Hi @MikeW,
Adjusting one’s stock allocation based upon the upward and downward movement of the market can indeed be a task.
Columbia Thermostat Fund (CTFAX) adjusts its stock allocation based upon the upward or downward movement of the S&P 500 Index. Its fact sheet will provide the details on how it goes about these adjustments and is linked below for easy reference. It is the only fund that I am aware of that does this.
One of the things that I do is take a constant say 20% (you might wish to use a higher percentage) and add it to what the thermostat fund calls for an equity allocation to arrive at a target equity allocation for my own portfolio. Based upon a closing low of 1868 on August 25 calls for a 35% allocation to equities in the fund and when I add the constant say (+20%) I wind up with about a target allocation in the 55% range which is within 5% of my maximum equity allocation of 60%. Since, I wanted to leave some room for the fall rally position that I usually make I did nothing to increase my overall equity allocation at this time other to buy around the edges thus rounding out some equity fund positions. Currently, I am a little back of fifty percent equity. I will do an Instant Xray analysis over the weekend and will have a better idea of where my equity allocation bubbles. Perhaps, I'll may make some adjustments after doing this.
https://www.columbiathreadneedleus.com/content/columbia/pdf/LIT_DOC_3C97987F.PDF
In addition, I follow a seasonal investment strategy where one raises their allocation to equities in the fall and reduces the allocation come late spring. This strategy is known, by some, as Sell In May and Stay Away Until St. Legers Day. I have also linked it below for your easy reference.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sell_in_May
And, then you might wish to become schooled on some technical analysis charting. I have linked a chart on the S&P 500 Index and the indicators that I use to help set a small part of my equity allocation.
http://www.barchart.com/chart.php?sym=SPY&style=technical&template=&p=DO&d=X&sd=&ed=&size=M&log=0&t=LINE&v=1&g=1&evnt=1&late=1&o1=&o2=&o3=&sh=100&indicators=SMA(50,);SMA(200,);PCT(20,0.01,10066431,3227936511);SMACD(12,26,9,16737792,10053375,13421721);MFI(14,255,100,39168,16711680);SRSI(14,6710886,20,255,16711680)&chartindicator_7_code=SMA&chartindicator_7_param_0=50&chartindicator_7_param_1=&chartindicator_8_code=SMA&chartindicator_8_param_0=200&chartindicator_8_param_1=&chartindicator_9_code=PCT&chartindicator_9_param_0=20&chartindicator_9_param_1=0.01&chartindicator_9_param_2=10066431&chartindicator_9_param_3=3227936511&chartindicator_10_code=SMACD&chartindicator_10_param_0=12&chartindicator_10_param_1=26&chartindicator_10_param_2=9&chartindicator_10_param_3=16737792&chartindicator_10_param_4=10053375&chartindicator_10_param_5=13421721&chartindicator_11_code=MFI&chartindicator_11_param_0=14&chartindicator_11_param_1=255&chartindicator_11_param_2=100&chartindicator_11_param_3=39168&chartindicator_11_param_4=16711680&chartindicator_12_code=SRSI&chartindicator_12_param_0=14&chartindicator_12_param_1=6710886&chartindicator_12_param_2=20&chartindicator_12_param_3=255&chartindicator_12_param_4=16711680&addindicator=&submitted=1&fpage=&txtDate=
You can click on the indicators and change the settings and also read a little about how each one is used.
In addition, you might wish to explore the Leadership Strategy that Ron Rowland publishes an up date for weekly. For easy reference I have linked it below for you. I look at where money market falls within the pecking order as a clue to raise or lower cash. Currently, it is at about the mid point so some caution might be warranted if you are short in a cash position in your overall asset allocation. In addition, it will help find the faster moving current(s) within the equity markets.
http://investwithanedge.com/leadership-strategy
In closing, I move my equity allocation form a low of about 40% to a high of about 60% from time-to-time based upon how I am reading the market. Currently, I am position around 50% equity and have not yet loaded for the anticipated fall rally. I am thinking third quarter earnings are going to disappoint and with this we are most likely looking at another pullback as a set up for the traditional fall stock market rally going into the fourth quarter.
I wish you the very best with your investing endevors as you seek ways to help throttle a moving equity allocation.
Old_Skeet

