Bitget TradFi: How to build an all-weather portfolio

U.S. stocks have delivered long-term annualized returns of around 10%, which sounds stable. But when the market plunges 35% in a single year, it needs an additional 54% gain just to break even — at the same annualized rate, recovery alone takes 4–5 years. This does not even account for the cost of being forced out at the worst moment and missing the rebound. Avoiding one major drawdown is better than chasing gains for years.

Ray Dalio designed the all-weather portfolio to create a portfolio with built-in shock absorbers that will not be crushed regardless of where the market goes. Bitget TradFi lets you build this institutional-grade shock-absorbing portfolio in one place within a single account.

Why can this portfolio absorb shocks?

Rather than betting on a single direction, it distributes risk evenly for shock absorption. Dalio's core insight is that market turbulence stems from surprises in two dimensions — economic growth and inflation. Each can be above or below expectations, creating four distinctly different market environments. The blind spot of traditional portfolios is that a heavy allocation to stocks may seem proactive, but volatility is concentrated in a single asset. Once conditions reverse, the entire portfolio loses its buffer.

The logic of the all-weather portfolio is that each asset class has different volatility. By adjusting allocations so that the risk contribution of each asset class is more balanced, the portfolio can remain stable in any environment. Regular investment rebalancing then uses gains to replenish declining assets, maintaining shock-absorbing allocations. A common approach is to review the portfolio every six months or annually, or trigger an adjustment when an asset class deviates from its target allocation by around 5 percentage points: sell assets that have risen more and add back those that have fallen more, bringing allocations back to target. This practice itself creates discipline, keeping the portfolio ready for the next period of turbulence.

Five asset classes, diversified across four sources of shocks

There will always be assets in the portfolio absorbing shocks, regardless of which direction the market moves.

• Stocks (around 30%): The profit engine during economic growth

• Long-term bonds (around 40%): The strongest shock-absorbing layer when stocks decline. Their negative correlation with stocks is key; the high allocation is precisely part of the shock-absorbing design, as low-volatility assets need higher allocations to balance the high-volatility risk of stocks

• Intermediate-term bonds (around 15%): A buffer layer that smooths the impact of interest rate fluctuations

• Gold (around 7.5%): A safe-haven anchor when inflation exceeds expectations and markets experience extreme panic

• Commodities (around 7.5%):The assets that benefit most directly in an inflationary environment, strengthening protection against rising prices

Shock-absorption data: How did it perform at the worst moments?

Resilience during key crashes

15-year backtest performance

Its annualized return underperforms the broader market — that is the trade-off of the all-weather portfolio, and also its design. Its maximum loss was only -14.92%, while the SP 500's maximum drawdown over the same period exceeded 55%, a difference of more than 40%. Its volatility was only 7.51%, with a Sharpe ratio of 1.00 — using lower volatility to achieve similar risk-adjusted returns, making capital efficiency far superior to a concentrated bet on the broader market.

Key takeaway:Give up around 2.5% in returns for 40% less maximum loss— the cost of a shock absorber is actually well worth it.

Why build it on Bitget: Everything you need in one account

An institutional-grade shock-absorbing portfolio can be fully built in one Bitget account. This is not simply a claim of having a comprehensive product lineup; it addresses the core issues of traditional multi-platform allocation from the perspective of actual operational pain points.

Traditional pain points: Hidden costs and delayed responses from fragmented platforms

To truly implement an all-weather portfolio, investors typically need to operate multiple accounts simultaneously — a U.S. stock broker for stocks and ETFs, a bond platform or broker for U.S. Treasuries, physical gold, ETFs, or bank channels for gold, and a futures broker for commodities. This not only means repeated account opening, deposits, and identity verification processes, but more importantly, fragmented capital. When volatility hits and you want to rebalance quickly (for example, increasing bond or gold holdings during a stock market plunge), you need to transfer funds across platforms, wait for them to arrive, and place orders separately. Your response speed is far slower than market changes. Fees, currency conversion costs, and time costs stack up, severely compromising an otherwise well-designed shock-absorbing structure in actual execution.

