Harry Browne Permanent Portfolio: Rebalancing Strategy

Data Source: from January 1871 to September 2024
Consolidated Returns as of 30 September 2024

Managing the Harry Browne Permanent Portfolio with a yearly rebalancing, you would have obtained a 10.63% compound annual return in the last 30 Years.

With a quarterly rebalancing, over the same period, the return would have been 6.79%.

How do returns and drawdowns change, implementing different rebalancing strategies?

Rebalancing Strategies

In order to keep risk under control, you should rebalance assets quotes from time to time, so to keep them at the original percentage of the asset allocation.

Rebalancing can be performed in several ways.

At fixed time intervals:
  • Yearly: Jan 1st
  • Half Yearly: Jan 1st, Jul 1st
  • Quarterly: Jan 1st, Apr 1st, Jul 1st, Oct 1st
When a component (at least one) diverges from its original weight beyond a certain threshold (e.g. 5% or 10%).

Portfolio Returns as of Sep 30, 2024

Implementing different rebalancing strategies, the Harry Browne Permanent Portfolio guaranteed the following returns.

According to the available data source, we assume we built the portfolio on January 1871.

Portfolio returns are calculated in USD, assuming:
  • No fees or capital gain taxes
  • the reinvestment of dividends, if existing
HARRY BROWNE PERMANENT PORTFOLIO RETURNS
Period: January 1871 - September 2024
Annualized Returns
Swipe left to see all data
Return (%) and number of rebalances as of Sep 30, 2024
Rebalancing Strategy 1Y 5Y 10Y 30Y MAX
(~154Y)
No Rebalancing 35.18 (0) 15.10 (0) 12.73 (0) 10.63 (0) 8.22 (0)
Yearly Rebalancing 24.07 (1) 6.41 (5) 6.01 (10) 6.92 (30) 5.84 (154)
Half Yearly Rebalancing 23.82 (2) 6.35 (10) 6.05 (20) 6.79 (60) 5.81 (308)
Quarterly Rebalancing 23.89 (4) 6.51 (20) 6.14 (40) 6.84 (120) 5.80 (615)
5% Tolerance per asset 25.10 (0) 6.71 (3) 6.21 (5) 6.94 (19) 5.85 (84)
10% Tolerance per asset 24.93 (0) 6.98 (1) 6.39 (2) 7.36 (8) 6.05 (31)

In order to have complete information about the portfolio, please refer to the Harry Browne Permanent Portfolio: ETF allocation and returns page.

Performances as of Sep 30, 2024

Historical returns and stats of Harry Browne Permanent Portfolio, after implementing different rebalancing strategies.

HARRY BROWNE PERMANENT PORTFOLIO PERFORMANCES
Period: January 1871 - September 2024
Swipe left to see all data
Standard Deviation
Max Drawdown (%)
Rebalancing Strategy Return % Std Dev(%) Ret. / Std Dev MaxDD(%) Ret. / MaxDD
No Rebalancing 8.22 (0) 12.52 0.66 -67.26 0.12
Yearly Rebalancing 5.84 (154) 5.81 1.01 -30.61 0.19
Half Yearly Rebalancing 5.81 (308) 5.85 0.99 -30.24 0.19
Quarterly Rebalancing 5.80 (615) 5.85 0.99 -30.77 0.19
5% Tolerance per asset 5.85 (84) 5.85 1.00 -31.55 0.19
10% Tolerance per asset 6.05 (31) 5.86 1.03 -27.70 0.22
(*) Since Jan 1871 (~154 yrs) | Annualized Returns (and number of rebalances)

Drawdowns as of Sep 30, 2024

Historical Drawdowns of Harry Browne Permanent Portfolio, after implementing different rebalancing strategies.

HARRY BROWNE PERMANENT PORTFOLIO DRAWDOWNS
Period: January 1871 - September 2024
Swipe left to see all data
Rebalancing
Tolerance per asset
No Rebalancing Yearly Half Yearly Quarterly 5% 10%
-67.26
Sep 1929 - May 1944
-30.61
Sep 1929 - Jun 1933
-30.24
Sep 1929 - May 1933
-30.77
Sep 1929 - Apr 1933
-31.55
Sep 1929 - May 1933
-27.70
Sep 1929 - May 1933
-50.34
Nov 2007 - Feb 2012
-15.92
Jan 2022 - Mar 2024
-16.13
Jan 2022 - Mar 2024
-16.35
Jan 2022 - Mar 2024
-16.46
Jan 2022 - Mar 2024
-16.01
Jan 2022 - Mar 2024
-44.67
Jan 1973 - Dec 1976
-14.17
Mar 1937 - Jul 1941
-14.56
Mar 1937 - Jul 1941
-14.80
Mar 1937 - Dec 1939
-14.86
Mar 1937 - Jul 1941
-14.94
Mar 1937 - Jan 1943
-43.55
Sep 2000 - Mar 2006
-12.63
Mar 2008 - Aug 2009
-12.76
Mar 2008 - Sep 2009
-13.19
Mar 2008 - Sep 2009
-12.54
Mar 2008 - Sep 2009
-12.63
Mar 2008 - Aug 2009
-29.35
Dec 1968 - Mar 1971
-11.68
Dec 1980 - Aug 1982
-12.34
Apr 1974 - Jan 1975
-11.96
Dec 1980 - Aug 1982
-11.38
Feb 1980 - Jun 1980
-11.27
May 1969 - Jan 1971
5 Worst Drawdowns - Average
-47.03 -17.00 -17.20 -17.41 -17.36 -16.51
10 Worst Drawdowns - Average
-34.87 -13.24 -13.42 -13.50 -13.40 -12.93

For a deeper insight, please refer to the Harry Browne Permanent Portfolio: ETF allocation and returns page.