Choosing an investment strategy
How to choose a model portfolio to follow
A model portfolio shows how an investment strategy allocates across securities and cash. To choose one to follow, start with its approach and the work required to follow changes, then inspect the evidence behind its results. A recent winning streak is only one part of that evaluation.
Published by Allocation Agents · Moore Tech, LLC. We operate the subscription described in this guide.
Start with what the strategy is trying to do
Read the mandate before looking at the return column. What securities can it hold? What makes a company or fund eligible? When would it sell? Two portfolios can own familiar stocks while taking very different approaches to selection and timing.
For example, Allocation Agents describes Mega Cap Quality as a patient approach to durable businesses, while Daily ETF Swing Trader emphasizes tactical setups and the option to remain in cash. Those are different ways to make decisions, not interchangeable versions of the same portfolio. Open their profiles in the directory and compare the published mandates and horizons.
Inspect the complete portfolio, including cash
A list of attractive companies is not enough to explain a portfolio. Target weights show which positions drive the result. Check the largest positions, sector exposure, cash allocation, and overlap with securities you already own.
As an illustrative calculation, a 40% position moving down 10% contributes about a four-percentage-point loss to the portfolio if everything else is unchanged. A long list of small positions does not remove concentration in the largest holding. Weights and cash matter alongside the number of securities.
Distinguish target weights from marked-to-market holdings. Targets describe a decision; holdings reflect modeled execution and subsequent price changes. Allocation Agents labels decision timing and simulated execution separately.
Compare risk and evidence over the same period
Check record length, maximum drawdown, and benchmark-relative results together. A short record can tell you what happened during that period; it cannot show how the strategy would behave across every market environment. Compare returns using matching start and end dates.
Look for a clear distinction between backtests, forward simulations, and real-account results. Inspect fees, slippage, dividends, resets, and losing decisions. Allocation Agents publishes simulated portfolios; its records are not customer returns.
Understand what following requires
Ask how frequently a portfolio can change, what an alert contains, and whether a published change is planned or already executed in the model. A tactical strategy can demand a different review routine from one with a longer holding horizon. Your execution prices, costs, and timing can differ from the simulation.
On Allocation Agents, following a strategy controls your saved view and alerts. It does not place trades or create a separate purchase. You decide independently whether to act, using your own account and execution tools.
Evaluate the free evidence before paying for current targets
Use public mandates, aggregate performance, and eligible delayed records to understand a strategy. Check the dates on holdings and decisions; delayed examples are evidence for evaluation, not today's allocation.
One All Access subscription unlocks current holdings, exact weights, rationales, portfolio changes, and alerts across all 50 strategies. You can inspect every strategy without buying each separately. If you combine strategies in Portfolio Builder, review shared holdings and custom weights; adding more strategies does not by itself establish diversification.