The endowment portfolio characterized by 60 percent in stocks and 40 percent in bonds has thrived over the past four decades, but sustained high inflation has the potential to lower returns and increase volatility in the years ahead. This has prompted an interest in All-Weather portfolios, which combine stocks and bonds with assets like commodities that may respond more favourably to inflation.

We examine the distribution of rebalancing premiums for a simple risk parity implementation (a version of the Permanent Portfolio) consisting of US stocks, gold and bonds from 1982 through May 2020. We then proceed to analyze historical and expected future rebalancing premia for a variety of global risk parity strategies ..

In some ways new investment concepts are like any new technology. The progenitors of any early technology typically earn extraordinary profits until competition heats up. Eventually competition drives down profit margins and the technology becomes commoditized. But investment technology has a special quality that arises from…