Buy and Hold vs. Moving Average ETF Investing 5-21-10

Buy and Hold vs. Moving Average ETF Investing
(most recent 12 weeks)

Significant market swings continue. The Dow was down nearly 400 points on Thursday. For the week, the S&P 500 lost about 49 points. The S&P 500 is down about 45 points for 2010.

The buy and hold ETF investor lost $614 in the balanced ETF portfolio. His total portfolio balance is now at $14,780 and the total gain is down to 47.2% since we starting tracking this portfolio in March of 2009.

The moving average ETF investor lost about $354 for the week. His portfolio is now valued at $10,846.7 (same balanced portfolio). He has gained 8.0% for the same time period.

Moving Average Update
Each week, the moving average investor compares the 50 day MA against the 200 day MA to see if he should sell (or buy) any of the 10 ETFs in the balanced ETF portfolio.

I told you last week that he sold the Vanguard European Stock ETF, symbol VGK. After reviewing the 10 ETFs for this week, there is no change to be made to the portfolio. However, if the market continues its downward trend, he will be selling more ETFs.

The 10 ETFs from our portfolio are:

SPDRs
Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF
iShares Russell 2000 Index
Vanguard SF REIT ETF
Vanguard European Stock ETF (not currently invested)
Vanguard Pacific ETF
Vanguard Emerging Markets ETF
iShares Barclays Aggregate Bond
iShares Barclays 1-3 Yr Credit Bond
iShares Barclays TIP