Rebalancing investments
The rebalancing of investments (or constant mix) is the action / trading strategy of bringing a portfolio that has deviated away from one's target asset allocation back into line. This can be implemented by transferring assets, that is, selling investments of an asset class that is overweight and using the money to buy investments in a class that is underweight, but it also applies to adding or removing money from a portfolio, that is, putting new money into an underweight class, or making withdrawals from an overweight class. Rebalancing of investment is a concave trading strategy; as opposed  to constant proportion portfolio insurance (CPPI), which has convex payoff characteristic. Rebalancing to control risk. The investments in a portfolio will perform according to the market. As time goes on, a portfolio's current asset allocation will drift away from an investor's original target asset allocation (i.e., their preferred level of risk exposure). If left unadjusted, the portfolio will either become too risky, or too conservative. If it becomes too risky, that will tend to increase long-term returns, which is desirable. But when the excessive risks show up in the short term, the investor might have a tendency  to do the worst possible thing at the worst possible time (i.e., sell at the bottom), thus dramatically diminishing their ending wealth. If the portfolio is allowed to drift to a too conservative status, then excessive short-term risk is less likely, which is desirable. However, long-term returns would also tend to be lower than desired. It is best to maintain a portfolio's risk profile reasonably close to an investor's level of risk tolerance. The goal of rebalancing is to move the current asset allocation back in line to the originally planned asset allocation (i.e., their preferred  level of risk exposure). This rebalancing strategy is specifically known as a Constant-Mix Strategy and is one of the four main dynamic strategies for asset allocation. The other three strategies are 1) Buy-and-Hold, 2) Constant-Proportion and 3) Option-Based Portfolio Insurance. Rebalancing bonus. The promise of higher returns from rebalancing to a static asset allocation was introduced by William J. Bernstein in 1996. It has since been shown to only exist under certain situations that investors are not able to predict. At other times rebalancing can reduce returns. Most agree that: The constant-mix rebalancing strategy  will outperform all other strategies in oscillating markets. The buy-and-hold rebalancing strategy will outperform in up-trending markets. Rebalancing strategies. There are several rebalancing strategies: Some say that the exact choice is probably not too important, as long as the rebalancing is performed consistently. Some say otherwise, such as: Also