I've been ignoring my portfolio the past few months. Am I doing the right thing?
I plan on ignoring my portfolio for the next year. Is this a smart thing to do? I use to stare at it on a second by second basis. Now I find myself afraid to look at my portfolio. What are you tickerhounder's doing these days?
Answers
2222 points
readytoretire answered 10 months ago …
While ignoring your portfolio may make you sleep better for a while, there is a danger that you may find a very nasty surprise when you decide to look. Likewise, staring at the value on a constant basis doesn't do anything other than make you feel good (bad these days) about your picks. Taking a page from Cramer, you should be spending some time each week looking at your investment choices and whether they are where you want to be now. I don't look at the value of my investments per se, but do evaluate if that stock/fund is going to give me what I want. If you are serious about not looking, I would recommend looking at the lazy man portfolios that Marketwatch has. They do fairly well, and you only need to look once a year.
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4075 points
EthanR answered 10 months ago …
I have mixed feelings about your question. I agree with the previous answer that the danger is that yoiu may be in for a nasty surprise when you do finally look. On the other hand, since you are young, if this is an IRA, you have all the time in the world for stocks to come back.
But the point is that you will have some stocks that are performing better than others. The worst ones should be dumped and replaced with beaten down stocks that are starting to show some life. You can't do this if you aren't looking at your portfolio. Probably once a week might be best. Not looking at all is an extreme, just as bad as looking every two minutes (unless you are day trading).
678 points
BoxCar answered 10 months ago …
Of all times, NOW is when you must sell off stocks you perceive to be on a Down
escalator- Its near 100 or so days since the stk mkt crash of Oct/Nov. and if you
read thewallstreetbully.blogspot.com, Dec20 article you can see a graph showing
4 Bad Bear mkts where DJIA is eerily similar to the crash of Oct29 with a peak to
come 100 days later then a looong Down escalator into the 1930s-it can happen
368 points
ads answered 10 months ago …
Personally I'd recomend doing some of what the above recomend (readytoretire and ethan both have some very good points, as does boxcar, however I tend to think that boxcar may be expecting things to get worse than what I feel they will), looking occasionally and evaluating what you own. However I look at that evaluation a little differently, I'd say that you should not simply sell off anything that is still in a downward trend, as some companies that are still seeing a downward trend are still strong and are good investments. You are better off to look closely at each investments strengths and weaknesses and evaluate them relative to what you expect the market to do over whatever time period you had in mind when you invested in those items.
For example, I am currently invested in two different early-stage mining stocks, while both have taken a royal beating in recent months, one of them I will not sell as they are on track to start operating in around another 12-18 months time and the materials that they mine are already at a point (even with the recent modest declines in many of the metals) to be very profitable. As such I will be hanging on to this one for at least the next 2-3 years as long as something major does not go wrong with their financing (and their financing appears very strong at this point, especially compared to other companies). On that same note, if I can spare some more cash to dump into the market in the coming months I will probably invest more into this company, despite their price being depressed even futher than the markets as a whole, due to the fact that they are incredible upward potential.
Pardon the long response here, but wanted to get this point across that it is better to do a big-picture analysis... the second mining stock that I own, I kind of question their financing plans to become operational, however I do feel that they own some potentially profitable properties and as such I will likely sell it within a years time, either when thier attept to finance opening their mines falls through (in which case I will take a modest loss) or if they can generate enough hype for their properties (which I think do have potential) then I will sell when the price gets above a certain planned level (already have the order set to activate once it reaches what I feel it has the potential to pass withn the next year).
Thus what I'm trying to get at is that each investment needs to be evaluated on its own strengths and weaknesses relative to the larger market and economic conditions. Hope that helps some.
435 points
larryat36 answered 10 months ago …
Never looking at your results is like an ostrich with his head in the sand. As much as looking brings you pain, not looking may bring you more. Go over your portfolio and see if there are some things that you should get rid of. A good test is to check the stock as if you did not own it. If you find by that measure that you would not buy it now, why would you want to keep it. Turn it into what cash that you may get and prepare to buy something that fits your current situation or have the money to buy an invesrment that you are comfortable with into the future. If you look there are some bargains out there now, and will be more in the future.
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