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Portfolio Update – April 2023

For this April 2023 update, we are going to change the layout a bit for the monthly posts.

I have felt lately that I have been straying away from the core purpose of this blog – to educate about the All Seasons Portfolio strategy and sharing content related to retail risk parity investing – which has led me to take a stab at going back to basics.

As a part of that effort, the monthly update posts will more closely focus on portfolio updates in isolation. I might not entirely kill the macro updates – which I understand have been appreciated by at least some readers – but I will post these more seldom (for example quarterly), so that these monthly posts are short enough to be interesting. Attention is a scarce resource these days.


In this process, the portfolio presentation will be getting a makeover in these articles. I will be working more on the visualisation of the portfolio performance and hopefully land on an intuitive set of charts and data that is easier to digest so that you can better grasp the performance of an All Seasons Portfolio strategy.

My impression is that these changes will add value to you as a reader, and I would highly appreciate if you leave me feedback on them, together with wishes for what you would like to see on this site in general, as well as elements I could include in these monthly updates. Leave me a comment below the post or drop me an email at nicholas@allseasonsportfolio.eu.

New public All Seasons Portfolio traded on KiwiTrader

Before we jump into the figures and charts, I will start off today’s presentation by introducing one new live portfolio that I manage on the recently launched Swedish copy trading broker KiwiTrader (currently only available in Sweden, and I will let you know as soon as they expand their reach internationally). While you non-Swedish readers may not be able to use the broker just yet, my sharing of this portfolio is still relevant for you because it perhaps more closely aligns with the “traditional” All Seasons Portfolio, as this portfolio is without VIX and crypto exposures. It is made up of 27 ETFs and is rebalanced monthly, made possible by KiwiTrader allowing trading in fractions and having no minimum trading fee.

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Trade stocks, crypto and ETFs listed on 14 exchanges on eToro. You can copy my portfolio by searching for user Allseasonsport

Here below, you find the list of all current ETFs and their weights. Note that my stock exposure is heavily influences by factors (value, momentum, minimum volatility, etc.), and that I have also introduced certain alternative risk premia in the form of Real Estate and Insurance risk premium (indirectly via insurance companies).

TickerNameAsset ClassAllocation Percentage
DTLAiShares $ Treasury Bond 20+yr UCITS ETF USD ALT Treasury Bonds15.0%
DBXGXtrackers II Eurozone Gov Bond 25+ UCITS ETF 1CLT Treasury Bonds6.0%
IUSTiShares $ TIPS UCITS ETF USD (Acc)TIPS7.0%
XEINXtrackers II Eurozn Infl-Linkd Bond UCITS ETF 1CTIPS3.0%
XDEVXtrackers MSCI World Value UCITS ETF 1CStocks2.0%
XDEQXtrackers MSCI World Quality UCITS ETF 1CStocks1.0%
XDEMXtrackers MSCI World Momentum UCITS ETF 1CStocks2.0%
XDEBXtrackers MSCI Wld Minimum Volatility UCITS ETF 1CStocks2.0%
QDVIiShares Edge MSCI USA Val Fctr UCITS ETF USD AStocks2.0%
QDVBiShares Edge MSCI USA Qual Fctr UCITS ETF USD AStocks2.0%
IUMDiShares Edge MSCI USA Mmntm Fctr UCITS ETF USDDStocks7.0%
IBCKiShares Edge S&P 500 Min Vol UCITS ETF USD AStocks1.0%
XDNDXtrackers MSCI NAmerica Hi Div Yield UCITS ETF 1CStocks1.0%
ZPRVSPDR MSCI USA Small Cap Value Weighted UCITS ETFStocks2.0%
ZPRXSPDR MSCI Europe Small Cap Val Weighted UCITS ETFStocks1.0%
EHF1Amundi MSCI Europe Hgh Dvdnd Factor UCITS ETF-E(C)Stocks1.0%
EUNZiShares Edge MSCI EM Min Vol UCITS ETF USD AStocks2.0%
2B7AiShares S&P 500 Utilities Sector UCITS ETF USD AccStocks4.0%
LIRULyxor STOXX Europe 600 Insurance UCITS ETF - AccInsurance4.0%
DPYAiShares Dvlp Mrkts Prop Yld UCITS ETF USD AccReal Estate1.0%
XRESInvesco Real Estate S&P US Sel Sect UCITS ETF AccReal Estate1.0%
FLOAiShares $ Floating Rate Bd UCITS ETF USD AccFloating Rate Bonds8.0%
NK4LLyxor Euro Floating Rate Note UCITS ETF AccFloating Rate Bonds3.0%
UCRPAmundi Index US Corp SRI UCITS ETF DR CCorporate Bonds1.0%
IHYAiShares $ High Yield Corp Bond UCITS ETF USD ACorporate Bonds1.0%
ICOMiShares Diversified Commodity Swap UCITS ETF USD ACommodities13.0%
XGLDXtrackers Physical Gold EtcGold7.0%