"As an FYI...If I had things to do over again, I would have started earlier with my income sleeve consisting of dividend paying stocks. Even holding things like JNJ, PAYX, AEP as examples for the last 5 years, I have been astounded with the power of compounding dividends....and when stocks are down, is the perfect time to buy the dividend payers. That's a hint, BTW."
I'll second this....
"Hindsight is always 20-20. No one can predict the future. Make decisions in the present and be at peace with yourself they are the right ones"
...and this.
----
Most of what I own are in individual names, but there are also some mutual funds and a couple of other things, like RIT Capital Partners (http://www.ritcap.com/our-team)
For me, investing is largely a mixture of income and growth, with names that I find attractive/fall into themes that I'm interested or have other aspects that I find compelling. As I've noted before, I particularly like tangible assets (railroads, infrastructure, real estate) and needs (healthcare being a core focus there, along with things like Ecolab.)
There are large dividend payers (Starwood Property, Blackstone, etc), medium dividend payers and small dividend payers that will hopefully grow the dividend over time.
I do feel very strongly about what I consider a portfolio of best ideas. Oddly, I find owning individual names that I have a strong thesis about less stressful than owning funds because there is that connection and thesis.
Personally, while a day like Monday was disappointing and a bummer, with mostly individual names that I consider a collection of "best ideas" (and my best ideas are not going to be someone else's and that's fine), I wasn't like....

.... because I don't plan on selling these names or trying to time them (and a number of them I see as potentially multi-decade holdings.)
I am younger than most on the board and am heavily stocks. I do not recommend that those who are in retirement or nearing retirement allocate in the manner that I do, although I do think there are holdings of mine that are conservative, including Ecolab (ECL)
But yeah, I agree with what Press said: "Your choice is to put it in all at once per Ted's advice....which is sound if you have 10-15 years until retirement, or to invest in increments. Frankly, if you break it down, don't break it down too finely...1/3 or 1/2 at a time.
But you need to get it in play being that far out from retirement. If you see 2 big down days in a row, hold your nose and put the order in."

Thanks Michael,
I'm about 75% equities in a taxable account, and 40% in an IRA rollover, but with additional monies to be put into play on the equity side in both as I described. I tend to shoot for 65-75% equities, but am flexible depending on the environment.
It's a bit more complicated than that, as those percentages include money in bucket 1-type funds for near term spending in both accounts. You may learn more about that as you near retirement. I'm a big fan of that type of mental accounting, and used the last 6 year run-up to fund that cushion. It makes entering retirement a bit less stressful.
What I recently added money to is in Scott's thread..."what are you buying", etc.
As an FYI...If I had things to do over again, I would have started earlier with my income sleeve consisting of dividend paying stocks. Even holding things like JNJ, PAYX, AEP as examples for the last 5 years, I have been astounded with the power of compounding dividends....and when stocks are down, is the perfect time to buy the dividend payers. That's a hint, BTW.
press.

I would prefer a fund that does not have to be in junk bonds, that can be more flexible. OSTIX fits the bill for us.

@BobC I don't understand that statement; I think you intended to write something else. Except for 15.6% cash, and a minuscule 1.9% allotment to BBB bonds, the rest of OSTIX is entirely invested in junk bonds, as of June 30:
http://www.osterweis.com/files/OSTIX 2Q15 Fact Sheet.pdf
Perhaps your point was they don't have to be in them?
@Junkster But while we're on OSTIX, I should mention that Carl Kaufman, in an end-of-July teleconference recording, has an interesting take on the potential liabilities of junk bond ETFs to which we've alluded several times on the MFO board. There is an amusing quip at the end of that topic's discussion, in the vein of "one man's misfortune can become another man's treasure":
http://www.osterweis.com/video/ostix_replay
(I think it's at about the 15:00 mark, if you don't want to listen to the whole spool)

