Ray Dalio All Weather Portfolio
Backtest the All Weather portfolio — Ray Dalio's risk-balanced "all seasons" allocation that spreads risk across growth, recession, inflation, and deflation instead of betting on any one outcome: 30% stocks, 55% Treasuries, and 15% across gold and commodities.
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The All Weather portfolio is Ray Dalio's "all seasons" allocation, popularized in Tony Robbins' Money: Master the Game. Built by the founder of Bridgewater — one of the world's largest hedge funds — it's a simplified, retail take on the risk-parity idea: instead of loading up on stocks, spread risk so no single economic environment can sink the whole portfolio. Bonds carry a heavy weight precisely because they're calmer than stocks. It's a close cousin of the Permanent Portfolio and Golden Butterfly — all three trade upside for resilience across economic seasons.
Five US-listed ETFs, weighted by risk contribution rather than equal dollars. Everything is priced in USD, so the backtest is a clean single-currency picture — but a Canadian holder also carries CAD/USD currency risk on top (see the note below). MERs are approximate; confirm the current figure on the provider's fund page (linked in Sources).
| Sleeve | Weight | Ticker | ~MER | Role |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US total market | 30% | VTI | ~0.03% | Rising growth |
| Long-term Treasuries | 40% | TLT | ~0.15% | Falling growth / deflation |
| Intermediate Treasuries | 15% | IEF | ~0.15% | Rate ballast |
| Gold | 7.5% | GLD | ~0.40% | Inflation hedge |
| Broad commodities | 7.5% | DBC | ~0.85% | Inflation / supply shocks |
Holding US-listed ETFs as a Canadian. These funds trade in USD, so two things matter beyond the chart:
- Currency. Your real return in Canadian dollars also moves with CAD/USD, which can swing 10–15% in a year. The backtest is in USD and ignores that entirely.
- Withholding tax. US dividends (from VTI) face a 15% US withholding tax that is exempt in an RRSP under the Canada-US treaty, applies and is unrecoverable in a TFSA, and is recoverable as a foreign tax credit in a non-registered account. Treasury interest, gold, and commodities (no distributions) sit largely outside this.
This backtest uses dividend-adjusted USD prices and models neither FX nor withholding tax. Educational only — not tax advice.
- All Weather framework + allocation. Bridgewater: The All Weather Story (Ray Dalio); the retail weights used here were popularized in Tony Robbins, Money: Master the Game (2014).
- Foreign withholding tax by account type (RRSP treaty exemption, TFSA non-coverage, non-registered foreign tax credit). Vanguard Canada: The impact of withholding taxes on Canadian ETF investors (PDF); BlackRock Canada: Understanding Foreign Withholding Tax (PDF).
- ETF MERs. Provider fund pages: Vanguard (VTI), iShares (TLT, IEF), SPDR (GLD), Invesco (DBC). Confirm the current MER on the fund page before relying on it.
Figures accessed 2026-05-28. Tax rules change; verify against canada.ca and the fund prospectus before acting.