Really don’t know what to do as I saw how much the stock market went down last on the last lockdown and another is on the way by the looks of things so should I sell my stocks?
Depends a lot on your risk tolerance.
Usually if you invest for the long term you just hold, and if it drops than that is a buy opportunity.
If you invest for the short term it’s more like flipping a coin.
My strategy is: if it drops more, buy more
Problem with selling, is you need to time bottom or at least way lower entry point.
Which is incredibly hard thing to do, as mostly you start buying to early and aggressively, or train passes buy because the drop is not so sever as expected.
What i personally do, have limit strategy and dry powder for such events. Aka if S&P drops 10% deploy X% dry powder. If S&P drops 20% , deploy Y%, etc…
Time in the market > Timing the market
This is by far the best example and very well written article about timing the market:
Do you favour smaller or bigger drops % wise? What I mean is for example you have £100 lets say, if it drops 10% then you deploy £20, drops 20% another £30 then if 30% £50 or is it more 10% drop £50, 20% drop £30 etc…
In essence as smaller drops like 10% are more common, do you go in harder first then f it drops further average down in increasing lower amounts, or go easy with 10% in case bigger drop.
2nd overall is beneficial if big drop but could be waiting a while (generally not in this climate) for 30% drops to deploy the bulk of your dry powder.
ALSO, you mention S&P, do you have thresholds for certain stocks, as say a 20% drop in Oil company right now wouldnt be a suprise, so might not wanna jump but a 20% drop in MSFT say would be a very good entry.
General rule, about 10% of Investment money is kept in Cash. Aka real money, not cash alternatives, we seem what happens to MINT and similar cash alternatives in March.
However given circumstances I kept 50% cash, as I don’t belive in the current rally or market being efficient.
As this is black swan type event I don’t implement the standard correction dip strategy. Ie S&P 10% deploy 20-30%, s&p 20% deploy another 30-40% etc.
One gets a “deja vu” feeling seeing things unfold.
Last time I was to aggressive in early stage spent 90% dry powder before bottom, this time I plan a more patient approach as the panic increase.
Maybe I will be wrong, who knows. But recovery will be slow anyhow, 2nd slowdown in 12 months will be a disaster for many sectors. So I am not in rush to spend all dry powder. But I don’t plan to spend more then 20% per 10% S&P drop, so I have enough for possible 50-60% drop in the end, maybe this will happen over course of 2-3 years. Anyway steady forward.
Thanks for your response, very interesting and yes I am keeping cash aside too in case of big drop in coming months/years. Do you think it could drop to below where the Feb/March dropped too, or would still be above that? Purely just chatting not saying exact predictions.
This is one of my favourite pieces investing advice, or quote.
No one on this planet can predict that. It’s just like a coin flip.
just a note…until you sell a losing stock you havn’t lost money
I do like this article and I try to follow Sarah as much as possible but what about Sarah’s cousin Rygel who perfectly timed the top to sell everything and bought back in at each market low?
I mean not saying it’s possible but that would be the optimum strategy. Just need to invent that time machine first…
What I do is keep 10% cash and buy a little on the red days.
What @Vedran said a few posts up.