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I'm looking for an application that can help me rebalance my investment portfolio. I'm not looking for something that will suggest percentages for each asset class. I'm looking for something that, given my desired portfolio (% in each class) and current investments, will suggest investments to buy/sell to regain the desired balance. This is complicated by the fact that between myself and my wife, current and past jobs, retirement and taxable accounts, we have about 7 different accounts that need to be considered.

I tried coding something up in Excel, but it made my head hurt. I could try something in a real programming language, but just don't have the time. The stuff I've found seems to either be geared towards investment professionals, or aimed at figuring out what your ideal portfolio should look like.

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    Quicken will analyze a portfolio (even spread across different accounts) into asset classes (including mutual funds), but it doesn't recommend specific investments to be buying and selling... just percentages in the class.
    – user296
    Aug 20, 2010 at 3:28
  • Thank you, bencode, for the awesome online tool! You have saved me innumerable headaches!
    – user32754
    Aug 29, 2015 at 22:43

5 Answers 5

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I've had decent luck with a spreadsheet -- even with a similarly complicated situation like yours. The trick may be that it's just "good enough", I don't try to cover all of the scenarios. I manually categorize each security into the respective asset class, import updated prices from time to time, and then it tells me when one class is too big/small and by how much.

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I had the same issue and the calculators I found online weren't easy to understand or use. After starting with a spreadsheet I then created a Rebalancing calculator online. You can evaluate rebalancing by contributing or buying/selling within each asset class. It works offline as well and can save data locally to avoid privacy concerns.

  1. Setup your asset classes and target allocations Setup your asset classes

  2. Get suggestions on how to rebalance Get suggestions on how to rebalance

Edit: Added links to other online calculators

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  • Did you make the calculator because you are a programmer and solve problems that way, or did you make it to sell or somehow generate money? If you are linking it to promote a product, please don't. If you are linking it because you made a cool tool; awesome.
    – MrChrister
    Jun 28, 2014 at 0:57
  • I created a tool to solve a problem, there is no product mentioned or way I make money (unlike the Morningstar Xray report tool suggested in another answer). If you have suggestions on how I would avoid my answer sounding like a product promotion please let me know.
    – bencode
    Jul 5, 2014 at 22:43
  • Just checking. It felt legit, and I am glad it was.
    – MrChrister
    Jul 5, 2014 at 22:53
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Closest thing I know of is the Morningstar Xray report. It's a premium service that will analyze your portfolio and tell you what % you have invested in what categories across all of your accounts. I don't think it will suggest trades to rebalance, but it is the best tool I know of to analyze your current positions in many mutual funds.

Unfortunately, Morningstar Xray is a "premium" feature, price is $179/year.

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  • do you think the $179/yr is worth it? I have 5 or 6 accounts (trad IRA, Roths, brokerage, etc) and it is a pain to keep track of positions
    – Chirag Patel
    Dec 16, 2010 at 4:52
  • @ChiragPatel It is not worth it to me. I would enjoy the extra details, but if I spend $179/yr, I expect to earn at least more than an extra $179/yr as a result of my efforts. I categorize my investments already as large cap, small cap, international, etc. I don't think I would gain $179/yr in additional profit by having better categorizations than I already use.
    – Alex B
    Dec 16, 2010 at 15:21
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    @Chirag Patel and @Alex B, you might consider taking a look at www.investy.com which offers much of what x-ray does but with additional analysis of risk and financial health. It's significantly cheaper, so it might be a good trade-off if you're looking for the most bang for the buck. (Disclaimer: I'm the founder of Investy). Also, another alternative (which I'm not affiliated with) would be to use the x-ray tool that gets included with a TD Ameritrade account. I believe they include it with a free account signup.
    – The Matt
    Apr 30, 2011 at 22:47
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Here is another one which does not require any spreadsheets software. It is pretty straight forward just type in your symbols, quantity, allocation. I don't think it works if you have multiple accounts.

http://www.bowgett.com/Resources/Tools/PortfolioRebalancingTool.aspx

Portfolio Re-balancing Tool Screenshot enter image description here

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I use this one in excel :

http://www.hoadley.net/options/develtoolsoptimize.htm

Regards

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