ETF Investing Strategies: Buy and Hold vs. Moving Average Week 23

Week 23 of the Buy and Hold vs. Actively Managed ETF Investing experiment is complete. The S&P 500 moved higher again this past week, mostly on Friday, and closed over 1,000 for the first time since early October 2008.

The Buy and Hold Investor (Investor A) holds all 10 ETFs from the balanced ETF portfolio and saw his portfolio rise again to $13,869.43 for about a 38% total gain in only 23 weeks.

The Actively Managed ETF Investor (Investor B) holds 4 of the 10 ETFs from the balanced ETF portfolio and is using a 50 day/200 day moving average cross over ETF investing strategy. His portfolio was essentially unchanged for this past week and stands at $10,152.12. His total gain thus far is just over 1%.

As a reminder, this is a long-term experiment. While it is certainly true that the buy and hold is beating the actively managed investor handily, it has only been about 5 months and the buy and hold investor was very fortunate to have gotten into the market near the bottom of one of the worst bear markets in history.

The graphical representation for the most recent 12 weeks is below. You can click on the chart for a larger, easier to read view. You can also join our free ETF newsletter (if you haven't already), and I'll send you weekly updates about this experiment.