choose to build portfolios using Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) rather than select individual stocks.  I won’t go into all the details for making the decision to index, but there is ample research to show that the small investor is better off to index rather than research and select individual stocks when building portfolios.

We begin with the simplest portfolio tracked here at ITA.

Schrodinger:  This portfolio requires nothing more than opening up a broker account and saving as frequently as possible.  The Schrodinger is an Intelligent Portfolio managed by computers at Schwab.  Other brokers have their own Robo Advisor portfolios.  Schwab does not charge for their management and the portfolio performs quite well.  I recommend each family unit have at least one “Schrodinger” type of portfolio.

Copernicus:  The Copernicus rivals the Schrodinger in simplicity.  After you have opened up a broker account, invest only in U.S. Equities.  ETFs of choice are:  VTI, SPY, ESGV, and/or VOO.  Any of these four ETFs will work or one might invest in a mix of the four.  For beginning investors, I highly recommend setting up a Roth IRA.  Young members of a family are encouraged to use this model.

Galileo, Franklin, McClintock, and Pauling:  All four are Dual Momentum™ portfolios.  The DM model requires a little more work than the above two, but it is an easy model to follow, particularly if one has the Kipling set up and running.  These portfolios are designed to protect capital in down markets.  They are not always successful, depending on the day of review.

Huygens:  This portfolio is primarily for investors needing income.  The investment quiver is made up of Closed-End-Funds (CEFs).  Follow the Huygens reviews if you need income for living during your retirement years.

Gauss, Millikan, Einstein, and Kepler:  These portfolios operate or are based on the momentum anomaly.  To manage any of these funds requires using the Kipling spreadsheet.  These portfolios also require more decisions and are therefore more complicated than any of the above.

Bohr and Beta:  These two portfolios also hold CEFs for income, but also include equity securities for growth.  These two portfolios are classified as growth and income oriented accounts.

Carson:  This portfolio was launched this week and is unique to the world of investing.  To my knowledge, I know of no one who is managing a portfolio based on sector Bullish Percent Indicators (BPI).  There are advocates of using Point and Figure (PnF) movements to construct portfolios, but I don’t know of any examples that are quite like the Carson.  Too little data is available to know if this model is viable.

Newton and Curie:  While I report on the performance of these two income accounts, I don’t post complete reviews as the owners prefer I not reveal the specifics.  Both portfolios operate as does the Huygens.

In addition to diversifying investments, I’m also an advocate of portfolio diversification as not all models work well in all market environments.

If you have specific questions, post them in the Comment section provided below and I’ll attempt to answer as best I can.

Carson Portfolio: Creating A New Investing Model

New Carson Launched: 4 November 2022

Just Received My First Paycheck

What Is Working?

Schrodinger Interim Update: 19 October 2022