Hi Denny:
What I do is “modified buy-and-hold”. What I mean by modified buy and hold is that, when I take a position in a stock, it’s with the idea of holding it indefinitely, as long as circumstances seem appropriate, and NEVER with a price goal, or with the idea of holding it a few days or a few weeks, or with the idea of trying to make a few points and selling. It’s a question of intention.
Well said. I agree 100%-- Even more than 100%.
Although we only have one position in common, there is a lot of similarity in our portfolios. I currently have only ten positions but in the past two months I have accumulated a lot of cash not finding anything particularly interesting to buy.
The important metric is not what is in a portfolio–but what you do with that portfolio that helps you reach the goals that you are investing for
I also took some profits on AMZN.
Peter Lynch has a better prescription, sell when the story changes or you realize that you made a mistake. For example, I held SABR for 20 months before giving up.
Why? What has changed with AMZN that prompted you to sell and probably obligate yourself to pay a voluntary tax to the FED and STATE? You said it took you 20 months to give up on SABR and yet you sold AMZN “to take some profits”
While the business is still good, I think the problem is that this company was taken private and reissued and the private equity people took a lot of the future profit out of it already. SABR might be a candidate in the future after the “distribution” is over. One reason I include the chart is because I’ve come to rely on charts to come to decisions
SABR appears to be the same story as KMI. Public company taken private by the founder at a cheap price. Sucked all the money out of it–Loaded it up with Billions of dollars of debt and then IPO’d it and everyone came running to buy it again and then he ripped the heart out of the shareholders with his “merger” of all the subsidiaries and then reduced the dividend about 75%. ++++ Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me++++
I gather from reading your post, that you aren’t satisfied with your portfolio results. Maybe you should rethink what your goals are, maybe make some changes to make the results come more in line with your goals. There are no perfect answers as to when to buy or sell a stock in real life. I don’t believe you will find the answers in books. If the book writer really knew what he was talking about he would be investing in the market making money instead of writing a book to try to suck $20 or $30 out of you.
Good luck
b&w