Golden Butterfly Protfolio; Managed Mutual funds, index funds or ETFs?

[MoonShadow]

I've decided to re-do all my tax advantaged accounts, and use the Golden Butterfly approach spread across all 3 tax advantaged accounts (401k, Traditional IRA, Roth IRA).  The 401k choices are rather limiting, but there is a decent managed Small Cap Value fund there, so I'm likely to use most of my 401k funds for that portion.  As a rough percentage, the 401k is about 20% of my overall portfolio, my Traditional about 70% and my Roth about 10%.  My questions, like the title suggests, is would I be better off using an index fund or an ETF for the Large Cap portion?  Should I favor managed funds for the two bond portions (long date bonds & short term bonds) or should I stick with an index fund or an index ETF?  (GLD is my only real choice for the gold portion, so an ETF it is)

Also, if your recommendation is a managed fund, do you have any favorites?

[edit] ETF's would cost me $8 per trade, so every rebalance would cost me up to $40, and if I were to contribute a little each month (as opposed to an annual lump sum contribution) and traded into the lowest percentage portion each time, that would cost me at least $96 per year.

[MoonShadow]

Nothing?

[Tyler]

I personally would stick with the lowest-ER index funds you can buy for each asset.  Treasury bonds are really simple, and I see no need for a managed fund.  If you want, you can even purchase them directly through your brokerage with no middle man required.

Regarding trading fees, I like your idea to always buy the lagging asset. That will keep the overall fees quite low and also maintain your target percentages in accumulation with minimum rebalancing required.  I also like to save up and only buy something when the fee is small relative to the purchase amount.