Mixed ON and OFF TOPIC questions, re: big oil/oil service, stocks/funds.
1) First (and very stupid) question: Shouldn't the low price of oil hurt the big oil companies that sell it more than the oil service companies? Yet Exxon has been beating the S&P this year, and the other big oil companies (especially the foreign ones) haven't been slouches, either. (?????)
2) I don't know how many of you out there have portfolios in which your individually selected stocks have been outperforming the S&P so far this year, but my stock portfolio is in bad shape. On the other hand, my portfolio of mutual funds (all no load, low expense funds) is up over 16% for the year (beating the S&P) -- not counting dividends & capital gains distributions. (It would have done even better if I had not bought back into Latin America too soon.)
By contrast, the return on my stock portfolio is a perfect round egg -- an absolute ZERO. What killed the portfolio were 1) my oil service stocks, and 2) even more, my technology stocks (although the average technology fund is up over 16% year-to-date!).
Back to the oil service stocks: there is, as far as I can see, only one fund that holds exclusively oil service stocks -- Fidelity Select Energy Service. It's up 2.9% for the year...not great, admittedly, but still better than my -15%!
So, my question, which I have been asking myself for a long time: does it really make sense to spend all this time researching, selecting, buying, selling, etc., these stocks, if you can't get better returns than the funds? Perhaps if you know the sector inside out, or if you are a really quick-footed trader, or if you just love to gamble, it might -- but for the plodders like myself??
Would appreciate an honest answer.
Thanks.
jbe
P.S. For those who might answer: "take your profits when you can," another question: what if the 35% tax bite pretty much makes the trade not worth one's time? (My stakes aren't that large, and so the profits aren't that big either. And consider that time is money, as well.) |