As for asset class exposures, here below follows a summary of what these look like for this portfolio. This is quite close to the “traditional” Ray Dalioesque All Seasons Portfolio, save for the addition of a small exposure to alternative investments, as well as a somewhat larger exposure to inflation hedges.

Asset ClassExposureAsset Class (broad)Exposure
LT Treasury Bonds21.0%Stocks30.0%
TIPS10.0%Bonds44.0%
Stocks30.0%Commodities13.0%
Insurance4.0%Gold7.0%
Real Estate2.0%Alts6.0%
Floating Rate Bonds11.0%
Corporate Bonds2.0%
Commodities13.0%
Gold7.0%


This means that from now on I will be reporting on three different portfolios, the other two being the same as I have been describing for several years already. As the KiwiTrader portfolio is denominated in Swedish krona (SEK) and to facilitate performance measuring for the copiers, I will be reporting on this portfolio in both EUR and SEK.

Let’s start out with looking at a table over the monthly returns of the past 24 months, along with summary performance over select periods (YTD, 3 months, 6 months, and 12 months). The return patters are (and should be) quite similar between the portfolios, as all follow the same core recipe.

Last 2-year monthly performance of my All Seasons Portfolios traded at DEGIRO, eToro with 1.34x leverage (international copy trading), and KiwiTrader (copy trading in Sweden only).

While the core principles between all my portfolios are similar, as they are traded with difference brokers with different opportunities (available ETFs, fractional trading, leverage, etc.), the portfolios may differ slightly in allocations. You find all three depicted in the circle diagrams here below, and I am sure you recognize the theme of 30% stocks, 45-55% bonds, 15-20% commodities and gold, as suggested by Ray Dalio / Bridgewater Associates. All portfolios have, however, some additional allocation to alternative investments (volatility, real estate, insurance, carbon credits, cryptocurrencies, etc.).

And here below, you find the current allocations as at end of April 2023. All portfolios are, at the time being, rather close to their aimed weights.

With that general part of this post behind us, let us now take a closer look at the April performance in isolation.

Here follows two charts of return contribution from each asset class for my portfolios traded on eToro (USD) and KiwiTrader (EUR). We see that the portfolios paint a similar picture of that stocks were the most important driver of positive return over the month. In EUR terms, gold also had a solid month, while its returns measured in USD were a bit more dampened.

Long-term government bonds fared best in the USD portfolio, which only holds bonds issued by the US Treasury, compared to the EUR portfolio also holding a share of Euro government bonds which were not as strong this month. Moreover, the USD portfolio has more weight allocated to government bonds (35%) than the EUR portfolio in question (21%), which will impact return contributions.

For intra-month movements, I include the below two charts (again for EUR and USD), depicting the ups and downs of all asset classes, as well as the portfolios (black line).

Last of this month’s set of line charts is a (not particularly intuitive) 3-month graph of each individual ETF in my newest portfolio (the KiwiTrader one). The main purpose of the chart is mainly to show the portfolio’s constituents. Almost the only easy thing to spot from this is that gold had a strong 3-month period in EUR, while US Small Cap Value stocks saw poor performance in March. As this portfolio rebalances monthly, there might be a rebalancing premium opportunity gained here, as the trend of these two assets have reversed somewhat since the previous rebalancing.

Let’s now also finish with the dividend chart for one of the EUR portfolios. No dividends were paid out in April, why we stand at the same rolling 12M dividends as last month. The portfolio’s dividend yield is 2.33%.

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If you are looking for getting started with your own All Seasons Portfolio and need some inspiration, check out my post on How to get started with the All Seasons Portfolio strategy. While stocks have been a great investment the last decade, there are no guarantees that this trend will last, as their continued success depends on several factors. Instead, consider diversifying your portfolio to include other asset classes, and benefit from the rebalancing period over the long-term, as described in this article.


