Individual investors have been told for decades, “You should allocate your life savings 60% to stocks and 40% to bonds.” Pundits have repeatedly claimed that a rather large allocation of 40% to bond funds would cushion investors against losses during bear markets in stocks. If that actually worked, it would be great. But it doesn’t. See Newsletter #57.

Muscular Portfolios have given investors a much smoother ride than the S&P 500’s bear-market collapse in 2022–2023. (The index subjected investors to a maximum drawdown of 25% last autumn.)  JPMorgan’s Marko Kolanovic — Institutional Investor’s No. 1-rated equity strategist for 10 years in a row — is predicting that the S&P 500 is likely to fall another 20%. See Newsletter #56.

It’s always been said that Muscular Portfolios provide better-than-market returns without the agony of the S&P 500’s periodic crashes. Now it turns out that the formulas are so easy that even a 7-year-old girl was able to start managing — by herself — the strategy known as the Papa Bear. See Newsletter #55.

A flash crash is a large, sudden drop in the price of an equity index. Despite the unlikely event that such a collapse will affect one of your trades, it’s good to know the secret to sidestepping them — which may save you a chunk of change some time in the future. See Newsletter #54.

There are signs that the US and world economies are heading into a global recession. No one can predict whether equities will hit new lows or somehow magically recover. Thankfully, the two Muscular Portfolios are outperforming in the current bear market. See Newsletter #53.

An independent data-analysis firm provides additional findings that Muscular Portfolios give you slightly better performance if they’re reallocated each month on a particular day. But tuning up a portfolio one or two days before or after also provides good performance. See Newsletter #52.

Monte Carlo analysis shows that a Muscular Portfolio is highly likely to put more money in your pocket than a buy-and-hold of a “vanilla” 60/40 portfolio. See Newsletter #51.

We now have a record going back five decades — with independent confirmation from different data-analysis services. When we stitch together the various time series, we see that the portfolios have outperformed the total return of the S&P 500 for 50 years. See Newsletter #50.

Over the past 15 years and 11 months, according to independent data-analysis firms, both of the two Muscular Portfolios have outperformed the S&P 500 on every measure — most importantly, compound annualized growth rate, maximum daily drawdown, and Martin ratio. See Newsletter #49.

If you’re under age 70, and you participate in the US Social Security system, the decisions you make can either reduce or increase the benefits you’ll eventually receive each month. It’s worth the trouble to understand the rules, even if you’re far from 70 years old. See Newsletter #48.