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By KAREN DAMATO

Since the market turmoil of 2008, many investors have sought different ways to guard against steep losses. One of the most popular: Give investment pros more leeway to move money around.

If diversification doesn’t shield your portfolio, what will? WSJ’s Karen Damato joins Paul Vigna on The Markets Hub with the answers. (Photo: Getty Images).

During the crash, lots of investors thought they were safe because they kept their assets diversified. But they still took a beating, because most every investment out there got clobbered: stock funds, corporate-bond funds, real-estate stocks, commodities.

Now an increasing number of investors are turning to tactical asset allocation—a strategy that tries to stave off losses by giving fund managers or financial advisers sweeping authority to choose among different types of investments as they see fit.

Think of it as active management on steroids. The pros don’t just have leeway to pick among investments of a single type, as they do with most funds, which typically concentrate on a specific type of asset, such as growth stocks. They can jump from asset class to asset class world-wide in search of strong returns and reduced risk. Numerous asset-management companies have rolled out funds of this type over the past year or two, while other financial firms and advisers are carrying out this strategy with exchange-traded funds.

So, how are these funds doing? What have investors learned so far?

Christophe Vorlet

Perhaps the most important lesson is that any generalization is difficult to make. Because managers have so much leeway to pick and choose investments, two tactical funds may be far more different—and unpredictable—than, say, two funds buying large U.S. growth stocks. So it’s important to look at the manager’s philosophy and decide if it aligns with yours.

For instance, a manager might think the future lies in emerging markets; that might mean buying stocks in those markets or searching for companies in wealthier nations that have a strong presence overseas. Another manager might be more defensive, focusing on bonds from a variety of places.

The idea of having a pro moving your money around to minimize losses has powerful emotional appeal, says Michael Herbst, an associate director of fund analysis at researcher Morningstar Inc. But that’s good reason to be extra diligent in researching how funds operate and how they have done so far.

“To avoid losses and still capture gains…sounds great,” Mr. Herbst says. But while “it’s easy to say that, it’s hard to do.”

Some tactical mutual funds have certainly delivered for investors over time—and have attracted huge dollars as a result.

Among funds that invest in a global mix of stocks, bonds and other assets, successes include the $24 billion Ivy Asset Strategy and the $25 billion Pimco All Asset. Over the five years through 2011, they are in the top 10% and top 15%, respectively, of Morningstar’s world-allocation category. The Ivy fund has returned an average of 5.6% a year over that period, and the Pimco fund, 5%—both well ahead of the annualized 1.6% average for peers.

But even though they’re in the same Morningstar grouping, the two funds invest very differently. The guiding philosophy at Ivy Asset Strategy, for instance, is the expansion of the middle class in emerging nations, says co-manager Michael Avery. To benefit, the fund has usually been heavily invested in U.S. and international stocks, a combined 82% of assets at Sept. 30. (The exception: periods such as 2008, when the managers see unusual risks.) China was the fund’s second-biggest country weighting as of Sept. 30, after the U.S.

But emerging-markets stocks generally fell sharply last year—helping drive Ivy Asset Strategy down 7.7% for calendar 2011.

By contrast, Pimco All Asset, which invests in other Pimco funds, is focused on playing defense in case of a resurgence of inflation. Manager Rob Arnott tends to go heavy on “real return” funds that buy Treasury inflation-protected securities, real-estate stocks and commodities. The fund rode that strategy to a 1.9% gain last year.

Big Swings

It isn’t clear how tactical-allocation funds perform as a group. They don’t always label themselves as such and can be found in a number of the categories used by fund trackers such as Morningstar and Thomson Reuters Corp.’s Lipper unit.

At this newspaper’s request, Morningstar’s Mr. Herbst recently identified what he considers the tactical players among the 69 world-allocation funds that started before 2011 and had at least $25 million in assets at the end of November. He put 25 in the tactical camp.

The range of 2011 returns was wide: from positive 10.3% to negative 23.6%. The focus of the funds also varied widely. The top fund, Invesco Balanced-Risk Allocation, tends to hold a lot of bonds. At the bottom is Ivy Asset Strategy New Opportunities, an offshoot of Ivy Asset Strategy that will generally hold big stakes in small and midsize companies in emerging markets.

