High quality low cost US focused equity portfolio with strong growth and moderate diversification

Report created on Jun 3, 2024

Risk profile Info

4/7
Balanced
Less risk More risk

Diversification profile Info

2/5
Low Diversity
Less diversification More diversification

Positions

The portfolio is a pure equity mix, heavily anchored in broad US index ETFs with a very small single-stock position. More than half sits in one flagship index fund, with the rest spread across another S&P 500 ETF, a total-market ETF, a NASDAQ-100 tracker, a dividend ETF, and a small-cap value-style ETF. This structure keeps things simple and rules-based, which is helpful for staying disciplined through market swings. The clear tilt toward broad, diversified index funds is a strong foundation. The main implication is that long-term results will likely track the US stock market quite closely, with a modest twist toward dividends and small caps from the satellite positions.

Growth Info

From late 2020 to late 2025, $1,000 grown to about $2,051 shows a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.38%. CAGR is like the average yearly speed of a car over a long trip, smoothing out bumps. This result slightly lagged the US market by 0.27% per year but beat the global market by 2.40% a year, which is very solid. The max drawdown of about -25% is in line with major equity benchmarks, signaling a normal stock-market level of pain in bad patches. As always, this period was unusually strong for US stocks, so it’s useful context, not a promise of future returns.

Asset classes Info

  • Stocks
    100%

All assets are in stocks, with no bonds, cash, or alternatives. That creates clear, straightforward exposure to economic growth but also means there’s no built‑in shock absorber if equity markets fall sharply. Many “balanced” setups blend stocks with bonds or cash to damp volatility. Here, “balanced” comes more from diversification across equity styles (broad market, growth, dividend, small cap) rather than from mixing different asset classes. This stock‑only structure suits someone comfortable riding through full equity drawdowns. If more stability or a shorter time horizon becomes important, introducing some lower‑risk assets could meaningfully smooth the ride.

Sectors Info

  • Technology
    34%
  • Consumer Discretionary
    11%
  • Telecommunications
    11%
  • Financials
    10%
  • Health Care
    10%
  • Industrials
    8%
  • Consumer Staples
    7%
  • Energy
    5%
  • Utilities
    2%
  • Basic Materials
    2%
  • Real Estate
    2%

Sector exposure is led by technology at roughly one‑third of the portfolio, with meaningful but smaller slices in consumer areas, financials, health care, and industrials. This is broadly in line with major US benchmarks, which are also tech‑heavy these days. That alignment is actually a strength: it means the portfolio isn’t making big contrarian bets on specific industries. The flip side is that tech and communication-related areas can be more sensitive to interest rates and sentiment shifts, so volatility can spike when those sectors fall out of favor. The balanced presence of defensives like consumer staples and utilities provides some offset but doesn’t dominate.

Regions Info

  • North America
    99%
  • Europe Developed
    1%

Geographically, this is essentially a pure North American portfolio, with about 99% in that region and only a token slice elsewhere. This lines up with a strong “home bias” many US investors have, and it’s been rewarded over the last decade as US stocks outperformed many other markets. The benefit is familiarity, strong disclosure standards, and deep liquidity. The trade‑off is missing potential diversification from other regions that may perform differently across cycles. If non‑US markets lead in a future period, this setup could lag global indices. The key question is whether the heavy US focus matches long‑term comfort with that regional bet.

Market capitalization Info

  • Mega-cap
    40%
  • Large-cap
    37%
  • Mid-cap
    18%
  • Small-cap
    4%
  • Micro-cap
    1%

By market capitalization, the portfolio skews toward mega‑ and large‑cap companies, which together make up more than three‑quarters of exposure. That mirrors mainstream US benchmarks and brings stability from mature, established firms with broad analyst coverage and deep markets. There’s still some mid‑ and small‑cap exposure, particularly via the small‑cap value ETF, which adds a bit more growth and volatility potential. This mix is a nice middle ground: not so small‑cap heavy that risk spikes, but not so mega‑only that all smaller-company upside is missed. Over long periods, this type of market-cap spread can support both resilience and growth.

True holdings Info

  • NVIDIA Corporation
    6.31%
    Part of fund(s):
    • Invesco NASDAQ 100 ETF
    • SPDR® Portfolio S&P 500 ETF
    • Vanguard S&P 500 ETF
    • Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF Shares
  • Apple Inc
    5.73%
    Part of fund(s):
    • Invesco NASDAQ 100 ETF
    • SPDR® Portfolio S&P 500 ETF
    • Vanguard S&P 500 ETF
    • Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF Shares
  • Microsoft Corporation
    4.38%
    Part of fund(s):
    • Invesco NASDAQ 100 ETF
    • SPDR® Portfolio S&P 500 ETF
    • Vanguard S&P 500 ETF
    • Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF Shares
  • Amazon.com Inc
    3.07%
    Part of fund(s):
    • Invesco NASDAQ 100 ETF
    • SPDR® Portfolio S&P 500 ETF
    • Vanguard S&P 500 ETF
    • Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF Shares
  • Alphabet Inc Class A
    2.66%
    Part of fund(s):
    • Invesco NASDAQ 100 ETF
    • SPDR® Portfolio S&P 500 ETF
    • Vanguard S&P 500 ETF
    • Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF Shares
  • Broadcom Inc
    2.28%
    Part of fund(s):
    • Invesco NASDAQ 100 ETF
    • SPDR® Portfolio S&P 500 ETF
    • Vanguard S&P 500 ETF
    • Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF Shares
  • Alphabet Inc Class C
    2.17%
    Part of fund(s):
    • Invesco NASDAQ 100 ETF
    • SPDR® Portfolio S&P 500 ETF
    • Vanguard S&P 500 ETF
    • Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF Shares
  • Meta Platforms Inc.
    2.14%
    Part of fund(s):
    • Invesco NASDAQ 100 ETF
    • SPDR® Portfolio S&P 500 ETF
    • Vanguard S&P 500 ETF
    • Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF Shares
  • Nutanix Inc
    2.14%
  • Tesla Inc
    1.83%
    Part of fund(s):
    • Invesco NASDAQ 100 ETF
    • LS 1x Tesla Tracker ETP Securities GBP
    • SPDR® Portfolio S&P 500 ETF
    • Vanguard S&P 500 ETF
    • Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF Shares
  • Top 10 total 32.71%

Looking through the ETFs, there’s meaningful exposure to the large US growth names: Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Broadcom, Meta, and Tesla all show up multiple times. This is common in index-heavy US portfolios but does create hidden concentration: when the same giants appear in several funds, their actual influence is higher than it looks from headline ETF weights. Nutanix is the only direct single stock and is relatively small. Because only ETF top-10 holdings are captured, overlap in mid- and smaller names is probably higher than shown. The practical takeaway: portfolio behavior will be quite sensitive to how mega-cap US growth performs.

Factors Info

Value
Preference for undervalued stocks
Neutral
Data availability: 100%
Size
Exposure to smaller companies
Neutral
Data availability: 100%
Momentum
Exposure to recently outperforming stocks
Neutral
Data availability: 100%
Quality
Preference for financially healthy companies
Neutral
Data availability: 100%
Yield
Preference for dividend-paying stocks
Neutral
Data availability: 98%
Low Volatility
Preference for stable, lower-risk stocks
Neutral
Data availability: 100%

Factor exposures — value, size, momentum, quality, yield, and low volatility — are all in the neutral band around 50%. Factors are like underlying “personality traits” of stocks that research ties to returns, such as cheapness (value) or stability (low volatility). Here, the portfolio behaves much like a broad market index across all those traits, without strong tilts toward or away from any style. That’s a positive sign: it suggests no hidden bet on, say, deep value or high momentum that could cause performance to swing dramatically relative to the market in certain environments. This well‑balanced factor profile matches a simple, core‑index philosophy.