Thank you yet again for following my blog about risk parity investing and the All Seasons Portfolio. And once again, I welcome any feedback you may be willing to share on these monthly posts’ form and structure. You can do so by dropping a comment in the comment section below or via email to nicholas@allseasonsportfolio.eu. The greatest value I have received from upkeeping this blog is the conversations that arise with great people, such as yourselves, about ideas on investing and strategies.

Thank you for your shown interest and attention.

We’ll catch up soon for the next update!
Nicholas Ahonen


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This Post Has 6 Comments

  1. Nikolai

    I would like to know more about the insurance part of your portfolio, the rationale behind it and how it fits into the seasons

    1. Nicholas

      Hi Nicolai,
      That is a very good question, and this is definitely a topic worth spending time on to elaborate on. Perhaps it would be most useful to expand on alternative risk premia and how they can fit in an All Seasons Portfolio framework in a separate post, as this is a broader question that deserves to be explored and discussed in depth.
      Just to explain the inclusion very briefly, it is a matter of adding additional independent risk premia, which are uncorrelated to the other risk premia existing in a portfolio. The source of risk premia in a typical All Seasons Portfolio can be derived from, for example, equity risk premium (stocks), credit risk premium (corporate bonds), inflation risk premium (bonds, commodities, gold), duration risk premium (bonds), and so forth.
      Insurance risk premium is one such uncorrelated and independent risk premium which is rewarded from writing insurance, as the aggregate of insurance premiums paid by customers under their insurance policies is more than total payouts from the insurance companies under the insurance policies. Ideally, you would get access to it by directly investing in insurance risk premium funds that are part of insurance underwritings, but that might be challenging for retail investors (and especially, as usual, European retail investors). You can indirectly get access to insurance risk premium, though, by investing in insurance companies, which is what I have done in this particular portfolio, by holding the iShares STOXX Europe 600 Insurance UCITS ETF, which owns shares in 31 European listed insurance companies.
      As for where insurance risk premium sits in the All Seasons Portfolio matrix, because you hold equity in the insurance companies, the sleeve is most closely related to the equity part of the portfolio (stock market risk). Pure insurance risk premium could, however, be argued to be separate from other macro environments, because fire insurance, hurricane insurance, or life insurance are not really dependent on whether inflation or economic growth is rising or falling.
      -Nicholas

      1. Nikolai

        I am fascinated by your answer, this is definitely a new way of thinking for mne in terms of risk premiums

  2. Jacob

    Thanks for the update Nicolas; I am curious: how did you land in the distribution 21/10/2 regarding long term gov. bonds/Tips/corporate bonds? – can you share your rationale behind the different numbers?. Thanks again for an interesting article!

  3. Giovanni

    I enjoyed reading some of your articles. Then I checked your portfolio and it states that your investment is about €3,500. That is not a huge amount of money. Would you follow the same principles with €35,000 or €350,000?

    1. Nicholas

      Hi Giovanni,
      Thanks for the kind words, and I am pleased you enjoy the content I share here.
      Before I get into responding to how I would approach using the All Seasons Portfolio at different levels of wealth, I would like to clarify that I have somewhat more than €3,500 invested in the strategy. My portfolios that I share publicly on this site are of an aggregate amount of more than €10,000 (€3,500 is my eToro portfolio alone, with an additional €6,000 on DEGIRO and €1,000 on KiwiTrader). While this is still not a “huge” amount, I am actively growing these three portfolios and will keep using the All Seasons Portfolio strategy for it.

      Now, as for whether I would employ the strategy at higher wealth levels, my response is a steadfast yes.

      It seems that when the topic of diversified strategies, such as the All Seasons Portfolio strategy, are discussed in general, they increase in popularity among investor in a linear relationship with their growing wealth. This is due to that the All Seasons Portfolio is commonly seen as a “Stay rich” portfolio, rather than a “get rich” portfolio, as many perceive that they should take on more risk to become wealthy (high equity exposure) and then transition into a less risky portfolio when they already are wealthy (less equity exposure).

      I agree with that adage in part, that you should protect your accumulated wealth, but contrary to what many (retail) investors think, I opine that you should protect all wealth against drawdowns, regardless the size of the portfolio.

      Hence, when my portfolio(s) value has increased tenfold (up to hundredfold (fingers crossed)), I will definitely continue with the same diversified risk-balanced strategy, probably even more so than today so that I have less exposure to “Standard of Living Risk” (the risk of drawdowns impacting my actual or perceived standard of living).

      Cheers,
      Nicholas

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