LatestFoundationsNo. 0315 Oct 2026 · 24 min read
What's the Right Long-Term Portfolio for You?
Part 1: your five options, tested since 1990. What each one earns, how far it can fall, and how often it lets you down.
Deep dives, monthly reviews and weekly reads on the strategies InvestLab runs live.
Everything we publish, newest first. Pick a series above, or filter by strategy.
Part 1: your five options, tested since 1990. What each one earns, how far it can fall, and how often it lets you down.
Pick a series to see its papers. “See all” filters the list below.
One strategy, taken apart: the rules, the evidence, and when it fails.
| No. | Title | Series | Published | Read |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FD 03 | What's the Right Long-Term Portfolio for You?Part 1: your five options, tested since 1990. What each one earns, how far it can fall, and how often it lets you down. | Foundations | 15 Oct 26 | 24 min |
| MR 02 | How InvestLab's Strategies Performed in September + Their Exact Weights for OctoberWhat worked, what didn't, and exactly how Lean All-Weather, Dual Momentum Pivot5 and Adaptive Hedge are positioned now. | Monthly review | 03 Oct 26 | 8 min |
| DD 04 | A Cheaper Way to Hedge Bear Markets, Built for European InvestorsHow to run Adaptive Hedge, the monthly strategy that rotates into the strongest defensive assets, with funds you can actually buy in Europe. | Deep dive | 25 Sep 26 | 18 min |
| DD 03 | Adaptive Hedge: A Cheaper Way to Survive the Next Bear MarketA rules-based hedging strategy that gained 39% through the Global Financial Crisis and 32% through the dot-com bust — a deep dive into what worked, what didn’t, and why. | Deep dive | 24 Sep 26 | 29 min |
| EX 05 | Dual Momentum Pivot5 — 15% VolThe same monthly trend engine as Dual Momentum Pivot5, with one change: instead of equal slices it weights its holdings by risk and then scales the whole portfolio toward a 15% volatility target, borrowing up to 2× when the underlying mix is too calm to reach it on its own. | Strategy explainer | 14 Aug 26 | 13 min |
| EX 06 | Lean All-Weather (Unlevered)Global stocks, long Treasuries, gold, and broad commodities — a deliberately balanced split, rebalanced quarterly. | Strategy explainer | 14 Aug 26 | 7 min |
| EX 03 | Lean BalancedGlobal stocks, long Treasuries, gold, and broad commodities — rebalanced once a year. | Strategy explainer | 05 Aug 26 | 5 min |
| EX 02 | Lean AggressiveLean equity-heavy: 70% global stocks with bond, gold, and commodity ballast — rebalanced once a year. | Strategy explainer | 05 Aug 26 | 6 min |
| EX 01 | Balanced Trend-FilteredA fixed, equal-weight balanced portfolio of six asset-class ETFs — with one overlay: each month it switches any sleeve whose own trend has turned down into cash, and switches it back on when the trend recovers. The point isn't to beat stocks — it's closer to insurance: you ride… | Strategy explainer | 05 Aug 26 | 14 min |
| EX 04 | Relative Momentum Top5Nine asset-class ETFs, three rules. Each month it holds the five that are trending strongest — and *always* holds five, with no cash brake — so the portfolio is permanently invested in whatever is leading. | Strategy explainer | 05 Aug 26 | 14 min |
| MR 01 | How InvestLab's Strategies Performed in July — and How They're Positioned for AugustTech cracked, bonds failed to protect — but both our core portfolio and tactical asset allocation strategies finished in the green. | Monthly review | 04 Aug 26 | 9 min |
| DD 02 | The Levered All-Weather Portfolio, Rebuilt for DIY InvestorsA simple four-ETF (or futures) strategy that uses moderate leverage to target stock-like returns - while working in far more environments than stocks alone. | Deep dive | 04 Aug 26 | 26 min |
| DD 01 | Dual Momentum Pivot5: the deep diveThe full guide to InvestLab’s tactical momentum strategy. Each month it ranks nine asset-class ETFs by trend, holds the five strongest, and steps into cash when trends turn down. Why a tactical layer, how it’s built, 35 years of evidence, why it works, when it fails, and whether it’s right for you. | Deep dive | 15 Jun 26 | 23 min |
| FD 02 | Building Your Investment Policy Statement (IPS)There's no universally "best" portfolio — only the one most likely to get you to your goals. Before picking a single investment, you need an Investment Policy Statement: five decisions that anchor everything that follows. Here's the one-page version I use myself. | Foundations | 01 Jun 26 | 7 min |
| FD 01 | InvestLab's ProcessRisk isn't volatility — it's the chance you don't meet your investment goals. Everything in InvestLab exists to shrink that probability. Here's the three-layer process I landed on after fifteen years working the same question. | Foundations | 28 May 26 | 5 min |