Hands up everyone who has found this year tough to call?
After my last post the stock market took a tumble, I was also tied in to a lot of stocks because of uncertainty over a forced move of some of my accounts from 'Sharebuilder' to 'E-Trade'. In the end this movement of my accounts did not take place until the end of October and was not completed entirely until mid November.
IIn the transfer period I had to forgo all my dividend reinvestment plans, also sell fractional shares at not the best time and then learn to use a whole new trading system at possibly the most turbulent period of the markets.
Of course in this I was not alone. Thousands of other Sharebuilder customers were in the same position.
I had never bought into all the FAANG stocks as a group. I owned them in the XLK and XLY exchange traded funds. Buying a few XLC stocks in August with the proceeds of sales of partial shares forced by the selling of my accounts to E-Trade last Winter.
The only one of the FAANG stocks I owned and still own is Apple (AAPL) despite it's recent fall in October and November from $230 to about $170 I still like the company and as a long term holder I have my average cost at just $100 I am still looking at good long time returns on the stock and I have been here before several times with Apple. I think it will grow back into the Trillion dollar company it was in the late Summer, not overnight of course but in the next few years.
Overall because of the lack of the FAANGs and other volatile stocks, my portfolio has been quite robust. Losing only 0.6% for every 1% fall in the value of the S&P 500 ETF (SPY). I also own SPY in in my retirement account as a long term core holding.
Now though I have all my DRIPs back in force and am looking forward to a good December dividend payout adding some good, less expensive stocks to my portfolios.
This month I have also been reading this book. I have found it very informative so if you would like to follow the link and purchase a copy for yourselves I would be grateful as you would be supporting this blog.
After my last post the stock market took a tumble, I was also tied in to a lot of stocks because of uncertainty over a forced move of some of my accounts from 'Sharebuilder' to 'E-Trade'. In the end this movement of my accounts did not take place until the end of October and was not completed entirely until mid November.
IIn the transfer period I had to forgo all my dividend reinvestment plans, also sell fractional shares at not the best time and then learn to use a whole new trading system at possibly the most turbulent period of the markets.
Of course in this I was not alone. Thousands of other Sharebuilder customers were in the same position.
I had never bought into all the FAANG stocks as a group. I owned them in the XLK and XLY exchange traded funds. Buying a few XLC stocks in August with the proceeds of sales of partial shares forced by the selling of my accounts to E-Trade last Winter.
The only one of the FAANG stocks I owned and still own is Apple (AAPL) despite it's recent fall in October and November from $230 to about $170 I still like the company and as a long term holder I have my average cost at just $100 I am still looking at good long time returns on the stock and I have been here before several times with Apple. I think it will grow back into the Trillion dollar company it was in the late Summer, not overnight of course but in the next few years.
Overall because of the lack of the FAANGs and other volatile stocks, my portfolio has been quite robust. Losing only 0.6% for every 1% fall in the value of the S&P 500 ETF (SPY). I also own SPY in in my retirement account as a long term core holding.
Now though I have all my DRIPs back in force and am looking forward to a good December dividend payout adding some good, less expensive stocks to my portfolios.
This month I have also been reading this book. I have found it very informative so if you would like to follow the link and purchase a copy for yourselves I would be grateful as you would be supporting this blog.
