2Mes·

At what point is my portfolio diversified? - Are 30 shares enough?


The question was asked recently:

"How many stocks do you think a diversified portfolio should have? I look forward to your opinion on this"


And as is customary on the Internet, a lot of opinions and half-knowledge were bandied about.


The answers vary between:

"only $BTC (-1,54%) " and "30-50"


If you look in other forums, numbers around 30 appear again and again.

But how do you arrive at this figure?


The 30 is derived from the central limit theorem.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_limit_theorem


However, this does not apply to us as investors. This is because it only applies under the assumption that the sample is randomly selected.


This then only applies to the respective sub-segment of the stock market. So you would have to buy 30 random US large caps and then repeat this for:

  • US MidCaps
  • US SmallCaps
  • International LargeCaps
  • International MidCaps
  • International SmallCaps
  • Emerging Markets


So if we want to have a diversified portfolio of randomly selected stocks with the ACWI IMI as a benchmark, we need more than 200 stocks. $SPYI (+0,25%) as a benchmark, then we need more than 200 stocks.

With the MSCI World $IWDA (+0,35%) it would be about 120 stocks,


This has little or nothing to do with reality, as investors do not pick their stocks at random. Selection bias is introduced into the system through the investor's likes and dislikes. To compensate for this, we therefore need far more values than in the previous example.


There is a nice article about this on Investopedia:

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/stocks/11/illusion-of-diversification.asp


Your Manager Risk Can't Be Diversified Away with Stock Picking.

One of the main reasons for this is that since 1926 only 4% of all stocks in the S&P500 have been responsible for 100% of the winners. Manager risk is therefore defined by not being able to identify these winners early enough, or not being given enough weight.


https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2900447


The answer to the question:


"How many stocks do you think a diversified portfolio should have?"


Is... *drum roll - ddddddrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.........*


Not at all!

And if at all, then only with a huge portfolio of around 1000 stocks that is so close to the market that you might as well leave it alone. Which is logical, otherwise actively managed funds wouldn't perform so badly.


*disappointed groan*


Since >95% of all fund managers (and investors) underperform their benchmark over 20 years, it may be a good idea not to take this risk.


But what if I want to take active manager risk and do stock picking?


My tip:

90% in a broad world ETF

And the remaining 10% in a STRONGLY concentrated portfolio of 10 stocks or less.

Only high-conviction stocks.

The logic behind this is very simple, if your top 10 don't outperform the market, your top 20 won't either.


Note:

If you disagree, feel free to say so. However, the word "diversification" can mean different things to different people.

I have assumed here that you want to remove (diversify) the non-systematic risks.

For example, Political and Legal Risk, Entrepreneurial Risks, Manager Risk, Model Risk...


If the word has a different meaning for you, you will come to different conclusions.

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23 Commenti

immagine del profilo
Lol, didn't know 1. that others here are so crazy that they only hold Bitcoin and 2. that they also recommend it as a diversified portfolio😂😂

A quote from Leon Wankum comes to mind:
"Bitcoin is an ETF on global ingenuity" - think about it🤪
9
Visualizza tutti 2 ulteriori risposte
immagine del profilo
Diversification is weakness. That's why I'm currently reducing my portfolio considerably. I started with 77 positions and now have 54. As humans only have ten fingers, you shouldn't hold more than ten positions. Focus is a powerful force ;)
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immagine del profilo
@Iwanowitsch "Diversification is selling the winners to buy the losers" - Michael Saylor
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immagine del profilo
@stefan_21 "Diversification is a protection against ignorance' - Warren Buffett
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immagine del profilo
@stefan_21 just noticed that your Saylor quote describes rebalancing rather than diversification 😅
immagine del profilo
@PowerWordChill Are you already questioning Saylor's definitions?
No, of course that's true, in essence it's rebalancing - but that doesn't make the quote any less funny😂
1
immagine del profilo
Mathematically, I would take at least 2 sigma. What does the Gaussian frequency distribution tell me as an investor: Nothing!
If you have one share from the basic sectors, I think you are diversified!
- Consumer goods
- Retail
- Commodities
- tech
- Security
- Healthcare
- Energy
Etc.
2
immagine del profilo
@MrMister What does diversification mean to you?

With your approach, you are only diversifying the sector risk.

And according to your criteria, the Ftse100 or the Euro Stoxx 50 are also diversified investments.
immagine del profilo
@PowerWordChill but of course.
There is much more to it than that. Of course, the company you choose should have a certain standard.
I don't have to be mega diversified to be successful. In fact, I think that too much diversification makes you less successful because it doesn't include the essential factors. Diversification and redundancy only generate less volatility.
Personally, I can deal with higher volatility.

