The Original
Portfolio
A live, long-only account built for smaller investors who want a clear second opinion — not a black box. Every week we show our work: what happened, what it means, and exactly what we're doing about it. No leverage. No guessing. Every trade explained before it's placed.
Starting Capital
Live account at Interactive Brokers
Weekly Videos
Published every Saturday, max 20 minutes
Program Start
Benchmarked against 60/40 from day one
Investment Rules
How We Operate
- No leverage.
- Minimum 20% allocation to equities at all times.
- Maximum 80% allocation to equities at all times.
- Trades only occur after subscribers receive the orders — via video or email with full rationale. No exceptions.
- Simple options strategies only.
Account Aims
What We're Building Toward
- Keep the account safe. This is not a hedge fund. We do not speculate.
- Keep volatility of returns low.
- Maintain a diversified portfolio across asset classes and geographies.
- Compound at a reasonable rate — above risk-free cash returns.
- Preserve principal. The goal is to keep you rich, not make you rich.
The Weekly Cadence
What You Get Each Week
The Video
A Saturday video — never longer than 20 minutes — covering what happened in markets, what it implies, and any changes we're making to allocations with exact reasoning and price levels.
The File
A downloadable Excel with current percentage allocations, plus the full broker statement from Interactive Brokers. Every position, every week. Scalable to your account size by dividing by $250,000.
The Research
Curated investment bank research that caught our attention during the week — for subscribers who want to go deeper and do their own reading alongside our macro narrative.
Instruments
We operate exclusively in liquid ETFs available to any US investor, options on those ETFs, and cash bonds or bills. No esoteric instruments, no illiquid positions. If you can't buy it in a standard brokerage account, we don't hold it.
Join 2 Gray Beards
2 Gray Beards Original Portfolio
We started the original program in January 2023 with approx. $250,000 in assets. This account
is meant for smaller investors with limited financial sophistication and is long only (no shorting of
assets). Every week we post a short video discussion (max. 20 minutes) about what has happened in
the financial markets, what is likely to happen going forward, and if our asset allocation should
therefore change, how and why. Our aim is to give you the proverbial “second opinion” and
enable you to have better conversations with your wealth manager regarding your own asset
allocation.
Our Investment rules:
1. No leverage.
2. Minimum 20% allocation to equities.
3. Maximum 80% allocation to equities.
4. To only trade after giving subscribers the orders in the video or after sending them an
email with the trade and reason.
5. Simple options strategies only.
With each weekly video we include an updated, downloadable excel file with all our holdings
and broker statements from Interactive Brokers, where this account is based.
You can view past episodes of the video discussions strategies
The aims of this account are:
1. To keep the account safe. This is NOT a hedge fund which tries to speculate.
2. To keep volatility of returns low.
3. To keep a diversified portfolio.
4. To compound at a reasonable rate, but above risk free cash returns.
5. To “keep you rich” or to keep your money working for you without risking the principal
invested.
The instruments we employ are mainly ETFs available to any US investor.
The performance of the Account is updated weekly.
