How to Invest

How to Invest Using a Portfolio Recipe

After you have chosen a Portfolio Recipe, you are now ready to invest. If you have not yet selected a Portfolio Recipe, refer to "How to Choose a Portfolio Recipe." Please contact us if you have any questions

Investing Using a VizMetrics Portfolio Recipe

1. Get the Portfolio Recipe Ingredients

  • Got to https://go.recipeinvesting.com/login
  • Enter your email address that you used to sign up, enter your password, and click "Sign In"
  • Under "Portfolio Recipes" click "View Content", then choose "Portfolio Recipes & Results" and then choose a link such as "All Portfolio Recipes"
  • Once you see the list of all the Portfolio Recipes, you can click on the column headings to sort, or click on a recipe's name to see the details for that recipe.

2. Find the portfolio ingredients and percentages

  • Scroll down on the Recipe Detail Page and find the section labeled "How to Invest"
  • If the ID for your chosen Portfolio Recipe starts with "t." (such as t.aaae or t.mva3) or "s." (such as s.plus or s.brow) then you will locate the portfolio ingredients and percentages, which will look similar to this:
    • EEM=2.08%, EFA=5.89%, GLD=40.59%, IWM=8.64%, IYR=10.16%, QQQ=2.79%, SPY=5.61%, TLT=24.24%.
    • The number of ingredients and percentages will vary based on the Portfolio Recipe you have chosen.
  • If the ID for your chosen Portfolio Recipe is a mutual fund (e.g., VWIAX or VBIAX) or an exchange-traded fund (e.g., AOA, DVY), then the only ingredient in your recipe will be the fund itself.
  • If you are investing at FolioInvesting.com, look for "Recipe ingredients (for FolioInvesting.com)" which will have a slightly different format, as follows:
    • EEM, 2.08, EFA, 5.89, GLD, 40.59, IWM, 8.64, IYR, 10.16, QQQ, 2.79, SPY, 5.61, TLT, 24.24

3. Pick a brokerage account

 Use your existing broker or you may wish to consider a "portfolio brokerage" such as M1 Finance or Interactive Brokers that permits buying and selling using portfolio percentages.

How to Rebalance Your Portfolio Using M1 Finance

If we do not yet have a How-To Guide specific to the brokerage you have chosen, the steps to rebalancing your Portfolio are likely similar to those outlined in the guide "How-To Invest Using a Portfolio Recipe."

If you have not yet chosen or invested in a Portfolio Recipe, we have other How-To Guides written to help you in starting your investment journey:

How to Choose a Portfolio Recipe

How to Invest at M1 Finance Using a Portfolio Recipe

If we do not yet have a How-To Guide specific to the brokerage you have chosen, the steps below outline a general strategy to use when investing and rebalancing your Portfolio Recipe:

4. Submit your trades

You can buy the portfolio ingredients at your brokerage, by entering a buy order for each portfolio ingredient.

If you are investing at a brokerage without a rebalancing tool, follow these steps.

  • Determine the total amount you want to invest using a particular Portfolio Recipe
  • Based on the percentage allocation from Step 2 (above), find the dollar amount to invest in each ingredient. Do this by multiplying the percentage allocation for each ingredient by the total amount you wish to invest. This will give you the dollar amount to buy for each ingredient.
  • Get the share price for each ingredient from your broker's website.
  • Calculate the number of shares to buy of each ingredient by dividing each dollar amount to invest in each ingredient by the share price of each ingredient.
  • Make a list of trades with tickers and share quantities.
  • Enter the trades with your broker.

If you are a financial advisor, you can use the client rebalancing tool provided by your custodian, your prime brokerage, or a third-party software company. Examples include iRebal at TDAmeritrade (built into Veo), Portfolio Rebalancer at Charles Schwab (integrated with schwabadvisorcenter.com Trading Tools), Morningstar tRx, RedBlack, and TradeWarrior.

5. Track your progress and rebalance monthly

After you receive confirmation of your buy orders, you can track your portfolio's progress in your brokerage account. If you are using a tactical (t.) Portfolio Recipe, you will need to rebalance your portfolio at the beginning of the next month. The list of new ingredients and allocations is published for each Portfolio Recipe on the first trading day of each calendar month. Access these by logging in at go.recipeinvesting.com/login

How to Rebalance Your Portfolio