 |
As an active investor who buys individual securities, I need to make sure I am very diversified to minimize individual security risk. I have built a strong asset allocation model based on a great deal of research. I still have some work to do to meet my target allocations. However, as my recent portfolio performance has shown I am heavily weighted in financial stocks and will need to shortly turn my attention to my sector allocation.
According to Investopedia, here is the definition of a sector:
Sectors are a broader classification than industries, although some companies (especially more modern ones) can make a case for being “counted” in several different sectors. Companies within the same sector tend to have relatively high correlations in their rate of revenue and earnings growth, stock price performance, and earnings forecasts – especially over short- and medium-term time periods.
A diversified stock portfolio should hold stocks across most, if not all, sectors. Market weightings of sectors can be found by looking at the composition of a broad index like the S&P 500.
I ran my own portfolio through a sector analysis and confirmed that I am still heavily weighted in banking stocks. As you can see I dod have a good cross section represented but the weighting is very skewed.
Click to EnlargeMy goal will be to have no more that 10% of my portfolio weighted to any one sector at a given time. This will allow for proper diversification and risk reduction. In addition, I will focus on finding the strongest stocks in each sector that of course have a track record of increasing dividends. Over time this will allow for a strong and well-performing portfolio.