Out of the Game

One big fund manager, Vanguard Group, recently backed away from tactical allocation after disappointing results at its Vanguard Asset Allocation fund. For the five years through Sept. 30, the fund had an average return of negative 1.8% a year, compared with an annualized 4.2% gain for a Vanguard benchmark of 65% big U.S. stocks and 35% long-term Treasury bonds.

In late September, when the fund had $8 billion in assets, Vanguard terminated the outside manager; this month, Asset Allocation investors are voting on merging the fund into another Vanguard fund with a fixed mix of stocks and bonds.

Francis Kinniry, a principal in Vanguard’s investment-strategy group, says that when fund managers have very wide discretion on how to invest, “all you are doing there is increasing the distribution” of results—from big gains at the funds whose managers make astute shifts to big losses at those who blow it. That potential for wide variations relative to a benchmark is, “to us, much more risk for the average investor,” he says.

In a 2010 study of tactical strategies that included its own and other funds, Vanguard concluded that while some of the strategies had added value, on average these approaches “have not consistently produced excess returns” relative to benchmarks. Some tactical methodologies worked in some time periods but then not in others, the study noted.

Vanguard says the Asset Allocation fund suffered largely because former manager Mellon Capital Management overweighted stocks relative to the benchmark. Mike Dunn, a spokesman for Bank of New York Mellon Corp., Mellon Capital’s parent, says the firm doesn’t comment on the activities of clients, such as Vanguard. He points out that the asset-allocation strategy was limited to U.S. investments and not global ones.

The ETF Angle

Tactical asset allocation is showing up not just among mutual-fund companies. A growing number of financial advisers are also using the strategy by trading ETFs for their clients.

For one measure of the growing interest, a recent survey by Jefferson National Financial Corp. found that about 75% of advisers believe tactical management can outperform a passive strategy over time. ETFs have been an instrument of choice because they allow advisers to make targeted bets on broad or narrow market segments, have low expenses, and can be bought or sold all day long.

It’s hard to get a handle on how these advisers are performing compared with their mutual-fund peers. But more information should be available soon. In coming weeks, Morningstar expects to roll out a new database of managed portfolios of ETFs. Among other factors used to classify portfolios, it will identify those run with a tactical bent.

Ms. Damato is a news editor for The Wall Street Journal, based in South Brunswick, N.J. Email her at karen.damato@wsj.com.

Por MELINDA BECK

Mike Sudal/The Wall Street Journal

Perder peso parece sencillo: comer menos y hacer más ejercicio. Pero ¿por qué es tan difícil para mucha gente?

Un volumen creciente de investigación está hallando vínculos entre los rasgos de la personalidad y los hábitos que pueden conducir a la obesidad. Según los estudios, las partes del cerebro que controlan las emociones y la respuesta al estrés también gobiernan el apetito.

“Si podemos entender cómo la personalidad contribuye al aumento de peso, podremos desarrollar técnicas que les ayuden a las personas a lidiar con ello”, dice Angelina Sutin, una investigadora del Instituto Nacional Sobre el Envejecimiento, con sede en Maryland, que encabezó un estudio publicado el año pasado comparando el índice de masa corporal (IMC) y los rasgos de personalidad en casi 2.000 estadounidenses a lo largo de 50 años.

Los participantes con puntajes altos en neuroticismo —la tendencia de experimentar emociones negativas fácilmente— y bajos en diligencia, o en ser organizados y disciplinados, tenían mayores probabilidades de sufrir de sobrepeso u obesidad. La impulsividad también era determinante: las personas dentro del 10% superior en este rubro pesaban, en promedio, 11 kilos más que aquellas en el 10% más bajo. Aquellos que se autocalificaron bajo en afabilidad eran los más propensos a ganar peso con los años.

