FTSE - shot up again today! What should I do?

donshale

I have a tracker. I have more cash to invest in the FTSE if I want to (I have other investments too so not all eggs are in the one basket).

The FTSE has continually gone up the last few months since I got my tracker. I'm sitting on 12% profit in just 4 months.

Should I sell now, and wait for another dip and buy back in again?

Or should I keep my current holding and put some more cash in now?

Thanks for any views.

cogito

It depends on your aims and objectives and you've not said what they are.

opinions4u

I would stop worrying about 1 day movements and decide what your long term objectives are.

yelf

opinions4u wrote: »

I would stop worrying about 1 day movements and decide what your long term objectives are.

exactly no one knows where the top or bottom is. Those who try and guess it lose out to those who stat put in (time in vs timing).

I say look at emerging markets

malik999

> Or should I keep my current holding and put some more cash in now?

OP. All answers are personal opinion but my advice to you is hold and put more money in. Don't worry about the pull backs. Think longer term.
There are lots of newbies getting carried away and selling too early imo. Be patient.

chopperharris

so 12 percent up on a couple of months , but its 30 percent down than its peak pre cc.

Its only really came back a couple of percent of its loss since peak.

musehead

It's still 30% down on where it was 9.5 years ago.

That might suggest long term investing/speculating on the FTSE index should be more than 10 years?

opinions4u

musehead wrote: »

It's still 30% down on where it was 9.5 years ago.

That might suggest long term investing/speculating on the FTSE index should be more than 10 years?

Or it could indicate that investing in FTSE companies is a long term dog and money should be invested elsewhere on the planet.

jamesd

musehead wrote: »

It's still 30% down on where it was 9.5 years ago.

That might suggest long term investing/speculating on the FTSE index should be more than 10 years?

It suggests that a sector-allocated portfolio with regular annual rebalancing should be used, so gains from the up times get shifted into more stable investments like corporate or government bonds. Doing that you can make money when the market averages going nowhere or down.

donshale wrote: »

I have more cash to invest in the FTSE if I want to

Why isn't it invested yet? That is, what was your thinking for waiting until now?

swift1_2

it's quite clear the stock market is out of the worst, we are out of the bear market and in the midst of a recovery. The trend is up now, though there will probably be fallbacks, trying to time the entry and exit of these can be quite tricky and a mugs game. Its often been said that those who buy and hold for the long term do better than those who continually try to time the short term peaks and troughs. The FTSE has got a way to go to reach above 6,000 mark it was before the recession kicked in, so there's plenty of scope of upside yet. However, you may also want to look at the Dow Jones index as that might have more potential upside, its probably worth having a balanced portfolio. Just my thoughts.

cogito

The high reached 10 years ago at the peak of the dotcom bubble was simply absurd. There was nothing to justify that sort of level. I'm guessing we might get back to somewhere around 5500 by the end of next year but it could be another ten years before the index hits an all time high.