The Benefits of Rebalancing in High-Volatility
Environments

Abstract

Using daily market return data and a simplified base portfolio with equal weights for equity and fixed income, Zweber examines various rebalancing strategies over a recent market cycle to determine which approach performs best in periods of high volatility. The period analyzed had similar annualized returns for the equity and fixed-income benchmark indices, but with large return deviations intraperiod. Each of the rebalancing strategies outperformed both the benchmark and buy-and-hold portfolio on an absolute and risk-adjusted basis. During the extreme volatility of late 2008 and 2009, tighter rebalance thresholds were shown to provide the greatest incremental value in return enhancement and risk reduction.