Blended Index

[paulk]

On the Executive Summary report (Advisor ) I display indexes for broad stock and bond markets for comparison puposes. The comparisons are not really meaningful however as no portfolios contain strictly bonds or strictly stocks. Does anyone know of an easilly trackable "blended " index that can be included in this report? I don't think there is one but I figured I would throw it out there and see if anyone knew of one.

Thanks

[paulk]

I guess a follow-up question to Mark would be is there a way I can create a benchmark portfolio comprised strictly of indexes and include those returns on the "executive Summary" ?

[StarBright2011]

Paul,

iShares has four Asset Allocation ETFs that are based on S&P Target Risk Indexes. The four are AOA: iShares S&P Aggress Alloc (5-10pct Bonds), AOK: iShares S&P Conserv Alloc (70-75pct Bonds), AOM: iShares S&P Moder Alloc (55-60pct Bonds) and AOR: iShares S&P Growth Allocation.

I also found the four S&P Target Risk Indexes on the Yahoo! website.

^TR1Y - Aggressive
^TR2Y - Moderate
^TR3Y - Growth
^TR4Y - Conservative

I hope this helps.

Ernest

[paulk]

Thanks Ernest.

I will try to add those to my tracked benchmarks Monday.

[paulk]

Mark

If yahoo does not carry historical quotes for the indexes listed above can I use a symbol for an etf as a benchmark on the executive summary report or must it be an index (preceded by a ^)?

[Mark]

Hi paulk,

If yahoo does not carry historical quotes for the indexes listed above can I use a symbol for an etf as a benchmark on the executive summary report or must it be an index (preceded by a ^)?

You can use any investment (ETF is fine). It does not have to be an index or anything special.

I guess a follow-up question to Mark would be is there a way I can create a benchmark portfolio comprised strictly of indexes and include those returns on the "executive Summary" ?

Here is a tip/technique some people have used for creating composite/custom indices. Create yourself a sub-portfolio with the indices or investments you want to comprise your benchmark. To weight the different investments, record a purchase for the appropriate weighting in each investment. For example, if you want 30% of Inv A and 70% of Inv B, buy $300 of Inv A and $700 Inv B. Retrieve all your historical prices. Now, export that sub-portfolio's value to a CSV file using "File / Export / Other / Portfolio Value...". Now, you can import that CSV file as "prices" for a new investment to use as your custom index. Create yourself a new investment, and give it a unique symbol, like "mycustomindex". Now, import using "File / Import / Prices / Generic..." with these settings:

Specify Date: Off
Specify Symbol: On, and enter mycustomindex, or whatever you used.
Format string: MM-DD-YY,NAV
File: Select the portfolio value CSV you created initially.

This is obviously more work that just using an existing ETF or index, but if you need to, this is an option.