If you are a panda or koala bear (single asset investor), it doesn't matter. Move along now, there's nothing to see here. But for those of you who practice portfolio management with asset allocation; or have engaged financial advisors advocating the merits of diversification into different asset classes... How now? In the "old normal" before 2009, one of the simplest asset allocation strategy was to have our assets in both equities and bonds. And we do periodic rebalancing between these 2 asset classes from time to time to seek risk-adjusted return in line with our temperament and risk profile. Other variants would include the Permanent Portfolio where we split our assets into 4 or more asset classes - with or without rebalancing. In this "new normal", both the US equities and bond market are both in near all time high bull market territory. Both of these asset classes can't be right? Can they? If both equities and bonds can go up together at the same time, does it mean both equities and bonds can go down together too!? Those of you taking Business Finance currently, you may want to "ki chiu" and ask your lecturer on this anomaly? And for those with financial advisors, maybe schedule a "lim kopi" meetup session to review your portfolio? If you are approaching retirement or already in retirement, this is not a rhetorical or moot question. Its not fun and games. The last thing you want is to do everything right so far only to fxxk-up the end game... Not so passive now, are you?

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Singapore Man of Leisure (welcome to my blog; just google it!)