It was another mixed month for the portfolios, with all but the Growth Portfolios posting gains. The portfolios all lagged their respective benchmarks.
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The main reason for the underperformance was the TD U.S. Blue Chip Equity Fund, which lost another 2.9% in April, after dropping nearly 5% in March. Many of the fund’s Consumer Cyclical, Tech and Healthcare names have sold off on valuation concerns. Amazon, Priceline.com and Google have been the biggest detractors from the fund’s performance of late. I expect that this will be a temporary setback, as these are the types of names that are likely to bounce back sharply.
Another laggard was the CI Global Black Creek Global Leaders Fund, which was weighed down by a number of its technology and consumer names in April. Like with the TD U.S. Blue Chip discussed above, I expect this to be a temporary setback for the fund. In both cases, I am monitoring the situation closely.
During the month, I conducted a quantitative analysis on the Tactical models and instituted some changes in the Growth Portfolio. I pulled back the allocation to the TD U.S. Blue Chip Fund by 10% and allocated the proceeds to the Mackenzie Ivy Foreign Equity Fund. This move resulted in no meaningful change in the expected return, but a dramatic decrease in the expected volatility. I will review the models again at the end of the month.
For the period ending April 30, 2014, the performance of the portfolio was:
| Strategic Portfolios | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Mth | 3 Mth | YTD | 1 Yr | 2 Yr | 3 Yr | 5 Yr | 10 Yr | |
| Conservative | 0.6% | 2.2% | 4.5% | 7.8% | 7.4% | 6.0% | 8.1% | 5.5% |
| Moderate Balanced | 1.0% | 3.2% | 5.0% | 11.9% | 9.6% | 6.7% | 9.1% | 5.7% |
| Balanced | 0.7% | 2.8% | 4.5% | 13.0% | 10.3% | 6.6% | 9.5% | 6.0% |
| Balanced Growth | 0.4% | 2.6% | 3.4% | 16.1% | 12.2% | 7.2% | 10.1% | 6.1% |
| Growth Portfolio | -0.3% | 2.2% | 2.9% | 19.3% | 14.7% | 8.8% | 12.0% | 6.4% |
| Tactical Models | ||||||||
| 1 Mth | 3 Mth | YTD | 1 Yr | 2 Yr | 3 Yr | 5 Yr | 10 Yr | |
| Conservative | 0.7% | 1.7% | 4.0% | 7.3% | 7.2% | 5.9% | 8.0% | 5.5% |
| Moderate Balanced | 0.9% | 3.1% | 4.9% | 11.8% | 9.6% | 6.6% | 9.1% | 5.7% |
| Balanced | 0.8% | 3.1% | 4.8% | 13.3% | 10.5% | 6.7% | 9.5% | 6.0% |
| Balanced Growth | 0.2% | 2.7% | 3.6% | 16.2% | 12.3% | 7.3% | 10.1% | 6.1% |
| Growth Portfolio | -0.4% | 2.2% | 2.9% | 19.2% | 14.6% | 8.8% | 12.0% | 6.4% |