Sidepocket offers multiple categories of Tactical Asset Allocation (TAA) investment models. It’s important to understand TAA in the context of its big sister, strategic allocation.

Strategic (SAA) allocation looks at the client and their current state in the life cycle and makes allocations based on time to cash-needs (retirement, house purchase), and then lets them sit. This is what typical advisors do; it is a fire and forget approach to portfolio management. As cash needs approach, the portfolio will move to a more risk-off approach to reduce volatility before the outflow.

TAA starts with the same premise as SAA and draws from the security universe that corresponds to the timeline for clients, but takes advantage of shorter-term price movements to position the portfolio for higher returns in the long term.

For example; take a TAA based algorithm that looks at market health signals when determining a level of risk to apply to security selection for the next time period. If equity markets are up, commodity markets are relatively stable, bond markets are stable, a risk-on approach is taken and there might be a higher allocation to volatile equities that outperform.

However, in a situation where equity markets are stalling or falling, commodity markets are spiking, and bond markets are dropping (inflationary environment), our TAA algorithm will allocate risk-off, going to low-risk equities in consumer staples, low duration bonds/bills, or commodity markets or gold to hedge against inflation.

“Winning more by losing less” is the unstated goal of TAA that seeks to take advantage of shorter-term price movements to reduce drawdown in market turbulence and increase returns in times of plenty.

Holding the S&P 500 exposes the investor to broad market risk, which includes both up and down movements, with no flexibility to manage risk actively. The tactical investment models offered in Sidepocket manage downside risk more actively. For example, in a period of heightened uncertainty or market volatility, Sidepocket’s investment models can reduce exposure to riskier assets and allocate more towards safer options, like cash, short term bonds, or defensive equities.

Sidepocket offers multiple categories of Tactical Asset Allocation (TAA) investment models (see “Why is Sidepocket different?”). Each model is composed of multiple Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). The model automatically allocates to a set of ETFs in the universe in different proportions each month, depending on market conditions. Clients can fund models via one time transaction or by setting up a funding schedule with a preset frequency, and each model will automatically rebalance each month. Funding or removing funds is quick and easy, executing in seconds during market hours.

Rebalancing occurs on a regular basis on the first trading day of every month. *Rebalancing can occur more frequently depending on market conditions.

Sidepocket has no membership or subscription fee. We charge an annual fee of 0.79% of assets in each account (which is roughly 0.06% per month). *Fees are drawn directly from the investment account each month.

Picture yourself as a sharp, self-driven individual who believes smart choices shape your future—maybe you even read non-fiction for fun or play chess to outmaneuver opponents with strategic precision. You’re not afraid to dive into something new and learn if it gives you an edge toward financial freedom, but you’re too savvy to fall for the automated trading bots flooding social media: unregulated traps that plug into your brokerage, lose your money, and take no responsibility. You’re smart enough to differentiate those from SEC-registered entities—like us—that have a fiduciary duty to act in your best interest. You take your financial goals seriously, and you’ve already figured out the game: most investment strategies hype gains but bury the risks. You know a 50% drop—like 2008 or 2020—means clawing back 100% just to break even, and that math slows you down.

You might trade stocks or options, or you’re exploring allocation strategies beyond the tired basics: 60/40 stock/bond portfolios, Strategic Asset Allocation, and weak automated options that mimic the SPY and tank in downturns. You’ve seen through the noise: copy-trading apps with stale data (like Nancy Pelosi’s trades, legally a quarter late), or brokerage apps pushing reckless trades to profit off your payment for order flow. You want something smarter—something better—and you know it’s out there. But time? That’s your real currency: time with family, friends, or digging into whatever sparks your curiosity. Staying disciplined enough to keep your finances on track, though, can feel like a grind.

Sidepocket’s built for you. Crafted by seasoned investors and quants, it’s a platform of well-researched strategies built to hedge and cut losses in downturns and keep you moving forward. You get full control and crystal-clear metrics—Sharpe Ratios, Sortino Ratios, drawdowns, volatility—not just vague “total return” fluff. Whether you’re protecting your nest egg or building wealth to achieve financial freedom sooner, Sidepocket delivers the quant-driven edge you need with the transparency you demand, all while saving the time you value most.

Our clients choose Sidepocket because of our legal fiduciary duty, our focus on minimizing losses, and our state of the art implementation of tactical asset allocation across varying risk levels.

We are one of the few wealth managers out there that put risk at the forefront of our concern. Return is great, but would you rather (as an example) make 8% a year with 20% volatility in the broader stock market or 9.1% a year on average with 7.12% volatility?

No. Sidepocket is an SEC registered investment advisor, and has its own proprietary investment models which clients can invest in. Sidepocket is the asset manager, and implements all of these models directly. *Broker, custody and clearing services are provided by our partner Apex Fintech Solutions.

Sidepocket's models are the furthest thing from copy trading. Copy trading blindly assumes the copy-ee is a talented investor, when in reality you know nothing about their investment process (if any), their risk management directives (or lack thereof), or what spurs on their trading (a trade could be driven by a personal cash need completely unrelated to performance which copying would be foolish). To make matters even worse, much of copy trading is based on portfolio releases that are lagged by 3 months. Do you want to be trading Nancy Pelosi's dusty old portfolio?

