I am quite a bit more leveraged than 26% but that metric is not even a consideration in 'my plan'. When a down swing happens I'll have to sell, so on the US side will sell some and go to cash and maybe supplement that some on the Canadian side and sell a little to lower margin debt. The goal while doing that will be to maintain the Canadian side cash flow above the monthly margin interest and hang on to as much cash flow as I can on the US side. As long as the companies in the cash account stay as ongoing concerns and keep paying dividends they can fluctuate all they want.
That is my way of thinking, in reality I still have a truck loan that I want to be able to liquidate with the stocks in the cash account so I can't ignore them. As for yearly return percentages I don't really pay attention to them other than getting the values I need for income taxes. I'm trying to focus on being able to cover my living expenses, and I'm marginal on that right now, and manage/pay down the margin and HELOC interest.
fwiw, my metrics I'm using, excluding rental unit, monthly, all units Canadian dollars:
Cash flow
Cash account: $217
Margin Account: $2007
TFSA: $14
Margin Interest Coverage ratio: 1.12 <-- would like to get this to at least 1.20 so I am saving 20%
If I moved all the Canadian equities to the Canadian side of the account Margin interest coverage ratio would be 2.20
If another October 2008 happens, and yes I remember it, it is likely most shares on the US side would go to cash as that was nasty, there wasn't really any sector to hide and I did panic and sell my resource stocks even though everything was in the cash account then and I had a good job. I also remember 2000 and I only had about $3000 then. I would then have to decide how to use that cash to buy old/new shares or move the cash to Canadian side and pay down margin debt. Rebuilt account would likely be less than whatever the peak was if a slide like 2008 happens again.
Some other metrics:
Biggest gain on a position: about $114,000 which was a $25,000 bet, original money shares at $0.015, averaged up at 5, 15, and 20 cents and sold in the mid 60 cent range, whole trade took about a year and a half on a gold stock
Biggest Loss on a position: about $80,000 chasing a very high yield catching a knife, think it was about 16%, oil and gas dividend stock. Still in my account, is a reminder to invest in good companies.
Trying not to swing for the fences like that any more. Right now my biggest positions are bank stocks, and I've spread out to about 45 stocks across sectors. And I do have a few stocks with a lower yield than my margin interest rate.