Even worse is the issue of idle funds. Shock-absorbing assets such as bonds and gold sit in accounts for extended periods without being effectively utilized, resulting in low capital efficiency. If leverage or additional positions are needed, additional financing is required, increasing both costs and risks.

Bitget advantage 1: Stocks, bonds, gold, and commodities all in one account, with extensive choices and deep liquidity

Bitget TradFi integrates all five core asset classes into the same trading account, truly enabling an all-weather portfolio with a single account.

• Stocks (around 30%): Offers 687+ rTokens (tokenized U.S. stocks/ETFs). From rSPY for broad market exposure and rQQQ for tech growth to hundreds of individual stocks, allocation options are highly flexible. You can use indexes as core holdings or fine-tune sector and individual stock exposure. The Stock+ service also provides direct access to 10,000+ real U.S. stocks, meeting more refined stock-selection needs. Whether you want to use indexes as your foundational allocation or individual stocks to enhance flexibility, everything can be done in the same interface.

• Long-term bonds (around 40%): Easily allocate to long-term U.S. Treasuries through bond rTokens such as rTLT. This is the most critical shock-absorbing layer in the all-weather portfolio, and its negative correlation with stocks is particularly evident during crises. Buy and sell conveniently on Bitget without opening an additional bond account.

• Intermediate-term bonds (around 15%): Represented by products such as rSGOV, these provide a buffer against intermediate-term interest rate risk. When interest rate conditions change, these assets can smooth portfolio volatility and prevent excessive exposure to long-term interest rate risk.

• Gold (around 7.5%): A wide range of options is available. These include on-chain gold tokens such as XAUT and PAXG (1:1 pegged to physical gold, highly transparent, and redeemable at any time), as well as XAU commodity futures, which make leverage or short-term adjustments convenient. Whether you prefer spot holdings or futures trading, everything can be completed directly within your account.

• Commodities (around 7.5%):Covers major metals and energy futures, including crude oil (CLUSDT／BZUSDT), copper (COPPERUSDT), and natural gas (NATGASUSDT). When inflation rises, these assets often benefit directly, providing the portfolio with the most direct protection against rising prices.

Depth and liquidity are another key factor. As a leading global trading platform, Bitget offers sufficient trading depth for these products to support institutional-scale allocations, with manageable slippage and suitability for capital sizes ranging from retail investors to high-net-worth users.

Bitget advantage 2: The UTA unified account architecture allows shock-absorbing assets to deliver margin efficiency at the same time

This is where Bitget truly stands apart. In traditional accounts, bonds and gold are often "dead capital" — they can only sit there as shock absorbers and cannot be used by other positions. Under Bitget's UTA (Unified Trading Account) unified account architecture, spot stocks (rToken) can be used directly as margin. This means your shock-absorbing assets are no longer idle.

More importantly, UTA makes rebalancing truly frictionless — when stock positions deviate from targets due to gains, you can immediately sell the overweight portion and simultaneously buy bonds or gold. The entire process is completed within one interface, without waiting for cross-platform transfers or missing the best rebalancing opportunity due to operational delays.

In addition, the unified account makes risk management more convenient — overall positions, margin, and risk metrics are visible at a glance, avoiding monitoring blind spots caused by fragmented accounts. Strategies that were once efficiently accessible only to large institutions or professional investors can now be easily adopted by retail investors.

Conclusion

Upgrade from a single-allocation mindset to a portfolio-allocation mindset. The all-weather portfolio is not designed to outperform the broader market, but to ensure that your portfolio demonstrates resilience and withstands volatility whenever a black swan event occurs. Regularly adjust each asset class back to its target allocation to maintain the long-term effectiveness of the shock-absorbing structure.

On Bitget, you can build an institutional-grade shock-absorbing portfolio with one account.