A client came on board last year thinking he was well diversified
- Mario Zumbo
- Mar 2
- 1 min read
A client came on board last year thinking he was well diversified.
Turns out, nearly 30% of his portfolio was concentrated in NVDA and GOOGL.
He had no idea.
He owned layers of ETFs plus a handful of individual tech stocks that all overlapped. On paper it looked diversified. In reality, he was far more concentrated than he realized.
He’s not alone. I see this time and time again with clients who were previously self-directed.
Decision fatigue doesn’t just show up in your grocery aisle anymore. It’s showing up in investment portfolios too.
There are now more ETFs in the U.S. than individual stocks. Bloomberg reported in August of last year that there are roughly 4,300 ETFs versus about 4,200 stocks.
More choice doesn’t mean better diversification. Often it means more confusion and more overlap.
If you manage your own portfolio (or even if you don’t), it’s worth running a holdings overlap analysis.
Make sure you look under the hood and truly know what you own.