Varios rasgos de la personalidad y patrones de comportamiento predisponen a las personas a subir de peso, a veces sin saberlo:

El búho: Usualmente carecen de horas de sueño, lo que reduce sus niveles de leptina, la hormona que indica saciedad, y eleva la ghrelina, la hormona que incita el apetito, sobre todo de alimentos altos en carbohidratos y calorías.

Incluso una pérdida de sueño reducida puede hacer que personas saludables procesen el azúcar como si fueran diabéticas, según un estudio de la Universidad de Chicago.

Los búhos también tienden a saltarse el desayuno, o dormir durante aquél, perdiendo una oportunidad clave de echar a andar su metabolismo desde temprano, y a menudo comen hasta altas horas de la noche.

La solución: No consuma cafeína después del mediodía; use poco las luces, la televisión y otros aparatos eléctricos por la noche y programe citas ineludibles muy temprano. O simplemente cierre la cocina a las 9 p.m.; quedarse despierto hasta tarde podría perder su atractivo.

El adicto al estrés: Las personas competitivas y que trabajan bajo presión de tiempo dan la impresión de tener mucha energía, pero lo que los impulsa internamente son la adrenalina y la cortisona. Esas hormonas de estrés producen ráfagas de energía en carreras contra el reloj, pero también pueden causar problemas de salud, incluida la obesidad.

La cortisona estimula un químico cerebral llamado neuropéptido Y, que incrementa el antojo de carbohidratos. También hace que el cuerpo produzca insulina en exceso y acumule grasa, particularmente en el estómago, aumentando el riesgo de diabetes, problemas cardíacos, embolias y otras enfermedades. La gente que se siente crónicamente estresada a menudo utiliza el alimento para obtener energía y racionaliza que se lo ha ganado.

La solución: una de las mejores formas de quemar el exceso de cortisona es el ejercicio, dicen los médicos. Y casi todo lo que lo distrae y relaja sirve como recompensa, recuerda la psicóloga Susan Albers.

El multifacético: Las personas que habitualmente trabajan, leen, conducen, ven televisión o hacen cualquier cosa mientras comen a menudo terminan ingiriendo más alimentos de lo que se dan cuenta.

“Cualquier cosa que nos distrae de la comida tiende a hacernos consumir más sin saberlo”, escribió el experto Brian Wansink.

La solución: registre todo lo que come por varios días, después comprométase a comer siempre sentado, dándole al alimento toda su atención. Mastique despacio. Evalué su nivel de saciedad con cada bocado. Es muy probable que consuma menos sin tener que someterse a una dieta.

El generoso: Las personas que constantemente ponen las necesidades de otros por encima de las suyas terminan agotados emocionalmente y buscan consuelo en la comida.

El alimento está a la mano, no requiere de molestar a otros y promete confort y amor. Pero porque realmente no llena el vacío emocional, este tipo de personas siguen comiendo más y más.

La solución: identifique sus anhelos frustrados y encuentre nuevas formas de cuidarse a sí mismo. Desfogar emociones desagradables escribiendo en un diario o hablándole al espejo ayuda a difuminarlas más rápido que la comida.

El perfeccionista: Los perfeccionistas a menudo emplean el alimento como medio para aliviar la presión y muchos se someten al fracaso por fijarse metas imposibles de peso y de figura. Los expertos en desordenes alimenticios dicen que el perfeccionismo a menudo está en la raíz de la anorexia, la bulimia, y la comilona.

La solución: fíjese metas realistas; buque progreso, no perfección.

By ANN ZIMMERMAN

In sports-mad Texas, where Friday-night football is nearly as sacred as Sunday church services, one rural school district is taking the once-unthinkable step of shutting down its high-school sports program. Ann Zimmerman has details on Lunch Break.

In sports-mad Texas, where Friday-night football is nearly as sacred as Sunday morning church services, one rural school district is taking the once-unthinkable step of shutting down its high-school sports program.

Officials in Premont, about 150 miles south of San Antonio, hope that eliminating sports this spring and next fall will save enough money to keep its struggling schools open and help keep the small ranching town alive.

The state is threatening to shut down the district, whose 570 students have performed poorly on statewide tests for years—and whose truancy rate is high. The district also has longstanding budget problems, which it says have been aggravated by recent state-wide budget cuts.

