Grey Ledge Advisors RAMP portfolio Review 6/30/2022

RAMP Conservative Portfolio
The conservative portfolio is the most risk averse of the four RAMP platforms.  The asset allocation approximates 55% fixed income, 40% common stocks and 5% gold.  The year-to-date total return for the portfolio is minus 10.6%.  The S&P 500 stock index is down 21% this year and the Barclay’s aggregate bond index (a high- quality bond index owning bonds maturing from five to ten years) is down 11%.  The RAMP conservative portfolio has fared slightly better than the Barclay’s aggregate index despite having 40% in common stocks.  Due to the conservative nature of this portfolio, close to 40% of the portfolio is invested in utility stocks, gold, consumer staples stocks and short- term high quality bonds.  These have all buttressed the portfolio having negative returns in the single digits as opposed to the -11% return of the Barclay’s bond index and the -21% return of the S&P 500.
RAMP Balanced Portfolio
The balanced portfolio takes a further step out on the risk spectrum with an allocation of 60% common stocks and 40% fixed income.  The year-to-date return for the portfolio is minus 12.7%.  This makes sense as the balanced portfolio is more exposed to equities compared to the conservative portfolio.  A 60% common stock / 40% fixed income portfolio could be expected to be down closer to 17% based on the numbers stated above for the markets.  The balanced portfolio has also benefited from a weighting of 25% in utility stocks, consumer staples stocks and short- term bonds.  These areas have held value well and helped insulate the portfolio, to some degree.
RAMP Growth Portfolio
The growth portfolio further steps out on the risk spectrum having essentially 100% of the portfolio invested in common stocks.  The portfolio is well diversified having exposure to US large company stocks, mid cap stocks, small cap stocks, International developed stocks and emerging markets stocks.  The year-to-date return for the portfolio is minus 18.4%.  Mentioned earlier was that the S&P 500 stock index is down 21% this year and the growth portfolio has fared somewhat better.  Exposure to emerging market stocks, clean energy stocks and large cap US value stocks has buffered the return compared to the S&P 500.  These same areas underperformed in 2021 and are showing some improvement in 2022.
RAMP Aggressive Portfolio
The aggressive portfolio is also invested in 100% common stocks, but the weightings differ somewhat from the growth portfolio.  The aggressive portfolio is down 17.6% this year, which is slightly better than the growth portfolio due, perversely, to a higher weighting in the more volatile sectors.  We would generally expect the aggressive portfolio to be down in value somewhat more than the growth portfolio in a market environment similar to 2022.  However, the more volatile sectors performed relatively poorly in 2021 and thus far in 2022 have held up relatively well.