Copy trading is dangerous, and a fad at best.

Compare this to Sidepocket, where investment performance is based on research-based financial algorithms like protective asset allocation that allocates portfolios based on 12 market signals from all publicly traded asset classes to ensure that we have a heartbeat on the entire market when managing YOUR money to make sure that YOU don't get burned.

Unlike copy trading, Sidepocket provides decades of back-tested performance. How do you backtest Nancy?

Opening a Roth IRA is a great way to save on taxes in the future. In a regular taxable brokerage account, when positions are sold for a gain, there is capital gains tax (either short or long term) charged on those gains. A taxable brokerage is funded with post-tax dollars; dollars that you receive from your employer after withholding (if you are a W-2 employee with standard withholding). A Roth IRA is also funded with post-tax dollars, but gains and dividends are NOT taxed, so the returns can compound much faster.

Take this example for the difference in ending value for a taxable brokerage versus a Roth IRA for the purposes of retiring, assuming 8% yearly returns and a 30% overall tax rate on the capital gains and dividends. We start with a portfolio of $100,000 over the course of a 30 year career.

$100,000 starting portfolio value * (1 + 8% per year return)^30 years of compounding = $1,006,265.69

Compare that with a taxable brokerage return:$100,000 starting portfolio value * (1 + 8% per yearreturn * (1-30% capital gain tax rate) )^30 years of compounding = $512,764.02

As you can see, the benefits of tax-free compounding are incredibly valuable over long periods of time.

Your security is our absolute top priority. As an SEC-registered investment adviser, Sidepocket is legally required to act in your best interest as a fiduciary.

SIPC protects investors against the loss of cash and securities in the event of a SIPC-member brokerage firm failure. The limit of SIPC coverage is $500,000, which includes a $250,000 limit for cash. SIPC coverage is limited and does not protect against the decline in value of your securities. For more details, visit www.sipc.org

Assuming the savings rate is a 10% discount of the federal funds rate for each year, these are the final portfolio values from 1993 to 2023. 
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Market ending NAV nominal: $1,094,725.89 
Savings ending portfolio nominal: $203,926.48 
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While savings accounts are much less volatile than the overall stock market, the inflation effect erodes returns over time. 
‍
Savings portfolio adjusted for purchasing power after 30 years in 1993 dollars: $94,202.33

From 1993, a savings account wasn’t able to keep up with inflation and the purchasing power of the principal investment was actually reduced, an investment disaster. Compare this with a portfolio invested into the S&P 500 index over the same time period.
‍
Market portfolio adjusted for purchasing power after 30 years in 1993 dollars: $505,700.52 

The purchasing power of the portfolio roughly increases 5x, while the nominal returns are 10x over 30 years. 

While a savings account is good as a short term investment vehicle while waiting for a liquidity need (i.e. paying a house down payment in 2 months and avoiding exposure to market volatility), over the long term, the savings rate barely paces inflation, or worse, inflation erodes the purchasing power of the initial investment.

Investment fees are how investment advisors are paid for the management of your money. Investment fees are usually stated on an annual basis. For example, Sidepocket charges 79 basis points, or 0.79% of the overall portfolio value per year.

Those fees should be extracted on a monthly basis to reduce the overall effect on your portfolio; 0.79% / 12 months in a year = 0.06% per month of the overall portfolio value per month.

For our starting account size of $125, a client will be charged 0.0079 / 12 months per year * $125 = $0.075 per month.

This amount is journalled directly out of client accounts into the advisor account.This reduces dependencies on external bank accounts, turning the client account into a self-funding ecosystem, and creating a seamless experience for clients to allow their accounts to grow unfettered by unreasonable fees.

It’s important to understand tactical allocation in the context of its big sister, strategic allocation. Strategic allocation looks at the client and their current state in the life cycle and makes allocations based on time to cash-needs (retirement, house purchase), and then lets them sit. This is what typical advisors do; it is a fire and forget approach to portfolio management. As cash needs approach, the portfolio will move to a more risk-off approach to reduce volatility before the outflow.

Tactical asset allocation starts with the same premise as strategic asset allocation and draws from the security universe that corresponds to the timeline for clients, but takes advantage of shorter-term price movements to position the portfolio for higher returns in the long term.

For example; take a tactical asset allocation based algorithm that looks at market health signals when determining a level of risk to apply to security selection for the next time period. If equity markets are up, commodity markets are relatively stable, bond markets are stable, a risk-on approach is taken and there might be a higher allocation to volatile equities that outperform.

However, in a situation where equity markets are stalling or falling, commodity markets are spiking, and bond markets are dropping (inflationary environment), our tactical asset allocation algorithm will allocate risk-off, going to low-risk equities in consumer staples, low duration bonds/bills, or commodity markets or gold to hedge against inflation.

“Winning more by losing less” is the unstated goal of TAA that seeks to take advantage of shorter-term price movements to reduce drawdown in market turbulence and increase returns in times of plenty.