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In today's chaotic equity markets, conventional investing methods and traditional investing "wisdom" are rapidly becoming obsolete. Factors affect equity prices today that were inconceivable just a few short years ago. As a result, we, as individual investors, are stuck using outdated tools and portfolio design models to cope with new market challenges, and they no longer work.

Needed is a new set of investing concepts, tools and methods that recognize and address the unique dynamics of current equity markets. This is what I provide in The Perfect Portfolio in the form of a radically new approach to investing that I call the Perfect Portfolio Methodology (PPM). It is not a secret trading system or a get-rich-quick scheme, rather it is a logical and comprehensive approach to investing that not only empowers you to survive in today's markets, but to thrive.

The Perfect Portfolio Methodology will work for you because of the following factors:

• It greatly simplifies the entire investing process

• It is easy to understand and to implement; anyone with money to invest can use it

• It has the potential to provide extraordinary returns in all market conditions and with limited risk

• It does not require a significant amount of your time to monitor

• It enables you to design a portfolio that meets your exact investing profile in terms of goals and risk tolerance

OK, that is easy to say but I don't expect you to take my word for it at this point. So let me give you just a small sampling of the elements of the PPM that make these benefits possible. You will learn about each in greater detail in the book.

You will design your Perfect Portfolio using nine asset classes instead of the traditional three of Cash, Bonds and Stocks. This gives you significantly greater flexibility to create a portfolio that meets your unique investing profile and current market conditions. The PPM  asset classes, and your Portfolio Building Blocks, are:

These newly minted asset classes were selected based on extensive research showing that they provide the greatest range of diversity possible. In other words, each tends to act differently in response to the same market catalysts and there should always be at least one, or more likely, several, that perform well in any market condition. The assets with blue backgrounds are "Core" portfolio building blocks, the others are "Target Market" portfolio building blocks. How they differ is explained in the book.

In today's markets it is virtually impossible to evaluate individual stocks, bonds or funds using traditional analysis techniques. They no longer work! So the PPM suggests buying only total-market index funds or Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) for each asset class. The following table shows an example ETF for each of the eight non-cash PPM Building Blocks (you will use a Money Market Fund - MMF - for cash). In The Perfect Portfolio book you will learn how to find and analyze multiple investment candidates to find the best for each of the nine asset classes. 

Using ETFs and targeted index funds you will never again be subjected to the agony of searching for and analyzing individual securities or fund styles. Via total-market investment vehicles you will own hundreds of stocks and bonds in your portfolio even though you will only ever have a maximum of nine investments. Company risk is virtually eliminated and the entire investing process becomes exponentially simpler!

The above example ETFs give you plenty of flexibility to design a portfolio that meets your investing profile and virtually any market condition. But even this is not sufficient to meet the goals that the PPM is designed to deliver. The Perfect Portfolio shows you how to make money even when an asset class is trending lower. You do this by using what are called "short" or "inverse" ETFs that increase in value when the value of the related asset/market declines! Now you can decide to go "long" or "short" for each PPM asset class. Example short ETFs are shown in the table below. Those in green are "long" ETFs that go up when the asset class goes up and those in red are "short" ETFs that go up when the asset class goes down.

With the choice of a "long" or a "short" ETF for each Portfolio Building Block you can make money regardless of how the related asset/market is trending. For example, SDS, an ETF that shorts the S&P 500, earned close to PLUS 60% in 2008 while the market was losing 40%!

The third choice for each Building Block is to simply not include it in your portfolio. You would do this if your analysis does not give you a clear signal of whether an asset type or market is moving up or down. In which case the PPM suggests that you simply put it in a "Watch List" that will alert you when significant prices changes occur. You can then examine it again to see if it is trending up or down and a good candidate for your portfolio.

The days of "buy and hold" are over. Unless you have a time horizon of 10+ years, in today's markets you need to "buy and sell". The Perfect Portfolio Methodology shows you how to implement simple but powerful automated trading plans for just this purpose. In The Perfect Portfolio book you will learn how to use free Web-based tools, available from virtually all online brokers, to set price points at which you will sell an investment to either stop losses or to take profits. Once you put a plan in place, sell actions can be automatic. You don't need to spend a lot of time monitoring your portfolio to limit risk and achieve returns that a buy and hold strategy cannot match!

Click here to read a discussion of how Perfect Portfolio Building Block trading plans can be implemented using simple price charts and technical indicators.

With the above discussed tools and methods in place you are ready to design your unique Perfect Portfolio through the simple allocation of investment money among the nine portfolio Building Blocks. Following is a sample Perfect Portfolio design with allocations shown in the bottom row. This example shows a portfolio that is "long" in some areas and "short" (as indicated by symbols in red) in others 

The Perfect Portfolio book shows you how to define a set of allocations to meet your exact investing style and your assessment of current market conditions. And you can change your allocation set within seconds using any online broker to trade your investments. This flexibility gives you the power to immediately take advantage of market opportunities as they arise or to go defensive if the markets start to decline. Think how much this "rapid response" capability would have saved you in the last half of 2008! 

Click here to view an example of a worksheet and action plan that you will create as a "graduate" of The Perfect Portfolio. The link will open a new browser, close it when finished viewing.

The Perfect Portfolio Methodology is a revolutionary new way of designing an optimal portfolio. It gives you an incredibly diverse yet manageable set of investment candidates - you will only ever need a maximum of nine investments in your portfolio. You have the investing vehicles to make significant returns in all market conditions whether they are moving up OR down. And your portfolio risk/return profile is completely controlled by the parameters of your automated trading plans and your allocations to each asset that you include.

Of all the choices you have for personal investing books, The Perfect Portfolio is the ONE book that breaks from traditional investing concepts and empowers you to regain personal control of your portfolio and make money in any market condition with minimal risk. Here you will learn a revolutionary approach to personal investing that works in today's markets and will continue to work in the challenging markets that are sure to come.

It is time to start your life as a confident investor!