Saul:
I read your knowledge base (not your latest iteration though) but I did not figure out how you build and dynamically update/change you portfolio in time:
tj
how do you decide to put over 15% to 20% in any one stock?
I don’t really. I never start with more than 6%-7%, and I usually start with 3% or less while I’m learning more about the company. If a stock is 15% or more it has grown that big on its own.
In other words how do you build up your conviction?
My conviction builds up (or shrinks) as I learn more about the company, read transcripts, see how earnings come in, etc.
how do you decide what to trade (out of) to pursue a ‘better opportunity’, and how you determine that would be a better opportunity.
There’s really no answer to that. It depends on the individual circumstances, although I might sell part of a stock I’m less sure about, or one with a high PE, or one that is stable and I don’t think will move much, etc.
How do you use MF services?
Most of my stocks are covered by MF services (10 out of my present portfolio are recommended by at least one MF service, and some by two or more). I find MF to be an excellent source of stock ideas, although I use other sources too. I find the MF discussion boards to be a very valuable asset. Most other services suggest a stock but there’s no place to follow it or discuss it.
How is portfolio affected by the MF services
I don’t use all those bizarre (to me) option strategies that some services use. I tend to avoid the very high PE stocks or stocks with no earnings that RB sometimes suggests (although I like other of their recommendations a lot). I didn’t like the absence of an exit strategy at MF (although since I started this board and started complaining about “the absence of an exit strategy at MF” they have actually started really working at finally culling some of their worst stocks and I give them a lot of credit for being willing to make that change).
Hope this helps. And by the way ALL, and I mean ALL, the answers to the questions I gave you here are right there in the Knowledgebase. I can’t recognize a single thought here that I hadn’t already included.
Saul
For Knowledgebase for this board
please go to Post #15056.
A link to the Knowledgebase is also at the top of the Announcements column
on the right side of every page on this board
I can’t recognize a single thought here that I hadn’t already included.
Interestingly the words price and earnings are each mentioned 133 times in the knowledgebase, but the word volume does not appear once. I asked about thoughts from Saul and company on how the more experienced investors treat volume in the decision making on whether a stock is worth investing in. Do you avoid low volume stocks? Do most of you ignore the trailing average value as not material in the analysis of a company? I’m not asking about the basics of high volume or low volume days though. Just curious.
Do you avoid low volume stocks?
Hi F1Fun,
I think it depends on how much you are investing and how much you are planning to put into a stock. If you are just starting out investing and just buying 100 shares in a stock, the volume doesn’t matter. If you have accumulated a large portfolio and taking a position means thousands of shares, volume matters a lot. (That’s one of the reasons I pointed out that mutual fund managers can’t match our results. They have to restrict their investments to big companies with lots of shares).
Saul