The first step of our process is to set precedence for no emotion. Rather than relying on intuition, opinions or a single event to decide where to invest your money, we set out to create optimized portfolios that are based on a well-defined, refined process.

Any emotion we interject in our process is not "data snooping", but rather a means of bringing theory into practice, a form of positive "behavior finance" where we inject our thoughts solely for the practical implementation of portfolios. It is this merging of theory and practice that makes our portfolios unique, distinctive and ultimately successful.

The second step of our process is to establish the framework for the historical data we intend to analyze. We want to be sure that as we proceed, consistent comparisons can be made between like data. We also want to take advantage of this early stage to determine the parameters for which we will exclude data that is not reputable or that will lead to unstable results.

During the third step of our process, we gather historical data representing tens of thousands of indices. This breadth of data is very important to help ensure our portfolios achieve unbiased diversification. That is, returns that are not biased to any one market or markets, and diversification across many securities, asset types and investments.

The fourth step of our process is to categorize all of the indices collected in the previous step and then select one index per category to be used during the optimization stage. We select the best index in each category by using a consistent scoring system that awards points based on the comparison of metrics such as expense ratio and average daily volume.

It is during the fifth step of our process that we actually construct our portfolio models. Using the list of indices determined in step four, we apply mean-variance optimization to the corresponding historical data, develop some practical constraints and finally arrive at a set of optimized portfolios that we offer to our clients.

The final step of our process is to determine the investment policy. The investment policy sets an essential framework for making decisions about your portfolio, particularly during emotional or volatile times. CitrinGroup emphasizes the use of an Investment Policy Statement, containing the most important investment policy points, for all of its client portfolios.

In addition to providing Investment Policy Statements, CitrinGroup runs an Investment Advisory Board. The Investment Advisory Board seeks to regularly evaluate our portfolios and investment practices.