Single Stocks ABBV 7.7% ABT 2.5% BNL 2.78% CSSEP 12.6% CVS 1.76% DIS 2.9% ENB 9.24% GTN 1.35% KMI 7.87% LLY 8.57% MSFT 7.84% STZ 8.76% VZ 5.6% Closed End Fund GDV 5.66% GOF 4.21% ETF QQQ 1.94% VV 3.35% Cash 5.31%
I try to stay diversified but within a limit of 20 or positions. I like to invest in companies or funds that pay dividends and right now 89.7% of my portfolio is in positions paying 4.97% in dividends. I keep a small % in cash so as to take advantage of things as they arise without having to sell anything.
Bought 45 additional shares of KMI which was a good decision as my position gained 4.24%. Had a great day today overall as most everything was in the green today. ABBV, BNL, CSSEP, and VZ were the only exceptions.
Here are the % in my portfolio of each position and my gain/loss since purchase. ABBV had been going well but has soured over the last couple weeks. It's not down much and pays about 5% dividend so I'll hold for now and see if it improves. VZ has been a disappointment since I opened the position on 2/1. I'm giving it a few more days, maybe this whole week, before I consider killing the position and moving the money to something more profitable. I should add that I'll get a bunch of dividend payments this week. Not sure what position I'll improve further but will likely be BNL, TRTN, GOF, or VV. Would like to catch any of these on a down day and buy then. All of these are rather small chunks of the portfolio and the first 3 have decent dividends. I'm probably not considering upping CSSEP, ENB, KMI, LLY as their positions are large enough and I don't want too much to be in a single company or industry. Single Stocks ABBV 7.3%, -.0.18% ABT 2.56%, 4.46% BNL 2.84%, 2.38% CSSEP 12.35%, 11.82% CVS 1.78%, 2.88% DIS 3.0%, 4.67% ENB 8.99%, 6.51% GTN 1.38%, 1.19% KMI 9.5%, 5.38% LLY 8.71%, 7.78% MSFT 7.51%, 4.32% STZ 9.17%, 6.77% TRTN 2.28%, 5.10% VZ 5.42%, -.016% Closed End Fund GDV 5.66%, 2.85% GOF 5.86%, 4.05% ETF QQQ 2.02%, 5.17% VV 3.34%, 6.39% Cash 0.0%
In my OPINION this is your problem. 1 You have all of your cash invested, you are trapped and can not add to positions. 2 You are over diversified, you have small positions all over the place. 3 You have fear and by seeing your portfolio take a paper hit are on the verge of cutting loses, which in turn you will have been better off to hold cash and wait for better entry prices. Those are the main 3.there are a couple more but you have no cash to employ those at the moment.
I don't have fear in the sense of "oh no, my stock is dropping. Must sell." I sell when - I'm down 7% to 8% below buy price. See https://www.investors.com/ibd-university/how-to-sell/limit-losses/ - if stock drops > 7% but still above buy price then look at company news, fundamentals, etc and see if locking in remaining profits makes sense. - If I bought and not gained anything in a few weeks time then I'll consider selling. I'm looking for gains to build upon gains. Stagnancy seems like a waste of capital. - if a gain hits 20% or better I'll sell up to half of the position to lock in my gains. If the position still increases, great. If not I sell the balance and find something else to try to grow in. See https://www.investors.com/how-to-in...tocks-take-profits-regularly-mostly-at-20-25/ I agree that having no cash poses some challenges. I had intended to keep a few thousand available at all times to take advantage of opportunities as they arose. I increased positions over the last couple weeks when certain stocks dropped in price hence my 0 cash balance. Why do you think I'm over diversified? Seriously, let me know your thoughts because I'm really interested in hearing them. I intended to have somewhere between 10-20 positions which is the amount I thought I could keep track of adequately. From reading I came to the conclusion that > 15% in a single position is risky as is > 25% in any given sector is risky. I jump in to a position in small amounts and if something shows promise then I buy more. New purchases are funded from dividends (currently $200 month average), by selling positions that I've gained a bunch in (i.e. I sold SDIV when I reached 20% gain), and by selling non-performers. By buying small at first I figure I limit my exposure to bad purchases. Since I am down to 0, now that I think about it, I'll probably hold onto my dividend payments for a bit and not buy anything else next week.
Different people have different styles. rightfully so. I recently liquidated and have missed on some gains, still have most of my cash. I took a position in TSLA and it was red from day one, it reminds me daily of why it is sometimes better to be more patient and follow the trend instead of being trapped as I currently am in that position. I employ options for insurance. I have NEVER been fully invested and always keep cash on the sideline. In my opinion it is foolish to have all of your capital tied up at any given time. The longterm investors think my plan is foolish but I have a system that works for me as they have theirs. I tend to trade my way into investing, I take a position, hold, sell on the rip and keep the gain in shares. Doesnt always work, if that position heads south I can cut my loss and usually buy puts and break even. Sector rotation is a important key in the market, I try to value invest positions that are solid players. I focus on 1 or 2 positions at a time instead of a bunch of small posions scattered everywhere. Dividends are nice but only if your fully vested position is not in a downtrend. Most I held were enrolled in drip plans and the entire long position was basically house money set up to accrue additional shares. When the sector rotated I would evaluate my position and most often would repeat my cycle. Sometimes I would liquidate depending of the performance of that company. Their is no foolproof method regardless of how we decide to work in the markets. We each must have our own plan and employ them as we see fit. Don't take my OPINION the wrong way in my first post, we simply have different views on investing. I was in your position in the great crash of 2008 and nearly lost it all, built it back up and by using stops got stomped again in the flash crash of 2010. I'm twice bit and forever shy, just my way.
