Aronson Family Taxable Portfolio
The Aronson Family Taxable Portfolio is a portfolio by Ted Aronson, an asset manager at AJO Partners. It's a well-diversified portfolio consisting of 11 funds that cover 4 major asset classes: Emerging Market Equity, US Equity, Fixed Income, and Foreign Equity.
Asset Allocation
Performance
Performance Chart
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The earliest data available for this chart is Apr 11, 2007, corresponding to the inception date of HYG
Returns By Period
As of May 11, 2025, the Aronson Family Taxable Portfolio returned 0.90% Year-To-Date and 6.26% of annualized return in the last 10 years.
| YTD | 1M | 6M | 1Y | 5Y* | 10Y* | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
^GSPC S&P 500 | -3.77% | 7.44% | -5.60% | 8.37% | 14.12% | 10.46% |
| Aronson Family Taxable Portfolio | 0.90% | 7.47% | -2.74% | 5.41% | 7.94% | 6.26% |
| Portfolio components: | ||||||
VPL Vanguard FTSE Pacific ETF | 8.40% | 12.24% | 4.24% | 6.61% | 8.35% | 4.78% |
VV Vanguard Large-Cap ETF | -3.28% | 7.72% | -4.84% | 10.20% | 15.71% | 12.36% |
IJT iShares S&P SmallCap 600 Growth ETF | -6.88% | 10.23% | -13.96% | -2.09% | 11.29% | 8.07% |
VTI Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF | -3.75% | 7.98% | -5.68% | 9.17% | 15.27% | 11.77% |
VGK Vanguard FTSE Europe ETF | 17.21% | 11.40% | 13.20% | 11.08% | 13.55% | 5.92% |
IJS iShares S&P SmallCap 600 Value ETF | -12.66% | 9.73% | -17.33% | -4.23% | 13.26% | 6.55% |
TLT iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF | 1.08% | 1.10% | -3.86% | 0.64% | -9.36% | -0.54% |
IJR iShares Core S&P Small-Cap ETF | -9.79% | 9.98% | -15.57% | -2.96% | 12.52% | 7.56% |
EEM iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF | 7.39% | 10.94% | 2.28% | 8.20% | 6.49% | 2.83% |
TIP iShares TIPS Bond ETF | 3.53% | 1.56% | 1.94% | 5.91% | 1.49% | 2.41% |
HYG iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF | 1.81% | 3.19% | 1.32% | 8.32% | 5.19% | 3.96% |
Monthly Returns
The table below presents the monthly returns of Aronson Family Taxable Portfolio, with color gradation from worst to best to easily spot seasonal factors. Returns are adjusted for dividends.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2.35% | -0.11% | -2.27% | -0.28% | 1.27% | 0.90% | |||||||
| 2024 | -1.29% | 2.42% | 2.45% | -3.76% | 3.51% | 0.71% | 3.91% | 1.03% | 1.89% | -2.96% | 3.78% | -4.06% | 7.40% |
| 2023 | 7.11% | -3.21% | 1.51% | -0.01% | -1.42% | 4.30% | 2.90% | -3.11% | -4.29% | -3.25% | 7.49% | 6.36% | 14.19% |
| 2022 | -4.40% | -1.09% | -0.49% | -6.86% | 0.39% | -6.55% | 6.09% | -3.85% | -8.99% | 4.42% | 7.16% | -3.74% | -17.79% |
| 2021 | 0.96% | 1.82% | 1.40% | 2.34% | 1.28% | 1.16% | 0.05% | 1.30% | -2.64% | 2.81% | -1.68% | 2.52% | 11.75% |
| 2020 | -1.02% | -4.54% | -10.60% | 8.02% | 3.53% | 2.60% | 4.16% | 3.36% | -1.94% | -0.66% | 10.00% | 4.82% | 17.20% |
| 2019 | 6.74% | 1.62% | 0.72% | 2.07% | -4.03% | 4.89% | 0.01% | -0.65% | 1.51% | 1.82% | 1.61% | 2.40% | 19.96% |
| 2018 | 2.99% | -3.55% | 0.31% | -0.05% | 1.51% | -0.34% | 1.85% | 1.24% | -0.71% | -6.89% | 1.73% | -5.00% | -7.17% |
| 2017 | 2.08% | 1.92% | 0.81% | 1.14% | 0.94% | 0.99% | 1.80% | 0.32% | 1.95% | 1.68% | 1.67% | 1.16% | 17.73% |
| 2016 | -3.26% | 0.05% | 6.01% | 0.70% | 0.42% | 1.57% | 3.71% | 0.42% | 0.90% | -2.24% | 1.38% | 1.33% | 11.22% |
| 2015 | 0.35% | 3.17% | -0.12% | 0.89% | -0.33% | -1.66% | 0.15% | -4.90% | -2.26% | 5.12% | 0.08% | -2.24% | -2.10% |
| 2014 | -2.56% | 3.31% | 0.56% | 0.14% | 1.98% | 2.11% | -1.43% | 2.57% | -3.75% | 2.85% | 0.14% | -0.25% | 5.52% |
Expense Ratio
Aronson Family Taxable Portfolio has an expense ratio of 0.19%, which is considered low. Below, you can find the expense ratios of the portfolio's funds side by side and easily compare their relative costs.