Michael...as they say "time in the market beats timing the market". Unfortunately, moving money out of stocks requires you to be right twice...when to move it out, and then when to move it back in. I must say, if you wanted to scale back, you hit that first item right on the money.
I was faced with a similar question, when I recently retired and the 401K funds were shifted from my employer to Schwab where I control the rollover account. I purposely chose not to invest the equity portion...which turned out ok to this point, as I moved 35% into equities yesterday when the market was down 10%.
Your choice is to put it in all at once per Ted's advice....which is sound if you have 10-15 years until retirement, or to invest in increments. Frankly, if you break it down, don't break it down too finely...1/3 or 1/2 at a time.
But you need to get it in play being that far out from retirement. If you see 2 big down days in a row, hold your nose and put the order in.
Just curious...are the funds taxable when you ultimately withdraw them?

@MikeW: "I reduced my stock fund holdings % in my 401K account down to about 50%." That was a big mistake, get back to 75% as soon as possible. With 10-15 years till retirement, time is on your side.

Hello all,
I greatly appreciate the dialogue from members on MFO as I learn from each of you on a daily basis. I was hoping to get your advice. With the market turmoil, I reduced my stock fund holdings % in my 401K account down to about 50%. I did this two weeks ago. While I was able to avoid some of the carnage, I am now faced with needing to develop a strategy for increasing my stock holdings back up to their target allocation. I am 10-15 years away from retirement and my target allocation is 75% stocks and 25% bonds(38% S&P index, 16% small cap index, 21% international fund index, 20% short-term U.S. Treasury security index, 5% Barclays Capital U.S. Aggregate Bond Index).
I wanted to ask your advice on a strategy for gradually increasing my stock holdings back to their target allocation. I am thinking about increasing this gradually -- perhaps from 50% to 60% and then 60%-70% and finally 70-75%. I could make these moves on a weekly or monthly basis. Would value your advice on whether this makes sense or if you would suggest a different approach. Also, please let me know if you have any thoughts on my asset allocation. I am a member of the governments thrift savings plan so I can only choose their index funds.
thank you!
Michael

I have stuck with MAPOX. Market price has taken it down to 12.93% of my total. I concentrate on the 3-year return number, rather than day-to-day, because I've actually been in the fund for 3 years, now. But now, here it is, Thursday, 27th August, and EVERYTHING is green and doing well, even XOM, which is the 5th-largest holding in MAPOX. I do not think that the fund's bias toward Upper Midwest companies is good or bad, either way. Only 5% turnover, with a Large/Value slant.
http://www.morningstar.com/funds/XNAS/MAPOX/quote.html

1100% turnover. Wow! And I thought Dick Strong at Strong Discovery (STDIX) was "impressive" with 600% (if memory serves).

There are decent cash like choices to cover short term uses without dipping into bond and equity buckets. Cash Money market short term CD are reasonable choices as others on this board have noted on another discussion.
Many 401k plans have a stable value fund (ER 0.2%) with a daily NAV of $1.00 and a yield slightly higher than money market. Government employees have a government investment securities that functional similar to money market. Don't know if 403b plans have similar choices.

CHS Preferred Shares (CHSCP, there are others but lets use CHSCP as an example) over the last 6 months.
http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=CHSCP+Interactive#{"range":"6mo","allowChartStacking":true}
Take it out to 10 years.
http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=CHSCP+Interactive#{"range":"10y","allowChartStacking":true}
Plus a 6.5% yield currently.

Not short duration high yield, but what I've been using for that next risk-rung up from cash is Pimco's PMZIX, an absolute return fund that uses mortgages with ye olde signature Pimco derivative & rate swap strategy. Yield about 3.30%, up 2.4% ytd, duration now ~ 1.4, extremely low volatility, with very rarely a day change other than flat or up/down a penny ... a unique fund from what I've been able to gather.

