Hi Mustachian members, I am a beginner in ETFs and currently I have a global ETF portfolio via VIAC from 2020. There are huge performance differences in each year. It went up 18% in 2021 and went down by -15% in 2022.
My question is - what is the preferred option when such huge performance differences appear :
Thank you
Kind Regards,
J
Maybe you can explain your reasoning when picking the portfolio? IIRC Viac is pretty clear about the risks of a given strategy so those results shouldn’t be surprising.
That kind of swings are expected on an equity heavy portfolio (there’s a lot of volatility, when you see people mention 5% return per year, it’s over long time frame, averaged). If that’s not something you’re comfortable with pick something more conservative.
Selling the (equity) market at the highs, moving to cash and then waiting for new lows to buy is the best.
That said, while you may successfully predict the market a few times and do well, such t’s nigh impossible to do it consistently over time. And since markets tend to move upwards over the long run, you’ll be playing an uphill game. As the saying goes: "time in the market beats timing the market".
In the long run, it’s probably best to just do nothing and ignore these fluctuations.
Put cash in (from your employment income) every year, wait and do nothing.
While VIAC allocation might be not exactly very “correct”, i.e. market capitalization weighted, it is a diversified stocks portfolio. What you get as yearly performance is more or less market returns. It can be up, it can be down one year, doesn’t matter. There is a clear trend: long term higher returns come with higher volatility, and higher volatility is exactly an inconvenience that you have been paid for with higher returns.
Before you decide to go to a lower stocks allocation, take a broader look at all your assets. Probably volatility is not as bad as you think.
