Some advisors have outsourced tactical asset allocation decisions to sub-advisors who run model portfolios using index funds and ETFs.

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Foliofn's model portfolios, or "templates" are designed much like index funds --to represent statistically a category of stocks, not to identify the winners.

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Vernon Sumnicht, chief executive of iSectors, says the hedge-fund index was always the internal benchmark for the Liquid Alternatives model, but that the firm that reports iSectors' returns to advisers and clients wasn't able to obtain full access to the hedge-fund index data until recently.

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The returns from the alternative strategies were tested against the traditional index benchmarks before and after adjusting for the Carhart Four-Factor Model.

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All of these off-shoot predictions supplement the official computer model used by the NCAA, which is called the Rating Percentage Index.

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With model in hand, the question becomes how much of a position should one take in a small-cap value index fund?

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All forecasts are shown in the table below and are based on a model incorporating the previous data points of the Case-Shiller series and the September Zillow data on the Zillow Home Value Index and national foreclosure resales.

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