The Cockpit · July 2026

Edito

The Cockpit · July 2026

The Seven Model Portfolios

Seven classic portfolios, from Fixed Income through to Equity, read as references rather than recommendations. Each is passive, total-return and rebalanced quarterly, indexed to 100 with a simulated-expense slider. The graph, the performance and risk statistics, the contribution by holding and the full compositions sit below, frozen as of 31 July 2026. They are a risk dial to set a real allocation against, not products.

The Cockpit · July 2026

Top News

The July items are in preparation.

The Cockpit · July 2026

Methodology & sources

This report is a set of instruments, not a set of instructions. What follows is how each figure is built, where the data comes from, and how it is checked, so that any reader can trace a number to its origin and judge it independently.

How the figures are built

The seven model portfolios and the asset-class series are total-return, indexed to 100 at the start of each period, and expressed in US dollars. Where a simulated expense is shown, it is applied as a daily drag on net asset value, and rebalancing follows the frequency selected in each widget. Yields, spreads and inflation are plotted as reported, without adjustment.

Sources

The data in this report comes almost entirely from two public sources: Yahoo Finance for market prices, and FRED, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, for the macro series. Fund fact sheets are the reference used for cross-checking. This is public, end-of-day data, not an institutional terminal feed.

1. Market prices and total returns: Yahoo Finance, using dividend-adjusted closing prices for each ETF and index.
2. US Treasury nominal and real (TIPS) constant-maturity yields, and the effective federal funds rate: FRED (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis).
3. Moody's seasoned Aaa and Baa corporate bond yields, and ICE BofA investment-grade and high-yield option-adjusted spreads: FRED.
4. US consumer price index (CPI-U): US Bureau of Labor Statistics, via FRED.
5. Portfolio weights and fund characteristics: the respective ETF issuers' published fact sheets, used for cross-checking.

News and events

The source list for the July news items will be completed alongside the items themselves.

How it is checked

This report is produced with the help of an AI assistant working under the supervision of Jonathan Castella, CFA, who authors it and is responsible for what it says. Before publication, the underlying data passes hygiene checks, and individual figures are spot-checked against issuers' fact sheets and the primary series. These steps reduce error, but they do not eliminate it: mistakes remain possible.

Corrections and liability

This report is educational. It examines frameworks, regimes and history; it is not investment advice, and it recommends no security, fund or allocation. Nothing here should be relied upon as the basis for a financial decision, and the author accepts no liability for any decision taken, or any consequence arising, from its use.

Accuracy matters to the publication. If you find an error, or have a correction, a question or a comment, it is welcome: write to socrates@socrates-on-investing.com.