My most important factors are these:
- Sales growth over the last 5 years
- Profit growth over the last 5 years
- P/E RATIO
- Share price of the last 5 years
- Product portfolio of the company

Which companies do I invest in now?

USA:
NVIDIA - / Semiconductor/ Tech
Apple - multinational/ tech
Microsoft - multinational/ tech
Arista- Network/ Tech
Amazon - Warehouse/ Retail/ Tech
JP Morgan - Banking
Pultegroup - Building
Berkshire - Multinational
P&G - Consumer Staples
Palo Alto - Cybersecurity/ Tech
Walmart - Warehouse/ Retail

Germany:
Rheinmetall - Mechanical Engineering/ Armaments
Atoss - Human Resources/ Tech
Suss- Semiconductor/ Tech
Mutares - Private Equity
Siemens - mechanical engineering multinational
Munich Re - Insurance
Krones - Packaging industry

GB:
Linde - gas/ commodities
Wisdom Tree Gold - Gold/ Commodities

France:
LVMH - Luxury

Japan:
Itochu - Warehouse/ Trade

What else do I have in my portfolio?
Warrants on the S&P500 Index

Am I not diversified now because I am currently trying to stay out of healthcare?

Am I making more profit than many others? I think so, the future will tell.
1
immagine del profilo
And yet another rocket. I actually no longer hold any individual shares and am fully committed to beta and alpha (or something like that).

Legal Risk somehow sounds like you could create a funny risk factor index. Companies are overweighted, have a high value X, which is defined as the sum product of the number of lawsuits against the company and the value in dispute of the lawsuit. 🧐🤯
1
immagine del profilo
@SchlaubiSchlumpf However, there are risks for which you are not systematically compensated. I suspect this is one of them.
Whereby you probably have an above-average amount of legal risk in the value factor.
The companies are usually so cheap for a reason. 😘
immagine del profilo
@PowerWordChill oh right, in the end we realize that the premium is correlated 😭
1
immagine del profilo
#gqevergreens

Very true.
1
immagine del profilo
What else is important to me in terms of diversification:
Different strategies help to reduce the volatility of the portfolio. Sometimes B&H performs better, sometimes GTAA. My asset growth should outperform the stock market as far as possible, but still be as straight a line as possible. I have no desire for heavy drawdowns.
And even with (ETF) products, I don't think it's advisable to put all your eggs in one basket. You have a problem if you have several 100K in $SPYI and SPDR discontinues its European business.
1
immagine del profilo
@randomdude So if StateStreet discontinues its EU business, the money is not gone.
You probably don't even have to sell anything, as the EU business will probably be bought by Amundi / DWS.

As for the GTAA, you had equity-like returns with lower volatility, but you don't get that for free.
Your sequence risk is greatly increased, you also have manager risk and bear a higher model risk due to the complexity.

You can only see such risks in the chart when they have actually occurred. 😘
immagine del profilo
@PowerWordChill On the first point: I was precisely concerned with the "probably not sell", because that means "possibly sell". Unlikely in the case of the ACWI IMI index (therefore not a good example), but Amundi did close down ETFs after the Lyxor purchase. And if you lose ~10% in the payout phase due to taxes, that is very annoying.
Regarding GTAA: On the one hand, the risks are priced in. On the other hand, I have not claimed that these or other strategies are risk-free. But the risk/reward profile is different from that of globally investing, market capitalization-weighted ETFs where you do DCA.
immagine del profilo
@randomdude Annoying yes, but when investing for the long term, it's really only important that I don't take any unsystematic risks that could really kill the portfolio.
That's why the tax story is not an issue for me at all.

Incidentally, I also have a leveraging strategy going at the moment, but more on that later. 🤫
1
immagine del profilo
@PowerWordChill In my view, the level between me and the market - i.e. the ETF product or its provider - definitely belongs in a risk assessment. You can come to different conclusions, but in my view you can't ignore it.
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immagine del profilo
Thanks for the contribution
1
immagine del profilo
So just buy over 1000 individual stocks and manage the winners appropriately ? :)

Sounds like a plan, then I just have to sell a few shares 🤣
1
immagine del profilo
Over time, I have realized that everyone has different feelings about this. I started with the classic ETFs and now feel comfortable with a strong focus on Bitcoin and tech stocks. A few pharmaceutical stocks and more conservative stocks from various sectors as an admixture. Diversification reduces the return.
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