A useful way to think about this: rebalancing is a risk-management rule first and a return story second. Desk note: The core function of rebalancing is to stop winners and losers from rewriting your allocation without permission. Why investors care: That matters because unmanaged drift can quietly turn a balanced portfolio into a concentrated macro expression. Translate it into behavior: A strong equity run can make a nominally balanced book far more cyclical than the owner realizes. Where people usually get tripped up: The mistake is evaluating rebalancing only by whether it improved return over one recent sample. Keep this nearby on the next review: On the next portfolio review, separate what feels urgent from what is structurally important. The point is not to memorize the label. The point is to know what variable is actually doing the work.