The Weekly ROAR: How To Double Your Money...Without Going Broke Trying!
Aggressive investing works...until it gets "Mike Tyson'd" -- cue The Hangover!
Boxing champ and tiger-owning supporting cast member in the movie hit The Hangover has a popular expression attributed to him. And it might just summarize what I think the current stock market is all about.
I’ll explain that in a moment. As well as why if you have been investing for less than 10 years and do not read THIS article, I’m going to guess it will cost you at least 10% of your liquid net worth over the next 10 years. Yes I mean that.
I had nothing to do with the article, I’m just supporting its conclusions. Because I see it every day, on my way to seeking out helpful investing content, as anyone else would.
Enough of the BS marketing masquerading as “advice,” delivered in most cases (74% according to this study) by people who embody the term “don’t confuse genius with a bull market.” In the words of song from Joe Jackson, 1980s pop/rock icon who Dana and I saw in concert last month (43 years after the last time I saw him!)…
”Is that the best you can do?”
Next, a quick update on what is quickly becoming not just my “go-to” approach to navigating 2026 and beyond - it is rapidly pushing most other “good ideas” I have about how to combat the machine-driven casino that is the stock market, to the sidelines. Maybe forever.
Frankly, I’ve debated over the years whether ETF Yourself was the best name we could have used to describe what we do here. And why we think it is an oasis in a sea of investment hype, ignorance, arrogance, and downright incompetence. And with stocks acting too much in tandem, I think we got the name right.
I’ll summarize the latest happenings around this simple core portfolio in 3 pictures. The first 2 are the track record, as anyone can look up at ROAR.PiTrade.com. This is a “moderate risk” portfolio, not a “beat the S&P 500 when it is up every year” portfolio. Because the latter means you’re signing up for being down 30% when that index falls 37% (as it did for the full year 2008), or squeaking out 1-2% a year the next time the S&P 500 goes 12+ years with a total return of 0% (2000-2013…look it up).
Year To Date, the automated, weekly-rebalanced ROAR 10 as we call it, is up 8.2% through Monday night’s close. I know people like to focus on that. I don’t. I focus instead on what my portfolios DO NOT do.
In the case of this one, it has been ahead of that moderate risk portfolio benchmark at nearly every point during the current year. And, it has been above a zero return all year. I know that may not seem like much if you have not been through a bear market, but there will come a time when it will be the biggest “I wish had knew” for a generation of investors. Maybe 2 generations.
The record on ROAR 10 back to the start of 2020 shows that it is a whisker short of doubling that initial $10,000 hypothetical investment. $19, 715. That’s 10.9% annualized. Without losing more than 8.2% from any peak to trough point along the way. Heck, half the semiconductor stocks lost more than that overnight a few times during July!
Again, I do not care what the S&P 500 does. If you do, and are willing to accept the risk, there are many TikTok and Instagram “experts” that will gladly sell you something. Or more to the point, get you to “like and share” so advertisers will pay them to pitch you…whether they believe in what they are saying or not.
The final picture is my current model portfolio for ROAR 10. Both versions, the automated one, and the live one I update via my own account though PiTrade.com. We’ll soon be merging those 2 into the automated model.
Because as we informed our “inner circle” subscribers earlier today, we are are going to offer a more comprehensive version of this portfolio very soon, one that will be the closest thing to “Rob’s personal portfolio” (minus the bond ladder) as I’ve had since I last managed client accounts as an advisor (2020).
In 11 days (August 15th), our monthly Substack will increase to $25/month and $200/year. Our current price is $15/month or $150/year so if you are looking for more in depth research, consider taking advantage of this deal while it lasts. Try us out for a month and cancel at any time. If you’ve been paying monthly and are enjoying what we’re putting out, take advantage of the savings now. Try us for a year and make a small investment in your portfolio building skills.
Here’s that automated and live model allocation as of Monday night: