Thanks you both for your replies. Did the alternative allocation come from (reducing) your historic equity or historic fixed income allocation percentage?

I don't think I ever had a "historic" equity or fixed income portfolio allocation. It was always a function of my age and the current economic/market environment.
Thus, in the recent 5%+ interest rate environment, I was almost exclusively invested in CDs and Treasury bonds. As these instruments mature, I am now moving into bond and allocation funds, like ICMUX, RCTIX, BINC, PRCFX, etc.
I used to have JHQAX in my portfolio but sold it in 2022. I guess you could say that QQMNX has had a better risk/reward profile over the past 3 years and has replaced JHQAX.

A reminder, just 4 years ago the Middle East was calm and 4 Arabic countries signed a peace agreement, first time since Israel became a country. All you got to do is connect the dots.

I connected the dots.
Trump University
Trump Foundation
Trump SoHo
Trump's businesses have filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy 6 times
Trump is a gonif.

A war with Iran maybe bad, but doing nothing is worse IMO.
Israel is in its second independence war.
A reminder, just 4 years ago the Middle East was calm and 4 Arabic countries signed a peace agreement, first time since Israel became a country. All you got to do is connect the dots.
I hope Israel will hit Iran significantly, such as the oil rigs or water or electricity. The usual, most Iranians are great but their leadership is extreme.
Anyone who thinks that they can be calm, I suggest they try living with thousands of missiles coming from another country.

FWIW, I asked Google, "are bonds in Nordic areas a good investment"
Answer:

It found that in the 20 years through 2022, Nordic companies “have outperformed their global peers on value creation, delivering an average annual total shareholder return of 11.6%, surpassing the global average of 9.4%.”Aug 4, 2024

Not sure a firm managing 25% less assets than it did 10 years ago is where I'd want to be, but to each their own.

I like to torture their robobot personal assistants!

I like that. :)
FWIW - ”Generally, most taxpayers will avoid this penalty if they either owe less than $1,000 in tax after subtracting their withholding and refundable credits, or if they paid withholding and estimated tax of at least 90% of the tax for the current year or 100% of the tax shown on the return for the prior year, whichever is smaller.”
Source / IRS
I first heard of this about 20 years ago. And it has worked over the years for me without problems. I’d prefer to owe the IRS some money in April rather than wait for a refund. Note: Not intended as tax advice.

Thanks folks. If I needed a large chunk I’d pool the funds earlier in a cash equivalent as gman57 suggests. With most markets near record highs - good advice. But that’s not the case for now anyway. One reason is the “interest-free” (til 12/25) Fido Visa account I opened last summer. Recently put a big infrastructure project on it. Can pull funds gradually during ‘25 instead of all at once. (Appreciated all the earlier comments re that on a different thread.)
Also … age has pushed me towards a pretty conservative portfolio. So, big market moves don’t affect it as much today as say 5 or 10 years ago. Mainly, I just don’t want Fido to throw a “Hissy Fit” thinking I’ve forgotten.

Earlier in the year you might require a higher quarterly estimated tax payment so waiting until late might save be better unless you are paying 100% of last years taxes

I always pull RMD's in Dec. Why not let it grow tax free as long as possible. Your RMD should have been moved to ultra short term bonds or preferably MM much earlier in the year. That way you don't worry about the market going down. I usually have 2 years of RMD in safe MM or bonds and another 3 years in other bonds.. That way I could care less if the market tanks and takes a year or five to recover.

DSMC Distillate Small/Mid Cash Flow ETF not much volume, still pretty new, but the strategy is a few years old & has some pretty decent stats.
https://distillatecapital.com/u-s-small-mid-cap-quality-value/

A few, but most will not...It all about the mode...

HOW has the stock market returned 8-10% per year? — is a whole another question.
And the mode (i.e. the most common data point), rather than the average, tells that story. And answering HOW means looking at characteristics of individual stock performance through time.
Hendrik Bessembinder did that research. He has looked at the history of about 29,000 stocks in the United States, over the 90 years worth of good data we have for empirical stock analytics. He's also looked, on a slightly shorter time horizon because of available data, at about 64,000 stocks outside the U.S.
The mode is -100%.
The most common outcome from buying a stock is that you lose all your money.
Mind blown? Great. But read on, because it has implications for portfolio design, especially if you're a long-term investor.