Risk-Adjusted Performance
Risk-Adjusted Performance Rank
The current rank of Aronson Family Taxable Portfolio is 25, meaning it’s performing worse than 75% of other portfolios on our website when it comes to balancing risk and reward. Below is a breakdown of how it compares using common performance measures.
Risk-Adjusted Performance Indicators
This table presents a comparison of risk-adjusted performance metrics for positions. Risk-adjusted metrics are performance indicators that assess an investment's returns in relation to its risk, enabling a more accurate comparison of different investment options.
| Sharpe ratio | Sortino ratio | Omega ratio | Calmar ratio | Martin ratio | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
VPL Vanguard FTSE Pacific ETF | 0.33 | 0.56 | 1.07 | 0.35 | 1.04 |
VV Vanguard Large-Cap ETF | 0.53 | 0.90 | 1.13 | 0.58 | 2.22 |
IJT iShares S&P SmallCap 600 Growth ETF | -0.11 | 0.05 | 1.01 | -0.07 | -0.22 |
VTI Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF | 0.47 | 0.83 | 1.12 | 0.51 | 1.94 |
VGK Vanguard FTSE Europe ETF | 0.66 | 1.13 | 1.15 | 0.91 | 2.56 |
IJS iShares S&P SmallCap 600 Value ETF | -0.20 | -0.04 | 1.00 | -0.12 | -0.35 |
TLT iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF | 0.01 | 0.09 | 1.01 | -0.00 | -0.01 |
IJR iShares Core S&P Small-Cap ETF | -0.15 | 0.01 | 1.00 | -0.09 | -0.27 |
EEM iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF | 0.44 | 0.79 | 1.10 | 0.32 | 1.44 |
TIP iShares TIPS Bond ETF | 1.24 | 1.78 | 1.23 | 0.59 | 3.82 |
HYG iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF | 1.45 | 2.08 | 1.30 | 1.74 | 9.20 |
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Dividends
Dividend yield
Aronson Family Taxable Portfolio provided a 2.66% dividend yield over the last twelve months.
