How to Build a Diversified Portfolio

Co-authored by Marcus Raiyat

Last Updated: March 7, 2023 References

“Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” is sound advice in life as well as in finance. Diversifying an investment portfolio can help cushion the ups and downs of the market and the broader economy. You can diversify by investing simultaneously in different asset classes. These classes include stocks (or "equities”), bonds, the money market, commodities, precious metals, real estate, gemstones, fine art and any of several other valuable assets. Because most growth in wealth comes from owning stock, equities also represent the most risk in a portfolio, so you will want to diversify your stock holdings. The following article presents a number of commonly acknowledged steps in building wealth through a diversified investment portfolio.

Method 1

Method 1 of 4:

Diversifying in Stocks

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Invest in many different companies. When you buy stock, you buy a share of the ownership of a company. You can buy stock in individual companies by using an online broker, such as E-Trade, Charles Schwab or TD Ameritrade (among many others). Do not, however, commit a large portion of your money to any single company. If such a company were to get in trouble, you could lose most of your money.
- For example, Snap Inc. received a lot of press when it went public in March 2017 with shares priced at $27. However, by the following August the stock price had fallen to $11 per share. That's a drop of about 60%, which would have really hurt someone who had invested a large amount of money at the opening price.
- To avoid such a disaster, limit your investment in any one stock to 5% or (preferably) less of your total portfolio.
2
Invest in different sectors. Entire industries often rise and fall as a unit. If the price of oil surges, most oil-related stocks will rise as a group. When the price of oil dips, oil-company stocks tend to fall together. You can protect yourself against this risk by investing in several different industries or sectors of the economy.
- Major sectors include technology, health care, financial services, energy, communication services, utilities and agriculture. ^{[1]
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- The industries or sectors you choose should have a low correlation to each other. That is, invest in various sectors whose stock prices tend to fall at different times. ^{[2]
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  Research source} For example, technology and communication services might be too closely related. On the other hand, energy and health care are not closely related and might be expected to rise or fall separately.
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Look at foreign stocks. As the economy in one country falters, the economy in other countries might be doing well. For this reason some experts recommend that you diversify by buying foreign stocks in addition to the domestic stocks you own.
- Buying stock in multinational corporations automatically exposes you to international markets. For example, if you buy McDonald’s stock, you are already investing in foreign markets, since McDonald’s has expanded into more than 100 countries. ^{[3]
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Method 2

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Investing in Other Assets

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Diversify with bonds. When a company or government need to raise money, they may borrow it by issuing bonds to the public. A bond is a promise to repay borrowed money, accompanied by a certain amount of interest. Owning bonds is a good way to hedge against equity risks, because bond values tend to move in a direction opposite to stock values in general. ^{[4]
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- You can buy individual bonds or invest in a bond mutual fund. A bond fund holds a portfolio of many different corporate or government bonds. Research a fund to see how diversified its holdings are before buying shares. As with equities, bond diversification is very desirable.
- Bonds are rated based on the issuer’s creditworthiness. Find bond ratings at Moody’s or Standard & Poor’s credit-rating services. A highly-rated bond will offer a lower interest rate but a higher likelihood of repayment. Choose bonds or bond funds that reflect your tolerance for risk. An aggressive investor (whose risk tolerance is high) might choose bonds with a higher interest rate but a lower safety rating.
U.S. Treasuries are the safest securities you can own. You lend money to the U.S. government and receive a promise for repayment. Treasury bonds often rise when the stock market falls, so they are a good way to diversify your portfolio. ^{[5]
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Consider money market funds. Such a fund is similar to a savings account. The fund invests money in low-risk vehicles such as certificates of deposit and government securities. You can buy CDs and government bonds yourself, but a money market account can be more convenient, because it will do the investing for you at a nominal fee.
- As an added benefit, some money market accounts let you write checks (or use a debit card) on the account. However, you will be limited in the number of withdrawals you can make per year. ^{[6]
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Some experts recommend diversifying by buying commodities such as oil, wheat, gold, and livestock. These commodities have no correlation to the stock market, so the value of these commodities should be unaffected if the stock market collapses. However, commodities are a poor bet if you are looking to buy and hold investments. Commodities are meant to be traded regularly and are therefore considered speculation (gambling) rather than investment. ^{[7]
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Invest in real estate. One way to do this is to buy an apartment building and rent it to tenants. However, you may not have the time or energy to involve yourself in what can be a complicated endeavor. Instead you might invest in REITs, real estate investment trusts. With this option you invest in companies that own real estate. In exchange for your investment, you receive a share of the companies' income. ^{[8]
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- Many REITs charge very high fees, so they might not be the best way to diversify your portfolio. ^{[9]
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- Another option is to invest in a mutual fund that invests in REITs. This can save you a lot of research time by letting the fund managers do the research for you. You do pay for that service, of course, but it may be worth it to you if you value your time.
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Method 3

Method 3 of 4:

