Fresh Portfolio Pie
Five years ago I was thinking about how Canadian stocks and bonds were such a large part of Canadian’s portfolios. This led me to hunt down the data for what proportion of global assets (the pie) were represented by Canadian stocks and bonds (the slices). I summarized the global portions in the Portfolio Pie blog. After reading a recent paper by Goldman Sachs[1], and having time on my hands from a few rainy days in Vancouver, I was motivated to bake a fresh portfolio pie as there have been interesting changes in the global slices.
Global Pie
Charts 1A and 1B below shows the three big slices: stocks, bonds, and alternative assets[2]. All dollar figures are USD billions. Alternative assets include real assets (commercial real estate, infrastructure, and gold) as well as private equity, venture capital, private debt, and crypto[3].
The total pie has increased dramatically since 2020, from USD$142 trillion to USD$254 trillion, a 79% jump. In terms of percentage of the total pie, the ravenous appetite for stocks post COVID pushed its share up by 9% to 47%, with the USD value more than doubling. The poor returns on bonds as yields increased significantly from their COVID lows left a bad taste in investor’s mouths, with the fixed income slice having declined by 10% to 38%. Alternatives increased 1% to 15%. Note that the 47%/38%/15% split is quite different from the typical pie for a Canadian investor of 60% stocks and 40% bonds.
Debt Pie
Looking at charts 2A and 2B below, it should come as no surprise that the overindulgence of governments on using borrowed money to fund ever larger deficits boosted their share of the debt pie. Government debt (ex Canada) increased by 6% to 57% of the total. Despite strong issuance of debt by corporations, they did not keep pace with their government counterparts, so their share fell by 5% to 29%. The other debt portions did not see much of a change given their smaller size. For example, the Canadian bond slice remained at 2%.
Stock Pie
As shown in charts 3A and 3B below, another non-surprise is that US stocks, with their massive outperformance of other global stocks, ate up more of the stock pie. The share of US stocks increased by 5% to 63%, while international developed country stock’s share fell by 4% to 23%. Canadian stocks remained a small slice at 3%.
Alternative Pie
Charts 4A and 4B show that the gluttony for gold dominated the changes in the alternative pie. Gold’s share increased by 14% to 42%. With the insatiable appetite for all things crypto driving a surge in its value, crypto’s share went from 2% to 7%. As these two pieces consumed more of the pie, weaker commercial real estate markets starved that asset class of growth. It was the only slice of pie that slimmed down in US dollar terms, resulting in its weight falling by 22% to 19%.
Take Home Slice
The fresh global pie shows that while Canada’s slice remained the same at 3% for stocks and 2% for bonds, there were substantial changes to the other portions. With the surge in their values, US stocks, gold, and cryptocurrencies would have been the winning portfolio over the last five years. Of course that is all looking backwards. Look at the portfolio pie not as a guide to the asset allocation choices and weights in your portfolio, but as a way to see all the slices that are available. Hopefully, this knowledge will lead to fuller discussions with your advisor in terms of the best portions for your needs and risk tolerance.
Invest Wisely,
Dave Schaffner, CFA
Principal, Wayfairer Capital Management Ltd.
[1] Goldman Sachs Research, Global Strategy Paper No. 74, Investing in Everything, Everywhere, All at Once, October 2025
[2] Sources: the Goldman Sachs paper noted above; Doeswijk, R., Lam, T., and Swinkels, L., 2024, “Data update: The Global Multi-Asset Market Portfolio, 1959–2012”; MSCI; TMX; FTSE Russell; Preqin; S&P Global.
[3] The original Portfolio Pie blog did not include gold and crypto, so I redid the data for 2020 to include them. That way I could make an apple pie to apple pie comparison.