To Do List

In order to get rid of several scraps of paper buried somewhere on my desk I thought I'd jot down some things I need to do with the fiat fantasy portfolio. 

1.  Sell GDX.  USAGX and GDX results are very similar even though GDX is a passive index ETF and USAGX is an actively managed mutual fund.  GDX has better one year results, USAGX has better two year results.  I'm opting to consolidate around USAGX.

2.  Sell WPS.  Like the USAGX / GDX overlap, we have RWX and WPS stepping all over each other.  These are both passively managed index REIT ETFs.  For the past several years the correlation between them has been close to .95.  Performance wise there's not sliver of a difference.  WPS gets the axe only because of a lower average trading volume.

3. Buy More HAP.  This is our core hard asset equity holding.

4. Buy WOOD.  This ETF tracks the S&P Global Timber & Forestry index.  HAP exposure in this area is less than 4%.

These actions will occur when opportunity presents itself and that might take months or even years.  However, there is one last "to do" that is so fundamental it can't wait:

5.  Be More Consistent and Thorough.  Recently I reclassified IXC (energy) and XME (mining) as Hard Asset holdings, yet when I purchased VAW (materials) I assigned it to US Equities.  I have no good justification for the difference in asset class assignments.  Willy nilly decisions like this will torpedo the asset allocation concept so I need to better define the fiat fantasy asset classes.  Once that's accomplished, we need to better assess potential investments, especially ETFs, so we understand what we're buying.