Rebuilding Your Portfolio: What to Buy & Sell Now

Now is the time to begin rebuilding your portfolio, and CNBC has asked the experts where they're putting their money now. Here's your quick guide to what to buy, what to sell and what to do now to get your money growing again.

Commodities

Gold has probably seen its high for the time being, and corn is too unpredictable at this time of year, according to Dennis Gartman, founder of The Gartman Letter.

"Go to the simple commodities," Gartman said. "The things that have fallen precipitously over the past year."

He suggests getting into copper and aluminum. And don't wait for earnings to come out.

"You need to get involved with owning commodities, commodity stocks long before any earnings turn up," he said.

Gartman has more to say about commodities in the video above.

More on Gold Stocks:

• Fund Manager's Top-10 Gold Holdings

ETFs

The best way to get into ETFs right now according to Rob Stein of Astor Asset Management, is to "diversify between non-correlating assets. We currently like the LQD ."

The ETF of high-grade corporate bonds is yielding over 6 percent, Stein said, and there is an opportunity for appreciation of 10 percent or so.

Stein also likes the SMH .

Check out more ETF picks in the video at left.

More on ETFs:

• ETF Top Performers

Munis

Municipal bonds can be a help, but the experts say there's some crucial homework for an investor to do first.

"The municipal bond market has weathered the ups and downs of the economy since before the Great Depression," Pete Delahunt of Raymond James told CNBC.

It's a market, however, that is not immune to fallout from the credit crunch.

"Interest-rate default swaps and derivatives...can be buried in the books of some of these credits," Delahunt said.

Susan Courtney of Dryden Municipal Bonds warned about the dangers of so-called "special assessment bonds."

"They're higher-yielding bonds than the municipal market, and most of them are non-rated, so they're going to be below investment grade," she said.  "That's one sector of the high-yield market that has suffered over the last few years, given the ties to the real-estate market."

Distressed Debt

Ready to handle an even higher risk?  There are always those notorious mortgage-backed securities.

"It's difficult for individuals to get involved in this sector, because so much of the paper was designed to be purchased by institutional investors," Trepp senior vice president Tom Fink told CNBC.  "I do know that there are a lot of folks who are putting together new investment vehicles targeting CMBS."

That doesn't mean that investing in them is any easier, and certainly not less risky.

"Mutual funds are pretty tough to focus on distressed assets because of the mark-to-market issues," said the Praedium Group's Russell Appel. 

He suggests real estate investment trusts (REITs) may be a better opportunity.

"They're down over 50 percent in the last six months alone," he said.

Stock-Free Strategy

Want to rebuild without stocks? Rob Arnott, chairman of Research Affiliates, said bonds provide the most interesting non-stock investing options right now.

"You have investment-grade corporates yielding about 4 percent more than the stocks of the companies that issue those bonds," Arnott said. "You have high-yield and convertibles yielding about 15 percent more."

Arnott would recommend any of the three bond grades, but investment grade corporates are currently priced very attractively. He likes PIMCO High Yield and PIMCO Investment Grade Corp.

William Larkin of Cabot Money Management also likes high-grade corporate bonds, particularly Eaton Vance Floating Rate and iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corp. .

• Special Report: Protecting Your Portfolio—A Guide to Managing Your Money

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