Rate-cut playbook for all 16 investor types
Liquidity, duration and risk appetite all reprice at once — what each persona should do and avoid.
A rate-cut cycle is not simply 'stocks go up.' It is a simultaneous repricing of liquidity, duration and risk appetite. Even holding the same assets, some personas get to stand firmer where they are, while others feel an urgent pull to switch.
This playbook lists, per persona, the first action to take and the most common trap to avoid in a cutting cycle. Use it as a personal checklist rather than as a forecast.
Why now?
Longer-duration bonds react more violently to rate moves, so concentrating in long bonds because they 'look cheap' is one of the most common mistakes.
Easier liquidity lifts risk assets first, but another volatility shock is always within a year of any cycle. Plan for both.
Best-fit personas for a cutting cycle (Top 5)
- 1🦅RDLCThe Precision Sniper
Strongest at deploying conviction into discounted quality.
- 2🐢PDLAThe Armored Turtle
Mechanical rebalancing captures duration gains automatically.
- 3🐂PILCThe Romantic Farmer
Long-held quality names finally get re-rated.
- 4🦫PDLCThe Solitary Value Hunter
The 'quiet accumulator' shines when value re-prices.
- 5🐉RILCThe Visionary
Vision assets that survived the tightening can recover.
Most likely to wobble (Bottom 5)
- 1🔥RISCThe Moth to the Flame
Pulled deepest into the liquidity party.
- 2🐝PISAThe Curious Bee
Curiosity ('buy a bit of everything') backfires.
- 3🐿️PISCThe Cautious Squirrel
Paralysed between fear and FOMO.
- 4🦦RISAThe Surfer
Rotating too often bleeds fees and tax.
- 5🐬RILAThe Trend Navigator
Multiple themes wake up at once — priorities collapse.
What each of the 16 types should do
Tap your code to jump to that type's full guide.
The best moment to scale into discounted high-quality compounders.
- · Re-test each holding's thesis under a lower-rate assumption
- · Draft a tranche plan for one or two discounted compounders
- · Trim cash by ~5pp to redeploy into your top picks
- · Letting 'last chance' FOMO push 50% of assets into one name
- · Trading long-duration bonds on a short horizon
Extend duration, but only within the band your rules already allow.
- · Bring rebalancing forward and extend bond duration by 1-2 years
- · Keep global diversification; nudge EM weight up by 1-2pp at most
- · Top up REIT and infrastructure sleeves up to your pre-set caps
- · 'This time is different' moves that breach your weight band
- · Cutting short-duration buffers in favour of carry
More volatility — tighten the rules, not the position size.
- · Tighten stop-loss from −2% to −1.5%
- · No trades within 24h of FOMC / major data prints
- · Auto-sweep a slice of profit into long index funds
- · Sizing up because volatility is up
- · Using futures or options to 'recover faster'
Regime shift — re-validate every backtest assumption.
- · Re-run main strategies against the prior low-rate regime
- · Add yield-curve normalisation as a monitored regime signal
- · Pilot one new bond/FX pair strategy in a small bucket
- · Scaling capital on last 12 months performance alone
- · Disabling the kill-switch rule even temporarily
Your vision assets shine — keep the cap.
- · Hold half of your vision sleeve, tranche the rest
- · Re-write a 'this thesis is wrong if…' page each quarter
- · Keep cash + treasuries at 20% untouched
- · Pushing vision allocation past 50% on 'the moment'
- · Skipping bear-case reports on purpose
Multiple themes reawaken — narrow your bets.
- · Keep only 2-3 themes with proven revenue growth
- · Cap any new theme at 5% of assets
- · Add a monthly theme weight check to your calendar
- · Copying YouTube / newsletter recommendations 1:1
- · Delaying partial profit-taking when you feel a top
The most dangerous cycle for this type — externalise the brakes.
- · Drop the high-risk account cap by another 5pp
- · Force a 24h cooldown before any new position
- · Auto-sweep any profit into long index funds
- · 'My cycle has arrived' single-name concentration
- · Using futures or crypto leverage to bet the cut
Great cycle to rotate — keep stops shorter than usual.
- · Pre-document a stop-loss for each rotated position
- · Apply a 'partial sell when the fun fades' rule
- · Cap any new theme at 3% of assets
- · Averaging down on a single losing name
- · Skipping a quarterly review before the next rotation
Quietly accumulate discounted value names.
- · Reassess watchlist names that have aged 12+ months
- · Decide within 24h of any quarterly print, then act
- · Trim cash by ~5pp in stages
- · Panic-buying because you 'missed the move'
- · Selling long holdings on transient volatility
Stay on the rule — this is your home cycle.
- · Bring rebalancing forward by one step
- · Top up long-duration up to your pre-set cap
- · Never touch the 6-month emergency reserve
- · 'One big bond bet' style weight breaks
- · Improvising rules because of volatility
Short rules read cleaner in cuts — keep the discipline.
- · Re-write each entry trigger in a single line
- · Sit out for 24h after each take-profit
- · Compare monthly rule vs realised P&L
- · Sizing up because the market is moving
- · Buying 'symbolic' positions in unfamiliar assets
Stay on the system; re-validate it once.
- · Hold auto-DCA ratios steady
- · Adjust bond duration within the rebalance step
- · Write one page: 'are my rules still valid at low rates?'
- · Boosting DCA because 'everyone else is buying'
- · Trading long duration on a short horizon
Your conviction names shine again — but check them.
- · Explain each thesis to a third party
- · Compare quarterly prints against consensus
- · Do not touch cash / deposit weight
- · Skipping objective checks because 'you already know'
- · Letting one name run past 50% of assets
Fertilise the plants that already grow.
- · Add only to the 1-2 names that already work
- · Re-write a thesis for tip-driven positions
- · Keep the 6-month emergency reserve aside
- · Adding tip-driven names just because the cycle helps
- · Hanging on to names you've lost interest in
Don't freeze — scale up by a controlled step.
- · Increase one held name's size up to 1.5×
- · Re-read your winning-trade journal for confidence
- · Never touch the emergency reserve
- · Adding lots of small names out of FOMO
- · Avoiding markets for 6 months after one loss
Make the 'sampler' stride more uniform.
- · Fix a monthly 'experiment budget' and stay inside
- · Write a 7-day post-buy review per position
- · Pick one sampled asset to hold for 1 full year
- · Sampling every trending asset at once
- · Breaking the experiment budget 'just this once'
Frequently asked questions
- Which asset is guaranteed to go up when rates fall?
- None. Long-duration assets typically benefit, but speed and macro context vary widely. Treat this page as a per-type behavioural checklist, not a forecast.
- I don't know my type yet — what should I do?
- Take the free 60-question test first (5 minutes, no signup), then come back to your code's action card.
- Can I follow these actions as-is?
- This is a 'behaviour pattern' page, not investment advice. Combine it with your own financial situation and time horizon.