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A Monte Carlo study of the strategies for 401(k) plans: dollar-cost-averaging, value-averaging, and proportional rebalancing

Financial Services Review | 2010

Paper Details

Authors:

DOI: 10.61190/fsr.v19i2.4967

Journal: Financial Services Review

Year: 2010

Publisher: Academy of Financial Services

Document Type: Article

Open Access: All Open Access; Gold Open Access

Cited by: 6

Abstract

This study conducts Monte Carlo simulations to compare the performances of three popular asset allocation strategies in the financial press, that is, dollar-cost-averaging, value averaging, and proportional rebalancing, in the 401(k) plan framework. Value-averaging generates a higher terminal value for a retirement portfolio than the other two strategies. Total risk of the portfolio is lower under value averaging than under dollar cost averaging. Value averaging provides the highest reward-to-risk ratio as well as the highest likelihood of meeting the investment goal. Based on the overall consideration of terminal value, total risk, modified Sharpe ratio, modified Sortino ratio, and dominance frequency, a targeted annual growth rate of between 9% and 11% for the equity account should be used as the target growth rate in conducting value averaging. © 2010 Academy of Financial Services. All rights reserved.

Keywords

401(k) investing; Dollar-cost-averaging; Proportional rebalancing; Simulation; Value-averaging