Most people who know a bit about financial markets history know that we are in unprecedented territory with central bank stimulus, gratuitous buybacks, widespread accounting shenanigans. But robo-advisors apparently think it is a great time to buy risk assets. Check out this Morning Markets Briefing from Convergex (subscription is free) in an article called Millenials and Robo Advisors. They tested allocations assigned by Wealthfront & Betterment to millennial and baby boomer investors. A 22 year old earning $50K received a 90/10 allocation, while a 55 year old earning $250K received a 73/27 or 65/35 mix. Why is that? Do robos inherently love equities? Absolutely not, it happens because they use trailing volatility which understates risk near peaks (and will overstate it when we hit bottom). For more on why they are over weighting equities to such a degree, see here.