Risk contribution Info

  • Vanguard S&P 500 ETF
    Weight: 58.21%
    56.7%
  • Invesco NASDAQ 100 ETF
    Weight: 9.91%
    12.1%
  • Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF Shares
    Weight: 8.93%
    9.0%
  • SPDR® Portfolio S&P 500 ETF
    Weight: 8.59%
    8.4%
  • Pacer US Small Cap Cash Cows 100 ETF
    Weight: 4.97%
    5.5%
  • Top 5 risk contribution 91.8%

Risk contribution shows how much each holding drives the portfolio’s ups and downs, which isn’t always the same as its weight. The largest S&P 500 ETF, at 58% weight, contributes about 57% of total risk — very proportional. The NASDAQ 100 ETF stands out a bit: around 10% weight but over 12% of the risk, reflecting its more growthy, concentrated nature. The small‑cap ETF also punches slightly above its weight in risk terms. Overall, risk is dominated by the top three broad-market positions, which is expected. If someday you want to dial risk down or shift focus, tweaking those big core weights would be the most impactful lever.

Redundant positions Info

  • SPDR® Portfolio S&P 500 ETF
    Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF Shares
    Vanguard S&P 500 ETF
    High correlation

Correlations show how similarly investments move. A reading near 1.0 means they tend to rise and fall together, limiting diversification benefits. Here, the S&P 500 ETFs and the total-market ETF are almost perfectly correlated, essentially tracking the same underlying US market. That’s not harmful, but it does mean you’re holding multiple wrappers around very similar exposures. Simplifying overlapping funds can sometimes reduce clutter without changing the risk/return profile much. When thinking about diversification, it’s helpful to focus on holdings that behave differently in stress periods, rather than owning many near‑duplicates of the same index.

Risk vs. return

This chart shows the Efficient Frontier, calculated using your current assets with different allocation combinations. It highlights the best balance between risk and return based on historical data. "Efficient" portfolios maximize returns for a given risk or minimize risk for a given return. Portfolios below the curve are less efficient. This is informational and not a recommendation to buy or sell any assets.

Click on the colored dots to explore allocations.

On the risk‑return chart, the current mix sits right on or very close to the efficient frontier. The Efficient Frontier shows the best expected return for each risk level using only the current ingredients in different weightings. A Sharpe ratio of 0.81 is decent and not far from the optimal portfolio’s 0.93. The minimum‑variance version would lower volatility but also trim expected returns. Since you’re already near the frontier, there’s no glaring inefficiency to fix with reweighting alone. That’s a reassuring sign: for this set of holdings and this general risk level, the tradeoff between risk and return looks well‑tuned.

Dividends Info

  • Pacer US Small Cap Cash Cows 100 ETF 1.50%
  • Invesco NASDAQ 100 ETF 0.50%
  • Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF 2.60%
  • SPDR® Portfolio S&P 500 ETF 0.80%
  • Vanguard S&P 500 ETF 0.90%
  • Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF Shares 0.90%
  • Weighted yield (per year) 0.99%

The portfolio’s overall dividend yield is just under 1%, with the dedicated dividend ETF offering the highest yield and the growth‑oriented NASDAQ fund yielding very little. Dividends can be a useful component of total return, especially for investors who value steady cash flow, but they’re only one part of the picture. Given the strong growth tilt and tech exposure, it makes sense that yield is relatively low. This aligns with a growth‑oriented equity strategy where companies reinvest more of their profits rather than paying them out. If income needs rise down the line, increasing the share of higher‑yielding holdings could be a logical lever.

Ongoing product costs Info

  • Pacer US Small Cap Cash Cows 100 ETF 0.59%
  • Invesco NASDAQ 100 ETF 0.15%
  • Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF 0.06%
  • SPDR® Portfolio S&P 500 ETF 0.02%
  • Vanguard S&P 500 ETF 0.03%
  • Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF Shares 0.03%
  • Weighted costs total (per year) 0.07%

Average costs are impressively low, with a total expense ratio (TER) around 0.07%. TER is the annual fee built into an ETF, taken from returns behind the scenes. Most core funds here charge 0.02%–0.06%, which is extremely competitive and directly supports better long‑term compounding. The one noticeably higher‑cost holding is the small‑cap “cash cows” ETF at 0.59%, but its distinctive strategy can justify a premium if it’s doing something meaningfully different from the cheap core funds. Overall, this fee profile is a real strength. Low ongoing costs mean more of the portfolio’s growth ends up in your pocket over decades.

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