There are decent cash like choices to cover short term uses without dipping into bond and equity buckets. Cash Money market short term CD are reasonable choices as others on this board have noted on another discussion.
Many 401k plans have a stable value fund (ER 0.2%) with a daily NAV of $1.00 and a yield slightly higher than money market. Government employees have a government investment securities that functional similar to money market. Don't know if 403b plans have similar choices.

I have been noticing GNMA and MBS funds holding up quite well. A historical chart Junkster would love to love.
For example, M* considers USGNX high quality/low interest rate risk using their bond style box shown here:

US government securities are a flight to safety holding as well.
Conversely, I still put my trust into multi-asset bond fund manager's who can have access to many more bond opportunities and often times more responsive to bond market trends.

Hi bee,
Thanks for your input. However, I think the information shown is of suspect along with perhaps the good doctor copper. Think I'll find another.
I just checked Yahoo Finance main screen ... not portfolio as you show ... and, what is shown in portfolio is still a stale price reflective of a 8/21 market close but listed as an 8/26 close in portfolio. See link(s).
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=IACLX
And, for IGPAX:
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=IGPAX
In this paticular case Yhaoo Portfolio is reporting an 8/21 market close price for these two funds as the 8/26 close. This seems flawed to me? Perhaps, they are having to lookback to 8/21 to establish good pricing before they can move forward to compute good pricing to date.
Today, in checking VOYA price information for their funds they are reporting a 7/31 market close for all of them; but, one can do a search and currently, as I write, find a close for up to 8/24.
Indeed, this is a FUBAR mess.
Perhaps, by the close of business today price reporting will be in good order.

(For the bond-huggers) Bloomberg aired this today. Part of me wants to say "Hello? So what's new?"
http://www.fa-mag.com/news/fidelity-says-deflation-risks-will-slow-fed-so-buy-quality-bonds-22914.html
-
Correction: Sorry, my original title incorrectly stated "Buy Quality Bombs" :)

Using YahooFinance's portfolio tool I got these results:

IGPAX reported at 6:59 pm yesterday. Etf (VHT) will usually report at 4:00 pm usually while you have to wait until about 6:25 pm for VGHCX...similar holdings, but not identical. I sometimes monitor VHT during the day as a close proxy for how the mutual fund will do.
Doctor Copper need patients to remember to have patience...try to enjoy your stay in the investment waiting room.

FYI: These funds were among the best performers during the recent stock-market plunge--but there are other ways to play defense
Regards,
Ted
http://news.morningstar.com/articlenet/article.aspx?id=712786
M* Bear-Market Fund Returns:
http://news.morningstar.com/fund-category-returns/bear-market/$FOCA$BM.aspx

@Old_Skeet: Closing prices as of 8/26/15 from Lipper.
Regards,
Ted
IACLX:
http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/Fund/IACLX?countrycode=US
IGPAX:
http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/Fund/IGPAX?countrycode=US

The expense ratio at 1.18% is a drag on the 2.85% 30 day yield. Also it holds 25% in cash. In this low yield environment, there are really few viable choices.

I've always said RPHYX is not a good cash substitute primarily because it has never been tested during a bear market in junk bonds. ... Still, YTD it is outperforming cash and has done well as a cash substitute since its inception.

It's done adequately, but I wouldn't say it's done better than cash. It's not hard to find an online account paying around 1%. In comparison, 0.46% YTD is around 3/4% annualized (we're 2/3 through the year).
It's even worse in a taxable account. So far this year RPHYX has spun off around 2% in dividends, and declined about 1.5%, for a net of about 0.5%. But you pay a higher rate of taxes on the dividends (ordinary income) than you get to write off on the capital loss (assuming you've held the shares for over a year).
If you've got $1000 in the fund, and a 25% tax rate, you'll owe taxes YTD of 25% on $20 dividends ($5), but might subtract taxes of 15% of the $15 cap loss ($2.25) if you sell. Your net tax would be $2.75 on net income of $5. Your after tax income YTD would be about 0.22%.
If it loses a bit more, so that it pays 2% in dividends but loses that 2% in value, then your gross income would be $0, but you would still owe net taxes of 0.20%. Not pretty.