Investing in Mutual and Other Funds for Diversity

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Diversify easily with mutual funds. A mutual fund is a portfolio operated by a fund manager. Buying into a mutual fund is a great way to diversify because each portfolio can hold multiple equities and other assets. For example, a mutual fund might hold stocks and/or bonds from 40 companies in various sectors. By buying into a fund, you can get instant diversification.
- However, mutual funds are not automatically diversified. Everything depends on the assets held in the portfolio. Carefully analyze the individual holdings in the portfolio. Some mutual funds will be better diversified than others.
- If you invest through an employer-sponsored plan (such as a 401k or an IRA), chances are you are investing in mutual funds.
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Invest in an exchange traded fund (ETF). An ETF is like a mutual fund, except you buy it on a stock exchange, not from a fund.^{[10]
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- As with mutual funds, an ETF is not automatically diversified. For example, you might buy an oil ETF, which is concentrated in one industry. Carefully analyze the underlying investments to make sure the ETF has the necessary diversity.
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Consider an index fund. An index fund is a mutual fund designed to track an index, such as the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index or the DJ Wilshire 5000, which tracks the entire U.S. stock market. It is an easy way to get broad market exposure and thus diversify.^{[12]
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- Buying a total market index fund is the easiest and most effective way for the average person to build a diversified portfolio.
- Remember that you want to diversify across asset classes. Don't forget bonds, Treasuries and the money market. Some funds do invest in these other assets.
- Remember, too, that all mutual funds and ETFs charge fees for their service. Investigate the size of those fees before committing money. There are many good funds that charge total fees of less than 1% of your account balance, so there is no valid reason to pay more than that. ^{[13]
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  Research source} If you do your research, you should be able to find funds that are properly diversified.
- With respect to equities, aim to hold at least 20 stocks spread across various sectors. You can invest by picking individual stocks, or you can more easily diversify by investing in a fund that contains hundreds of stocks and/or bonds.
4
Get expert advice. Every person’s situation is different, and there’s no one right diversification approach for everyone. Instead, you should meet with a "fee-only" financial advisor who can help you analyze your situation. Look for an advisor who is a certified financial planner (CFP). To earn this designation, candidates must meet certain experience, education, and ethics standards. The advisor should also be a fiduciary, someone legally bound to work primarily in your best interests. (Just ask, "Are you a fiduciary?" If you don't get an immediate "yes" for an answer, find another advisor.)
- You can find a fee-only financial advisor through the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors. A fee-only advisor is one who does not earn a commission by recommending the purchase of specific financial products. ^{[14]
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- Discuss your investment goals with your advisor. Many people invest for retirement, and what qualifies as a well constructed portfolio will change over time. As an investor gets older, they will want to increase the ratio of bonds to stocks in their portfolio in order to diminish risk. (Some mutual funds can do that for you automatically.)
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Method 4

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Buying and Selling Intelligently

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Analyze your risk tolerance. How comfortable are you in taking financial risks? The more aggressive an investor is (the larger the rewards they hope to achieve), the larger the stock portion of their portfolio -- and the greater their risk tolerance -- will have to be.
- A conservative portfolio might have only 20% in equities, 70% in bonds and 10% in cash and cash equivalents (including certificates of deposit, banker's acceptances, treasury bills and other money-market instruments). ^{[15]
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- A person more tolerant of risk might invest 70% in equities, 20% in bonds, and 10% in cash or cash equivalents.
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Invest on a periodic basis. Let’s say you have $6,000 to invest in a year. If you invest all of that money at once, you might inadvertently buy into the market at a moment when equities are priced relatively high. A better option is to invest $500 a month. You would invest the same amount of money in a year's time, but as prices rise and fall, it's likely you would acquire a larger number of shares by year's end.
- This type of investing is called “dollar-cost averaging,” and it allows you to take advantage of the inevitable price dips that regularly occur in the market. ^{[16]
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You might dream of getting into the stock market at a price bottom and then selling at a peak. Many people who try to "time" the market in this way end up losing money, because recognizing a market peak or bottom isn't possible until after the fact. ^{[17]
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Choose appropriate assets based on when you plan to withdraw investment income. For example, if you have 40 years before you plan on retiring, you can ride out peaks and valleys in the stock market. There’s less reason to worry if the market falls when you are in your 30s, because you have plenty of time to recoup your losses. A younger person can afford to be more aggressive in their investing than an older person.
5
Rebalance your portfolio when necessary. Building a diverse portfolio is not a one-time event. Instead, you may need to rebalance your portfolio periodically. Review your investments once a year, and see if they still align with your investment goals.
- You might need to rebalance if some assets outperform others. For example, your equities might be on a hot streak for six years. Although they were 50% of your portfolio when you started investing, they now make up 70% through price appreciation. Assuming you still want stocks to form 50% of your portfolio, you’ll need to sell some stocks and replace them with bonds or other assets in order to maintain your preferred ratio. ^{[18]
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- Rebalancing might trigger tax consequences or transaction fees. Carefully analyze the process with your financial advisor before going ahead.
- If you invest through a "balanced" mutual fund, they will typically do this rebalancing for you automatically. (A "balanced" fund invests in both stocks and bonds.)
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Warnings

Diversification can manage risk, but it cannot completely eliminate it. Diversification won’t save you if the entire market goes into a tailspin, as it did in 2008 and 2009. Nonetheless, diversifying is a critically important tool for all investors. ^{[19]
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