To all those who sent their request for a report on their portfolio at my website, a big thank you and I hope you received a report that you found helpful.

One thing that stood out from the responses was the number of investors who have portfolios that are highly correlated. Take for example this portfolio with its typical constituents:

iShares MSCI EAFE Growth Index ETF ( EFG ), iShares MSCI EAFE Value Index ETF ( EFV ), iShares Morningstar Small Value Index ETF ( JKL ), Vanguard Small Cap Growth ETF ( VBK ), Vanguard Small Cap Value ETF ( VBR ), Vanguard European Stock ETF ( VGK ), Vanguard Pacific Stock ETF ( VPL ), Vanguard Value ETF ( VTV ), Vanguard Growth ETF ( VUG ), Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF ( VWO ).

While they are likely all good securities individually, when put together

By Abby Woodham

Investors have many choices when it comes to dividend-focused international-equity exchange-traded funds. PowerShares International Dividend Achievers (PID) is one of our favorites for its quality focus and relatively low volatility. Instead of chasing the highest yield available like many of its competitors do, PID targets durable companies by employing quality screens. This fund is suitable as a small core allocation for investors comfortable with PID’s slight contrarian tilt. This fund can also be used to add to an existing international-equity allocation, as valuations continue to be attractive relative to U.S. equities.

The rationale behind domestic dividend investing applies to foreign equity. Studies show that a strong dividend payout ratio is correlated with higher earnings growth and solid fundamentals. By paying out dividends to investors, managers are forced to use cash responsibly and efficiently instead of going on a buying spree. The opposing view states that holding back

Are you looking for a portfolio that pulls down the projected standard deviation? If so, take a look at the asset allocation mix shown in the following analysis. I would classify this portfolio as conservative.

QPP Analysis: By pulling the projected standard deviation under 10% (the good news), one also pays a price by reducing the projected return to 5.5% (the bad news). Note that this analysis covers three years of data as there were several short history securities in the list. Don't pay attention to VNQI as it has a "short record" and that tends to improve the projected results.

Several choices hold down the performance in this portfolio. As you can see, SHY contributes little to the return. However, it does bring a low correlated ETF to the party. The Diversification Metric at 33% does not meet our goal of 40% or higher. The Portfolio Autocorrelation