The Smooth Ride Portfolio by Clint Sorenson

The Smooth Ride Portfolio: How Great Investors Protect and Grow Their Wealth…and You Can Too by Clint Sorenson is a business / finance book published in 2024.

In just 138 pages, the Smooth Ride Portfolio presents a four-part framework designed to align investment strategies with human behavior. Sorenson, a seasoned financial strategist and co-founder of WealthShield, draws from over two decades of experience to help readers build portfolios that can withstand market volatility.

The book emphasizes the importance of behavioral optimization over mathematical perfection, acknowledging that emotions play a significant role in investment decisions. By integrating principles from legendary investors, Sorenson provides actionable advice for both novice and experienced investors.

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Enjoy!

Why the Smooth Ride Portfolio?
The 3 Pillars of the Smooth Ride Portfolio
Implementation

Why the Smooth Ride Portfolio?

Market volatility is inevitable: Major drawdowns (like 2000, 2008, 2020) are common and emotionally/financially devastating
Human behavior is the main obstacle: Most investors underperform the market not because of poor strategy, but because of emotional decision-making

Survival is the most important factor that determines financial success; it allows time for money to compound – but surviving tough markets is hard

“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth” (Mike Tyson)

Goal of a Smooth Ride Portfolio:

A smooth, emotionally manageable investment strategy increases your odds of long-term success by limiting drawdowns, which prevents panic-driven decisions, keeping you in the game long enough to capture big gains.

The 3 Pillars of the Smooth Ride Portfolio

A. Value Investing (Warren Buffett)

Focus: value, quality, size, and volatility
Basic Rule: buy undervalued companies with strong fundamentals – “buy low, sell high”
Time Horizon: long-term (7+ years)
Emotionally hard when: markets are overvalued and FOMO kicks in
Strategy: adjust stock/bond allocation based on market valuation using historical benchmarks (e.g., CAPE)

B. Business Cycle Investing (Ray Dalio)

Focus: phase of the business cycle using leading economic indicators (expansion, slowdown, contraction, recovery)
Basic Rule: invest based on whether economic growth is increasing or decreasing
Time Horizon: medium-term (2–5 years)
Emotionally hard when: economic signals are unclear or slow to change
Strategy in one line: shift between high-momentum or low-volatility stocks depending on where the economy is in the cycle

Note: The Fed uses interest rates / money supply to try to soften trends in the business cycle.

C. Trend Following (Jerry Parker)

Focus: price momentum and market direction
Basic Rule: if the markets are going up, be in it – if it’s going down, get out
Time Horizon: short (0–2 years)
Emotionally hard when: signals seem wrong and trades feel like frequent losses
Strategy in one line: follow a rules-based system to ride market trends and exit before major downturns

Implementation

Although you can stick with just one strategy, they work best together because each operates on a different time horizon and tends to present emotional challenges at different times.

This balance helps smooth out the overall experience, reducing the urge to abandon your plan and keeping you invested for the long run.

Option 1: Simple Automated
Option 2: High Net Worth
Option 3: Simple Manual

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