just 86 stocks have accounted for $16 trillion in wealth creation, half of the stock market total, over the past 90 years.

do-stocks-outperform-treasury-bills
research paper
Study

Invesco has XMHQ and SMHQ. XMHQ was something else until five years ago. I'm not sure how long SMHQ has been operating with a quality mandate. So just fair warning when you look at their track record.
Another fund I have been following is CWS.
I own XMHQ in the IRA and taxable, It's a bit of an E-ticket ride. So far it has bounced back quickly. It has also drifted out of the blend category since I first bought it.
With a rules-based ETfund you're going to get whatever fits the rules, which may include financials.
At this link, click on the Comps tab to see other ETfunds that overlap with XMHQ. That should give you a few more ideas.

For five or six years prior to 2023, CAT bonds (index) returned a total return of 4% or less per year on average. That is not enough return for the risk over such a long period of time. I am guessing the risk premium had to change, increasing the yield (not counting the higher risk free rate) for market to continue to exist for these bonds. Keep us posted so we know when the next cycle starts.
I am just a bystander on this investment.
Yes, terrible plight for the people going through hurricane.

Promised are "great" until you realize someone else must pay for it, and why businesses stopped offering pensions.
IMO, all State/Gov/Education pensions should be eliminated over several years
If a private company offers a pension, it's the company's problem.
No one should save any pension(Gov,State,Eduaction,Private) that can't support itself. The less money it has, the less they should pay.
401K is a good idea. You need to take care of yourself. A small monthly amount grows substantially over 3-4 decades. It's called compounding

@hank, I have watched and analyzed ALT funds, especially AQR funds, for about 15 years. I'm not impressed, and I explained why.
The only way to avoid big losses is to do timing using special bond funds (PIMIX, IOFIX in the past and others in the last several years), and why it took me many years to master it. I also never play short because markets usually go up.
I know, you already heard it many times; sorry for that.

Thanks @alban. I don't think the picture would fundamentally change in that situation, as the new share class's 5-year return (pro forma) should approximate the 5-year return of the other share classes, any difference explained by fee differences. So the 1-year returns of all share classes would look good and the 5-year returns of all share classes (including the new one which inherits four of those five years from the older share class returns) would look bad. Apologies if I'm misunderstanding.
Kind regards,
Jeff Ptak
Morningstar Research Services

Looking at Charles’ fund performance chart, I can not help but ask myself,
You buy QLEIX at the beginning of 2018 at the then peak performance (just like in 2024) and hold because everyone tells you about its past performance. How did it make you feel over the next 1 year, 2 years, and 3 years?

Thanks folks! Could it be possible that funds time the introduction of new share classes when the markets are doing well. So then extended performance could help avoid buying a share class, which might look good based on its record, but is part of a fund that has had terrible performance, say over the last 5 years or so.

The 3 years for QLEIX looks good because of 2022. This is where ALT funds excel.
Then, you have years when they trail and way in the back.
BY the time most investors realize markets are going down and load on these funds, they miss most of the meltdown, then, they miss the beginning of the uptrend of the regular funds, which is the strongest period.
It takes discipline to hold funds like that.

@FD - Have you looked at M* performance numbers? QLEIX +20.71%YTD / +23.75 1 YR. Albeit, it may not have moved much the past 6 months. Since when has 6 months become an appropriate time horizon to measure anything’s performance - except perhaps cash?
L/S funds come with varying risk profiles. Tough to analyze. But scanning past performance over a number of years may give an indication how much market risk the managers are willing to take.
QLEIX presently is essentially neutral domestic equities (per *M) showing only 0.69% net invested. It is just slightly positive non-U.S. equities with a net 7% invested. Suggests to me they have gone very defensive nearer term.
They have a significant net short cash position (about 25%) indicating substantial borrowing to fund the short equity positions. So, interest on loans is eating up some potential gain while they remain essentially neutral on equities.
I’m here to learn. Have never owned QLEIX. Held two L/S funds going back to ‘21 / ‘22. Sold one off recently in an effort to reduce risk & volatility in an overheated market. Personal factors also played a part in the decision.

The 3 years for QLEIX looks good because of 2022. This is where ALT funds excel.
Then, you have years when they trail and way in the back.
BY the time most investors realize markets are going down and load on these funds, they miss most of the meltdown, then, they miss the beginning of the uptrend of the regular funds, which is the strongest period.
It takes discipline to hold funds like that.