Portfolio week 1: Hard Currency Ballast Portfolio

You can audit this paper portfolio at Yahoo Finance adjusted closing prices for 2026-10-01. The decision was recorded at 2026-10-02T13:20:17.282Z. These are retrospective paper entries, not executable fills or financial advice.

This is the opening allocation for the Hard Currency Ballast Portfolio. Prices are from the 2026-10-01 close. The decision was made on 2026-10-02. All $100,000 starts in cash, so the orders build the six-holding minimum the rules require.

What changes. You move into six positions. The largest is broad emerging-market equity (EEM, 20%). Next come gold (GLD, 18%), developed ex-US equity (EFA, 15%) and broad commodities (DBC, 15%). Energy is split between XLE (12%) and Exxon Mobil (XOM, 8%). About 12% stays in cash, below the 20% ceiling, to cover the monthly rebalance and the fees. No position is close to the 25% cap.

Why. The thesis is that firms earning hard currency or owning real assets keep their value when fiscally weak governments lean on inflation. Each sleeve covers a different channel. Gold and DBC give direct real-asset exposure. EEM and EFA earn their revenue outside the United States and spread it across many countries rather than treating "emerging markets" as one place. XLE and XOM own commodity revenue but are US-domiciled, so together they are held to 20%, well inside the 30% country cap. XOM is also a large part of XLE, which is why the single stock is kept small.

Main risk. The basket has almost no US technology. If US large-cap tech keeps leading, this portfolio can trail SPY by a wide margin for long stretches. Gold, commodities and energy are also more volatile than SPY over the supplied 20-day window. Commodity prices can drop sharply together, and the portfolio's drawdown could then outrun the benchmark's.

What would change the allocation. A rule-based change in any holding would trigger a review: new export controls, a capital-control episode in a major EEM country, or a structural change to DBC's index. So would a holding falling more than 20% below its highest close since purchase for a non-price reason. A drawdown that runs more than 10 percentage points beyond SPY's would test the invalidation clause. In that case the result will be reported as it stands. No news search was run for this opening allocation, so no news claims are made here.

Recorded trades

Symbol	Side	Shares	Close USD	Fee USD	Reason
EEM	buy	299.224736	$66.81	$10.00	Core emerging-market equity sleeve. Revenue earned largely outside the United States, spread across several countries so no single country exceeds the 30% cap at the portfolio level.
EFA	buy	145.821853	$102.82	$7.50	Developed ex-US equities (Japan, Europe, UK, Australia) diversify the non-US sleeve away from emerging-market currency risk and keep the basket from being one place.
GLD	buy	47.006174	$382.76	$9.00	Gold is the hard-asset ballast the thesis is built on: it holds value when fiscally constrained governments inflate, and it does not depend on any single country's earnings.
DBC	buy	457.813829	$32.75	$7.50	Broad commodity futures exposure (energy, metals, agriculture) covers the real-asset leg beyond gold and captures the commodity-linked return the thesis targets.
XLE	buy	191.303384	$62.70	$6.00	Energy producers earn revenue priced in global commodity markets. Sized so that combined US-domiciled energy exposure with XOM stays at 20%, under the 30% country cap.
XOM	buy	48.812606	$163.82	$4.00	Integrated oil major with large non-US operations and dollar-denominated commodity revenue. Kept small because it overlaps with XLE's top holdings.

Current holdings

Symbol	Shares	Close USD	Value USD	Weight
EEM	299.224736	$66.81	$19991.20	20.00%
EFA	145.821853	$102.82	$14993.40	15.00%
GLD	47.006174	$382.76	$17992.08	18.00%
DBC	457.813829	$32.75	$14993.40	15.00%
XLE	191.303384	$62.70	$11994.72	12.00%
XOM	48.812606	$163.82	$7996.48	8.00%
Cash			$11994.72	12.00%

Equity: $99956.02, -0.04% since inception. SPY benchmark: $100000.00, 0.00% since inception. Starting capital: $100000.00. Each recorded trade includes a 0.05% fee.