Brendan: re tracking large portfolio.
Yes, I have a large (in number of positions) portfolio. Possibly approaching 100 issues. I try to keep turnover low - even in tax-deferred accounts I plan to hold issues at least one year or more. Sometimes I'll trade within a position though (buying/selling while maintaining a core holding amount). I only very, very rarely sell short, and never use options. My portfolios are all unbalanced (i.e., the stocks in them are not equally weighted). I have one Buffett stock which I bought when it was inadvertently (IMO) mentioned by him. (I've posted my story on this stock here before.) This stock, over the past years, has performed Buffett style --so I find myself with very outsize profit gains - which I trim occasionally --and which always has been the wrong thing to do for maximizing profits, but I just can't live comfortably knowing so much of my financial future is with one stock (albeit one VERY good stock). Similarly, I have some very outsize positions in pharmaceutical stocks, bought I thought, when they were value stocks.
Most of my positions and watch lists are up in portfolios in Yahoo.
They asterisk latest news for each stock. Very easy to get latest info and quotes. I don't know of an alert signal to notify me of new highs/lows in these stocks. (If I had such a signal, I'd use it). My brokerage accounts all provide telephone access for quotes, and I use this feature during the day when I'm not near my computer to check on prices. The biggest issue for me with such a large portfolio is finding the point at which to focus on a particular stock. I own stocks that go up, yet I don't focus enough on them when they are at this up stage... but they surely get my attention as they slip back down -g-. On the other hand, sometimes this has worked to help me. For example, I own a small position in IBM, others. Not sure where I bought IBM-- $50 after the split maybe-- I wonder if I would have been able to hold if I had seen every news item, every brokerage downgrade, upgrade, article on accounting, future biz. prospects.
Same with other stocks I own but choose not to follow so closely... just want to give them time to work out and not get myself sucked into the day-do-day excitement/depressions that occur. (I would say I have about 10 stocks like this that I only rarely check on.)
I try to be very clear about the stocks I include in a particular portfolio. I have a conservative (I think) relative-dividend model portfolio, a strict (I think) value portfolio, and a miscellaneous portfolio. This gives me an opportunity to catch different stocks/industries/investment styles as they go in/out of favor. For example, having bank stocks (rel.div and misc) and experiencing their profit rise (until today anyway -g-)protects or offsets declines in recent purchases of value stocks.
The overarching focus is the bottom line value of each portfolio. Because of this, I don't get so wrapped up, panicky, whiny with a particular stock or stocks if it or they decline 50% or more. Obviously though, in this bear market, with many mid/small cap stocks declining as well as the overall market... I too would be focused on confirming exactly where and why each stock is in each portfolio.
This approach seems to work okay for me. Obviously, we all have different goals and outlooks, so different ways of investing too. My summary for my way of value investing would be: if you've found a stock that's a good percentage below what you think is fair value, buy it. Don't overbuy-- there are, and will ALWAYS, be other opportunities. Add them when you find them too. Don't trade out of a position because you think you've found something better. Save trading up for your cars and women (or men, depending on preference, or neither if married -g-). It's too difficult to predict the time, the if-and-when that will make a value stock pop up to fair value. Once you buy an undervalued stock, give it time to show.
Hope this helps somewhat, Paul |
