Community Spotlight: Matthew Tuttle
Matthew Tuttle , Tuttle Tactical Management
ETF Strategist
Matthew Tuttle is the company executive of Tuttle Tactical Management. Matthew has been a member of Harvest since November 2014, posting content around tactical asset allocation and smart beta , with his latest post sharing insight into the current market and implications for tactical asset allocation .
How would you describe your investment philosophy?
We take an approach called trend aggregation, meaning 1) We have no fixed allocations to stocks, bonds, or cash. 2) We use multiple tactical models to make our allocation decisions 3) We look back over multiple time frames from 30 minutes to weekly. The goal of our philosophy is to make as much money as possible on the upside and protect from the downside, while avoiding some of the pitfalls that tactical strategies can suffer in choppy markets.
What are some of the common pitfalls that you’ve seen other investors make?
Buy and hold and asset allocators make the mistake of doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results (the definition of insanity). Most of the time the markets are going up so these approaches appear to work, but they give back all or most of their gains in the inevitable bear market. Every time a bear market comes they try to convince themselves it is a fluke but bear markets will always be with us. Many tactical investors make the mistake of trying to find the one perfect tactical model that will work in every market environment. This is as senseless as trying to find the one perfect asset class. There is no one tactical model.
What makes your strategies so different versus your peers?
The biggest differences in our approach are the combining of multiple, uncorrelated, tactical models and the ability to go down to intraday time frames. Combining multiple tactical models ensures that no one methodology can hurt our portfolio when it cycles out of favor. Being able to move on an intraday basis makes sure that we are not hurt by choppy markets like most other tactical managers and ensures that we can move quickly to get in sync with market trends.