| TTM | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Portfolio | 2.66% | 2.60% | 2.46% | 3.00% | 2.32% | 1.58% | 2.24% | 2.53% | 2.10% | 2.13% | 2.06% | 2.24% |
| Portfolio components: | ||||||||||||
VPL Vanguard FTSE Pacific ETF | 3.09% | 3.15% | 3.12% | 2.75% | 3.19% | 1.81% | 2.85% | 3.06% | 2.57% | 2.65% | 2.43% | 2.69% |
VV Vanguard Large-Cap ETF | 1.31% | 1.24% | 1.41% | 1.66% | 1.19% | 1.46% | 1.81% | 2.09% | 1.75% | 1.98% | 1.96% | 1.77% |
IJT iShares S&P SmallCap 600 Growth ETF | 1.17% | 1.06% | 1.02% | 1.08% | 0.63% | 0.68% | 0.92% | 0.92% | 0.86% | 1.03% | 1.14% | 0.78% |
VTI Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF | 1.35% | 1.27% | 1.44% | 1.67% | 1.21% | 1.42% | 1.78% | 2.04% | 1.71% | 1.92% | 1.98% | 1.76% |
VGK Vanguard FTSE Europe ETF | 2.99% | 3.61% | 3.15% | 3.25% | 3.05% | 2.11% | 3.27% | 3.95% | 2.70% | 3.52% | 3.25% | 4.62% |
IJS iShares S&P SmallCap 600 Value ETF | 2.04% | 1.78% | 1.42% | 1.46% | 1.52% | 1.00% | 1.66% | 1.75% | 1.41% | 1.22% | 1.59% | 1.41% |
TLT iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF | 4.35% | 4.30% | 3.38% | 2.67% | 1.50% | 1.50% | 2.27% | 2.63% | 2.43% | 2.60% | 2.61% | 2.67% |
IJR iShares Core S&P Small-Cap ETF | 2.28% | 2.05% | 1.31% | 1.41% | 1.53% | 1.11% | 1.44% | 1.58% | 1.20% | 1.21% | 1.48% | 1.23% |
EEM iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF | 2.26% | 2.43% | 2.63% | 2.50% | 1.99% | 1.45% | 2.76% | 2.24% | 1.89% | 1.89% | 2.49% | 2.23% |
TIP iShares TIPS Bond ETF | 2.91% | 2.52% | 2.73% | 6.96% | 4.28% | 1.17% | 1.75% | 2.71% | 2.07% | 1.48% | 0.34% | 1.67% |
HYG iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF | 5.89% | 6.01% | 5.74% | 5.30% | 4.02% | 4.88% | 4.99% | 5.54% | 5.12% | 5.27% | 5.90% | 5.69% |
Drawdowns
Drawdowns Chart
The Drawdowns chart displays portfolio losses from any high point along the way. Drawdowns are calculated considering price movements and all distributions paid, if any.
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Worst Drawdowns
The table below displays the maximum drawdowns of the Aronson Family Taxable Portfolio. A maximum drawdown is a measure of risk, indicating the largest reduction in portfolio value due to a series of losing trades.
The maximum drawdown for the Aronson Family Taxable Portfolio was 42.95%, occurring on Mar 9, 2009. Recovery took 420 trading sessions.
The current Aronson Family Taxable Portfolio drawdown is 3.66%.
Depth | Start | To Bottom | Bottom | To Recover | End | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -42.95% | Nov 1, 2007 | 339 | Mar 9, 2009 | 420 | Nov 4, 2010 | 759 |
| -25.12% | Jan 17, 2020 | 42 | Mar 18, 2020 | 96 | Aug 4, 2020 | 138 |
| -24.93% | Nov 10, 2021 | 234 | Oct 14, 2022 | 438 | Jul 16, 2024 | 672 |
| -14.48% | Apr 27, 2015 | 202 | Feb 11, 2016 | 115 | Jul 27, 2016 | 317 |
| -14.09% | Jan 29, 2018 | 229 | Dec 24, 2018 | 129 | Jul 1, 2019 | 358 |
Volatility
Volatility Chart
The chart below shows the rolling one-month volatility.
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Diversification
Diversification Metrics
Number of Effective Assets
The portfolio contains 11 assets, with an effective number of assets of 9.09, reflecting the diversification based on asset allocation. This number of effective assets indicates a moderate level of diversification, where some assets may have a more significant influence on overall performance.