But closing the schools would mean sending students 35 miles to the nearest districts. It would also eliminate one of the biggest employers in a town of 2,600 people, where the largest tax generators are a restaurant and a gasoline station. The residents of Premont are for the most part low-income, with 80% of the student body qualifying for free lunch.

So the citizens of Premont are rallying reluctantly around the new superintendent’s last-ditch plan to buy time by suspending sports and using the money to make improvements mandated by the state.

“Cutting off the Friday night lights is a tough, tough thing,” said Ernest Singleton, who was hired as superintendent in June. “But I am trying to explain to everyone that in the big, big picture we are talking about survival—of a school district and a town.”

If the students show academic progress and the district can budget responsibly, the state may keep the district open. If that happened, sports would return. By then, however, it would be too late for some students.

“My friends and I were very disappointed when we heard there would be no baseball, track or tennis,” said Luis Torres, 17 years old, who plays all three sports. “A lot of them cried.”

School districts across Texas are coping with about $4 billion in state-aid cuts, which hit some rural districts especially hard because they have limited local tax bases and sliding populations. Rather than cut programs to the bone or increase class sizes, several small districts have recently consolidated with bigger districts.

But in a state where well-to-do Allen, near Dallas, is opening a new $60 million high-school stadium, sports is usually the last activity to be cut. The sports programs’ defenders cite many benefits besides the social glue it can provide to communities.

“The PTA really believes education should address the whole child, both academically and physically,” said Kyle Ward, executive director of the Texas Parent Teacher Association. “Besides physical fitness, school sports offers character building and role models that children need.”

Premont, however, had few options. In July, the state said it would close the district at the end of the current school year, for consistently poor academic performance at its schools and operating a budget deficit for four consecutive years. While the district appealed the decision, Mr. Singleton and his staff retooled the curriculum and tried to erase the budget gap by closing one of the district’s three schools and trimming budgets in all departments.

Mr. Singleton, his staff and volunteers painted the schools themselves over the summer. He, the secondary school principal and the school security officer have redoubled efforts to make students show up for school, visiting truants’ homes almost every day.

In the fall, residents held raffles to pay for a new state-ordered science laboratory and approved a property-tax increase that had failed twice before.

A few weeks ago, the state gave the district a yearlong reprieve—and a list of demands, which include raising tests scores, removing mold from school buildings and adding one more state-certified science lab for the high school.

To pay for them and to emphasize academics, Mr. Singleton said, the $150,000 sports budget had to go. The seven-member school board unanimously approved the superintendent’s request last week, but not before two hours of heated debate.

“It breaks my heart, and it is not fair for the kids, who are paying for mistakes adults made over the last 10 to 12 years,” said Premont Head Coach Richard Russell, who directs the district’s athletic programs in addition to teaching U.S. history and government at the high school.

The suspension of the sports program, in which 100 students participate, will begin in a few weeks, when the Premont Cowboys finish their basketball season. Baseball, tennis and track have been cancelled.

In fall, there will be no football. Even though the team only won one game this season and hasn’t fielded a winning team for years, the games were still the place for the town’s residents to gather. “The school is the heart of the town,” said Rosie Peña, manager of the Oasis restaurant.

The Texas Education Agency said closing a school district is rare; it has closed five districts in the past 15 years. It’s now also trying to close one outside of Houston.

Until the mid-1980s, when the oil bust hit and jobs began drying up, Premont was a thriving oil and ranching town with state-of-the-art schools, including a 30-acre agricultural farm and a roping arena. In 1970, Premont’s population was 3,282, according to the Census. Its schools’ student body has shrunk by more than 200 students in the past five years. Poor fiscal management led the district to run operating deficits, which at one point topped $1 million.

If the school district can make significant strides, the state may keep it open after all. But the Texas Education Agency isn’t hopeful.

“The management team down there has made improvements,” said agency spokeswoman Debbie Graves Ratcliffe. “But they were in a deep hole and it is going to be very hard to turn things around.”

Write to Ann Zimmerman at ann.zimmerman@wsj.com