How many of you were able to sell your stocks during the plunge, then make money off discounted stocks? I was fortunate enough for my investment broker warning me after the first day of diving. I was able to sell all my positions. I bought stocks at a discount, but not the lowest discount. In the end, I did come out with a nice 43% gain in a 4 week stretch.
That's magnificent! Only took a pandamic to see your smiling face around here again. Don't have enough money (investments) for it to matter.
Damn that sucks. Honestly, I would of lost too if it wasn’t for my financial advisor. I really didn’t see it coming.
Just rode the wave. But,,,,, I converted some SEP IRA funds to ROTH IRA just one day off of the low. So now the taxes owed will be paid by the higher stock value.
My wife and I are completely out of the stock market right now. I think we still have some shares of Pepsico and some assorted shares my stepfather gave me that I don't wish to share for sentimental reasons. When a vaccine is near release, then we'll buy back in. Until then, I'm gonna sit tight and wait.
Probably a good move honestly. The market is highly volatile. Only stocks I purchased were companies I know had the balance sheets to overcome any huge down turn. Playing the long game.
for the stocks and bonds we held, by this last weekend we were down about 12-13%. It would have been worse, but we are more conservative, have a heavy balance toward bonds, and also have some single Oregon Muni's and lots of preferred stocks for income. By the way, blue chip preferred stocks hold value a lot better in a downturn than other stocks but by a series of circumstances, none of them due to my smartness, we had about 18% of our holdings in cash at the end of January. On a hunch, and it's the first time my stock market hunches have been right, I bought a bunch of bear-market ETF's around the 12th-15th of Feb. (DOG - DXD - TWM - SDD - RWM - DUG). Those things skyrocketed; which means I got more and more nervous. I'd had enough of that ride and sold everything on March 20 because I figured the market was going to react favorably to the passage of the stimulus the next week. I haven't totaled it yet but I think those ETF's gained about 70%, on average. Again, that's the first time in 30 years I've been strategically right about any market turn. Usually I like to buy high and sell low. Or, another thing I like to do is identify some stock or commodity, tell myself I should buy it, chicken out, then watch it take off while I'm on the sideline. For instance, in Jan 2015 I had about 12K in cash in my Roth IRA. I've been more aggressive in my Roth (without much success) so I was looking around and saw Bitcoin selling at about $180/share. "I should buy 75 shares" says I. "don't be stupid, be safe" says me. So I listened to me instead of I and played it safe. 35 months later I saw Bitcoin selling for $20,000 a share. What's 75 X 20,000?....fuck me anyway, that one set of moves in Feb. have just about offset the losses the rest of our stocks and bonds have suffered. And it makes it easier to just ride things out, although it could get a lot worse than it is now
The long game is what my investment advisor advised. My wife is a nervous Nelly and I lean that way so we got out when the gettin' was good. We will jump back in. The timing of the return to the stock market is going to be tricky but with any luck and a tad bit of insight we should catch it early in the upswing. I'll probably go moderately conservative while my wife will put her money into conservative. Those two positions contain stock. The conservative position still contains 40% stock so she should net some gains. Our broker is with Merrill Lynch and he gets his direction from a corporate group. He modifies the investments according to the client's wishes. Until now we've always gone with his advice and have averaged about 8% after fees so we've been happy. We are now technically multimillionaires. Not bad for a wife who worked on an assembly line and a husband who got into the work force late in life and had to retire very early because of medical issues. We are comfortable while sharing our fortune with a brother-in-law, a niece, a great niece, a great nephew and a sister-in-law. Of course, this means we can't go to the Ringside, Ruth's Chris Steak House, The Original Pancake House as much as we would like. Also, have to limit my contribution to our church until it just hurts, although we'd love to give more if we had it. Well, there's the story of my life. I don't think I've told you about this before. I didn't graduate from college until I was nearly 30 and then I was sort of a playboy until I met my wife and she made me settle down. No more beard, no more mustache, no more bell bottom pants, no more leisure suits, no more hair down to my shoulders, no more swearing, no more weed, no more whiskey drinking poker games, no more dirty jokes and no more being late for meetings or appointments. I had to learn how to eat regular food. I had to learn to write and call relatives more often. I started regular exercise before I met my wife but it really got serious after we got married. Had to give that up because of medical problems. TMI? Well, we're here to unload stuff.
Yes, my wife is Korean and I've got a ton of health issues but the most serious is dialysis. You know full well that my wife is Korean. We probably shopped at your East Portland store. I think your mom knows our friends the Leipzigs. Mrs. Leipzig is Korean as are their two beautiful adopted daughters who call us aunt (actually, Imo) and uncle. We love them to pieces and their oldest daughter just graduated from my alma mater (happy day).
I put all my stocks and mutual funds into my ROTH IRA and one traditional IRA several years ago and went long term..bought some currency as well.still haven't tapped my PERS retirement...hoping to hold out another 7 years before I start using it. Our saving grace is owning an acreage and not having debt now. I've always invested in rural property and it's never failed me...