Asset Correlations Table
| ^GSPC | TIP | TLT | HYG | EEM | VPL | VGK | IJS | IJT | IJR | VV | VTI | Portfolio | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ^GSPC | 1.00 | -0.12 | -0.28 | 0.65 | 0.75 | 0.78 | 0.80 | 0.82 | 0.85 | 0.84 | 1.00 | 0.99 | 0.91 |
| TIP | -0.12 | 1.00 | 0.73 | 0.08 | -0.07 | -0.05 | -0.07 | -0.13 | -0.12 | -0.12 | -0.12 | -0.12 | 0.05 |
| TLT | -0.28 | 0.73 | 1.00 | -0.08 | -0.24 | -0.22 | -0.25 | -0.28 | -0.27 | -0.28 | -0.28 | -0.28 | -0.13 |
| HYG | 0.65 | 0.08 | -0.08 | 1.00 | 0.58 | 0.59 | 0.61 | 0.58 | 0.60 | 0.60 | 0.66 | 0.66 | 0.70 |
| EEM | 0.75 | -0.07 | -0.24 | 0.58 | 1.00 | 0.81 | 0.78 | 0.65 | 0.67 | 0.67 | 0.75 | 0.75 | 0.84 |
| VPL | 0.78 | -0.05 | -0.22 | 0.59 | 0.81 | 1.00 | 0.80 | 0.68 | 0.70 | 0.70 | 0.78 | 0.78 | 0.87 |
| VGK | 0.80 | -0.07 | -0.25 | 0.61 | 0.78 | 0.80 | 1.00 | 0.70 | 0.71 | 0.71 | 0.80 | 0.80 | 0.85 |
| IJS | 0.82 | -0.13 | -0.28 | 0.58 | 0.65 | 0.68 | 0.70 | 1.00 | 0.95 | 0.98 | 0.82 | 0.85 | 0.87 |
| IJT | 0.85 | -0.12 | -0.27 | 0.60 | 0.67 | 0.70 | 0.71 | 0.95 | 1.00 | 0.98 | 0.86 | 0.89 | 0.89 |
| IJR | 0.84 | -0.12 | -0.28 | 0.60 | 0.67 | 0.70 | 0.71 | 0.98 | 0.98 | 1.00 | 0.85 | 0.88 | 0.89 |
| VV | 1.00 | -0.12 | -0.28 | 0.66 | 0.75 | 0.78 | 0.80 | 0.82 | 0.86 | 0.85 | 1.00 | 0.99 | 0.92 |
| VTI | 0.99 | -0.12 | -0.28 | 0.66 | 0.75 | 0.78 | 0.80 | 0.85 | 0.89 | 0.88 | 0.99 | 1.00 | 0.93 |
| Portfolio | 0.91 | 0.05 | -0.13 | 0.70 | 0.84 | 0.87 | 0.85 | 0.87 | 0.89 | 0.89 | 0.92 | 0.93 | 1.00 |
AI Insight on Diversification
The portfolio is moderately diversified with a notable tilt toward equity exposure, as evidenced by the high correlations among most equity positions and the portfolio itself. The portfolio's correlation with broad equity indices like VTI (0.93) and VV (0.92) is very strong, indicating that equities dominate the portfolio's overall behavior.
Several equity positions—such as IJR, IJT, IJS, VGK, VPL, and EEM—exhibit very high inter-correlations, mostly above 0.65 and often exceeding 0.85. This clustering suggests these holdings move closely together, which limits diversification benefits within the equity sleeve. In particular, IJR, IJT, and IJS show correlations above 0.95 with each other, indicating near redundancy in exposure to small- and mid-cap U.S. equities.
On the fixed income side, TIP and TLT are highly correlated (0.73), but their correlations with the equity positions are generally low to negative, which provides some diversification. The portfolio's correlation with TIP is very low (0.05), and slightly negative with TLT (-0.13), reflecting that fixed income holdings contribute to reducing overall portfolio volatility and provide a buffer against equity market swings.
HYG, a high-yield bond ETF, has moderate positive correlations with both equities (around 0.58 to 0.66) and the portfolio (0.70), positioning it somewhat between fixed income and equity in risk profile. This hybrid correlation characteristic can add nuanced diversification but also introduces some equity-like risk.
No single position completely dominates the portfolio, but the very high correlations between the portfolio and broad equity ETFs like VV and VTI (above 0.90) imply that the portfolio's risk and return profile is largely driven by broad U.S. equity market movements. The fixed income allocations, while smaller in correlation magnitude, play a critical role in diversification by providing low or negative correlations with the equity components.
In summary, the portfolio is not highly concentrated but leans heavily on equity exposures that are closely correlated, limiting diversification within that asset class. The inclusion of Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIP), long-term Treasuries (TLT), and high-yield bonds (HYG) introduces some diversification benefits by offering lower or negative correlations with equities. To enhance diversification further, the portfolio might consider reducing overlap among highly correlated equity positions or increasing allocations to assets with lower correlations to the core equity holdings.