Stocks were hot and recent bond gains evaporated as investors moved back into risky assets. Interest rate sensitive stocks (like telecom and utilities) were down as well — 10-year treasury bond yields moved from just over 2% in early September to over 2.3% by the end of the month.

Even with the drag of shorting and longer-term government bonds, we had a solid month against benchmarks with the extra boost from some foreign markets. Coincidentally, our conservative portfolio had the exact same return as our Vanguard Star fund benchmark, which is riskier than our conservative model portfolio.

The Powerfund Portfolios posted solid gains in May, with both the Conservative and Aggressive portfolios beating Vanguard's main U.S. stock index and total global fund. As we're taking less risk than these funds it's harder to do this in an up market (as May was), than a down one.

The rally in stocks fizzled in March and bonds didn't offer much help as rates drifted up slightly. Foreign stocks performed better as the valuation gap — after years of underperformance to the U.S. stock market — may be attracting more money.