How to rebalance/when to sell (philosophy)

Thank you for this forum. It is tremendous in terms of educating and empowering the individual investor.

I’m interested in the forums’ words-of-wisdom on when to sell in terms of rebalancing and realigning a portfolio. I had been self-managing a portion of our (spouse + me) overall portfolio mainly with SA. I recently took the remainder of the portfolio (>50%) out of management with the intention of self-managing the whole thing. This leaves me currently with three issues:

  1. A large portion of cash that needs to be invested (of these first-world problems!)
  2. Too many small positions in respectable stocks (e.g., too many stocks to keep up with effectively but perfectly decent (I think) stock picks (all SA recommendations bought over the last 2 years but in small quantities))
  3. A bond fund that I don’t like and that isn’t doing well

Since I have cash at the moment, I’m not pressured to sell off one stock to buy a better one. Likewise, I don’t have to sell the [crappy] bond fund at the moment to get cash. But I do hate the bond fund and it’s down since I purchased it. What is a wise philosophy for moving forward? Pull the band-aid quickly (e.g, sell out of everything and realign to buy 12-ish stocks)? Stay put and move slow and steady (wait until the bond fund shows even a tiny profit and then sell. Keep the small stocks on the side and invest the current cash in the 12-ish stocks. Sell the small stocks over the next 3-5 years as my knowledge of things matures)?

Any words of wisdom from those who have been in this situation?

Thank you all. This board is tremendous.

1 Like

I think Portfolio Management is a bit out of the scope of this board.
This link to the Portfolio Management board may be more helpful to get an answer to your question.

http://discussion.fool.com/Messages.asp?mid=33147357&bid=100…

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My true apologies. Thank you so much for the link.

I will not post again until I have a stock that I think the group should consider.

Very kind regards.

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jenndieu!
Portfolio management is good place for elaborate questions like yours but you elaborate too much. Read Saul’s 3 Knowledgebase articles and you will see the light. Saul flushes the ones in red, a little more aggressive than SA recommendation.
Your bonds and low burners are just disguised cash. Put them into cash and then study Saul’s and NPI boards. Average out Tinker, DreamerDad, Saul, GrouchoChris, and Bear’s portfolios and Center your attention there, especially the newer buys because some of the older buys might be maxed out.

Sorry, but too lazy to switch over and answer you on Portfolio manageme group. Sitting here in Cost Rica recovering from successful surfing lesson(I stood up) and getting ready for flight to Brazil to do some more rapid athletic exhaustion, same latitude, but other side of equator.

Then again what do I know except that I was in same situatio as you 1 year ago and would be up 40%+ except that I wasn’t patient with my cash reserves. Love this group and NPI. I can not believ how many people there are in this world that are smarter than me.

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Am I correct to assume “NPI” is the New Paradigm Investing board?

Am I correct to assume “NPI” is the New Paradigm Investing board?

Yes.

Denny Schlesinger

Hi Denny -

Just out of curiosity (being new to this, um, 1950s technology -) how would one discover the portfolios of those people you mentioned?

I did manage to wend my way around to Dreamer Dad’s profile, which listed some his his stocks (though no telling how new the list is), and kind of assumed Bear meant BreBear - but even Google, apparently, stays away from this Eisenhower-era technology, or at least doesn’t seem to index the pages. So to stop the rant and repeat the question - how would I find those people’s portfolios? (But…good news? I finally found a website - this board’s technology, not content - that I hate more that FB. Who thought it was possible…)

(Or maybe this website requires witchcraft to operate? Could it be THAT old?!)

Hi Denny -

Just out of curiosity (being new to this, um, 1950s technology -) how would one discover the portfolios of those people you mentioned?

I didn’t mention anyone in this tread. Can you be more specific, maybe a link to my post you are referring to to refresh my memory.

Denny Schlesinger

Cro,

I promise I’m not picking on you, but this post (as specifically highlighted by Saul here: https://discussion.fool.com/saturday-morning-rules-of-the-board-…) is also off topic.

These are great and important topics for investors. Just not on this board. There’s another great free board, New Paradigm Investing (NPI) where these posts are welcome.

Please no more replies to this thread either.

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Average out Tinker, DreamerDad, Saul, GrouchoChris, and Bear’s portfolios and Center your attention there, especially the newer buys because some of the older buys might be maxed out.

https://discussion.fool.com/gauchochris-93018-portfolio-update-3…

https://discussion.fool.com/confidence-34025975.aspx

https://discussion.fool.com/my-portfolio-at-the-end-of-sept-2018…

Did not have Dreamers latest update handy but it’s worth keeping an eye out for.

1 Like

thank you.

And…Dreamer Dad

https://discussion.fool.com/my-portfolio-at-the-end-of-sept-2018…

sorry, here dreamer dad

https://discussion.fool.com/dreamer-port-update-34006226.aspx?