Thank you. Know that I did not take offense re your 1st post. You have given me insight and I appreciate it
With my dividend payments am likely buying 2 shares of Verizon because cost is still low, and 2 BNL because I want to improve my position in it, which is small. It also has a nice dividend,
Completed purchase of 2 each of BNL and VZ. Sold CVS as the stock wasn't doing anything after 2 weeks and the dividends were low anyway. KMI and TRTN are my big gainers today, offset unfortunately by STX.
Copied from another forum: Just looked at my cost basis for ytd and I find some interesting things. Now I started out with approx. $47.3K at the start of 2021. In realized losses/gains I find 22 sales that lost me $1944.58 and 9 sales that gained $4266.32 so overall I am $2321.74 in the black. Breaking it down further, trying to jump on the GME type bandwagon with small positions in AAL, SLV, and EXPR cost me $293.07 in losses. I will never jump on that bandwagon again. Jumping on small caps that seemed good but were too volatile cost me around $577. My biggest gains were $666.66 (ominous!!!) on CODI (21.13%), $1242.65 on FRG (14.11%), and $1050.70 on SDIV (18.94%). I also gained big with NVAX but the gains were muted due to wash being added back on since I sold some shares at a loss in December. The gain though was still $510.22 (44.58%). Had I waited a week longer to sell the gains would have been double. I'm up $2k in unrealized gains and overall I'm ahead almost 6% for ytd. Had I exercised better self discipline regarding NVAX and the GME type hype, I would be ahead 7.6% ytd. So I think my overall investing strategy has merit and will remain sound if I avoid some stupid mistakes from the past.
A pretty uninteresting week. Down 0.32% from the week before which would had been 0.70% if not for dividend payments. Negatives ABBV - floundering ABT - 4% DIS - 2% GOF - 1% LLY - 3.75% MSFT - 2% QQQ - 1.75% STZ - 8% (I'm ditching this next week most likely. If Monday morning starts with another drop, I sell immediately. If it rises, I sell at end of the day). Positives CSSEP - 1% (ended the week at 12.88% gain since I opened the position) KMI - .75% TRTN - 4% VZ - 3.5%
Modified my portfolio substantially. Divested myself of ARKK, MSFT because of > 8% drops in value, per my personal rules. Got rid of non-performing ABT,STZ and locked modest gains in BNL, GDV, LLY, VZ. Bought 3 shares of QQQ premarket today which doubles my position size. Will look to buy DIS, CLF, NVAX, QTS-A, GTN, IWM, and VV over the next few sessions.
Current portfolio paying $184 per month in dividends. Not the highest it's ever been but within my goal of $175.
Stocks ended a few dollars ahead today for me. Oil/Gas positions dropped big time, offsetting a good gain in Novavax, which accounted for the pretty even day.
Sold 13 of 24 Novavax shares in post trading on Monday to prevent too steep of a loss following the poor Q4 earnings release. Intending to keep the balance for a while. If they can get authorization from the EU or US the company will be sitting pretty. See https://www.fool.com/investing/2021/03/02/what-really-mattered-with-novavaxs-q4-update/. In the meantime, the money from the sale of the 13 shares will be added to other positions (existing positions most likely). No intention of letting that $ do nothing. All other positions are doing fine. While the gains YTD are nothing to write home about, I am still handily beating my ira 3.95% to 1.64%.
I just picked up some additional ABBV, GOF, QQQ, and QTS-A using the proceeds from selling part of my Novavax position on Monday. All are on minor down swings right now. Maybe I might have gotten them cheaper but I did underbid the existing prices and watched as the prices fell down to my buy price. I'm getting more comfortable at buying as prices drop (and achieving a gain eventually) versus buying as prices rise and hoping to capitalize on that rise. My monthly dividends have increased a bit, to just under $200 month. Novavax dropping further but not at all as bad as yesterday. Novavax's cut artery has stopped bleeding but a few capillaries still need sewing up!
Wow. My IRA lost big yesterday and is now -.77% ytd. Even though I certainly have been losing value in my stock account, mostly due to Novavax, I'm still up 3.43% YTD. CSSEP is at a 15.12% gain, TRTN is up 15% on my original shares and 7.7% overall, KMI and ENB also doing well. GTN is up 4-6% on my best share prices but still hasn't quite broken even overall. Not planning any buying or selling until the 15th when I get my mopnthly dividend payment from CSSEP. More dividend payments will come in the last week of the month and those payments will get invested in something probably same day.
