I'll stick with my system. Very simple; buy stuff that is going up and don't hold losers in the portfolio for more than a day.
That the wealth management industry has done an excellent job of convincing the public that they are not capable of looking after their own money and need to pay someone to do it for them, when in reality a balanced ETF would give them the same results at a much lower cost.
At this point I have to believe you're just being obtuse because you can't be that dense. There is some work involved in knowing what "balance" of an ETF is needed depending who you are and where you are in life. If you're a 25 year old who just sold your company to Facebook and have your entire net worth tied up in Facebook stock, it's a great idea to sell most if not all of that and invest in some S&P500 and maybe a couple of PE funds. If you're 69 and just retired from Intel with a 401K full of Intel stock that you plan to live off for the rest of your retirement, that investment mix for the 25 year old would be horrible. Instead you'd recommend a mix of bonds, treasuries, S&P500, RUT, and maybe a world fund with that mix depending on the risk appetite of the client. If that same client planned to spend half of each year in Europe, you'd recommend a bigger split of European indexes to help smooth exchange fluctuations. This is all obvious to you and me. It may very well not be obvious to the vast majority of otherwise intelligent folks who don't have the time or inclination to learn about it. The entire investment management industry is moving to fee only, so you pay $X to get access to Y hours of an experts time, they make recommendations, and you carry them out. Simple professional transaction exactly like millions of other professional transactions that we all carry out every day in a myriad of fields we don't happen to be experts in and need a little advice. I can change my own oil and if I had the inclination I could learn how to change out a transmission, but since I don't want to and there are other folks who have a heck of a lot more experience at it then me, I go to them if I want that done. Exact same here. There's no evil industry or stupid MBAs or any of the rest, any more than any other fee based service industry.
Then WHY do you want to pay someone to do that if you are able to? Sorry but you are all over the place here... Also if you are long term holder why would you dump a loser after one day? Needless commissions for a stock that might be churning and then rip off a 40% move.
Because eventually I won't be able to. I'd like to find someone I can trust to manage the portfolio the way I do if/when I'm not around. I'm only a long term holder of stocks that continue to move in my direction. I'd rather be in cash missing a move up than be in the market experiencing a move down. Commissions are negligible.
Go to a broker you trust or major bank and hire someone there to manage your money. They are all the same anyway and the bigger institutions have more resources. You can check statements monthly or quarterly and meet with them. But you will not get any guarantees of performance and if you do run.
Problem with brokers and the banks is they want to control risk with asset allocation and diversification. It is what they have been taught. I want to be fully invested in equities when the market is trending up and in cash when it is trending down. Everyone says this is too risky. I've been lucky; it has worked for me. I believe you control risk by having a system that takes you out of the market when it is falling. Don't hold stocks that are not performing. I have not been able to find a portfolio manager that is willing to sell when the market is dropping because they are afraid it might go back up.
It's really simple, man. Sell everything you have in equities, RIGHT NOW. Go all to cash as we are at ATH. Cash is king now. Do not try to squeeze every dollar out of the market. Because we are in a fucked place. Super ATH circa 2018. Fed speak incoming. War incoming maybe. Election incoming. Jesus, get your shit to cash, hunker down and wait. You do not need to pay someone for common sense.
I learned a long time ago that I should pay attention to what the market is doing rather than what I and everyone else thinks it should do. Let's see what happens next.