What's happened to my portfolio in the last 2 weeks?!

Thrugelmir

margaretclare wrote: »

Put more in, as much as you can afford.

I would consider carefully where though. Falling knives are best avoided.

noclaf

I sold up all the shares today in my S&S NISA - just cant afford to lose any more and this year has been terrible for me on the markets, taken a 'battering' to be precise. wish Id found this forum years back but ah well, we live and learn. multiple currents accounts and drip-feeding a tracker/fund will be the way forward for me

Linton

Thrugelmir wrote: »

I would consider carefully where though. Falling knives are best avoided.

In my view this only applies to individual shares. With funds investing in perhaps 100 companies the chances of the value disappearing completely is almost zero. You can be pretty sure in a mainstream fund that any fall will be followed at some stage by a rise.

Linton

noclaf wrote: »

I sold up all the shares today in my S&S NISA - just cant afford to lose any more and this year has been terrible for me on the markets, taken a 'battering' to be precise. wish Id found this forum years back but ah well, we live and learn. multiple currents accounts and drip-feeding a tracker/fund will be the way forward for me

You didnt lose anything until you sold, unless of course your shares were in highly speculative companies which were on their way to going bust.

brendon

noclaf wrote: »

I sold up all the shares today in my S&S NISA - just cant afford to lose any more and this year has been terrible for me on the markets, taken a 'battering' to be precise. wish Id found this forum years back but ah well, we live and learn. multiple currents accounts and drip-feeding a tracker/fund will be the way forward for me

If you expect the market to perform 7% growth per year, it should be no surprise that one year it could be down 7%. If anything, if the market is down, you should be putting more money in, not taking money out. If you buy high and sell low, you won't get anywhere. That said, if you needed the money in the immediate term, it should never have been in stocks in the first place.

Glen_Clark

I guess we have all 'taken a battering' this week.
I certainly have.
But I am not selling anything.

Thrugelmir

Linton wrote: »

In my view this only applies to individual shares. With funds investing in perhaps 100 companies the chances of the value disappearing completely is almost zero. You can be pretty sure in a mainstream fund that any fall will be followed at some stage by a rise.

The fall in favour of the Nikkei index is a stark reminder that even countries aren't safe taken as a whole. So the chances are far above zero of a permanent as opposed to temporary diminution in value. Like wise Tesco's is a warning to how much large corporations are relying on financial engineering. Glaxo has increased it's borrowing by billions in the past decade to maintain it's increasing dividend payout. In my own experience. When the growth stops, then there's no where to hide.

margaretclare

Thrugelmir wrote: »

I would consider carefully where though. Falling knives are best avoided.

Oh yes, obviously. That's why unit trusts are better. Fund managers who are in touch with the markets day in day out, from hour to hour, can do it much better than any private individual.

margaretclare

noclaf wrote: »

I sold up all the shares today in my S&S NISA - just cant afford to lose any more and this year has been terrible for me on the markets, taken a 'battering' to be precise. wish Id found this forum years back but ah well, we live and learn. multiple currents accounts and drip-feeding a tracker/fund will be the way forward for me

The very worst day to do this! Unless you had desperate need of the money right now, it would have been a day to hang on.

margaretclare

noclaf wrote: »

I sold up all the shares today in my S&S NISA - just cant afford to lose any more and this year has been terrible for me on the markets, taken a 'battering' to be precise. wish Id found this forum years back but ah well, we live and learn. multiple currents accounts and drip-feeding a tracker/fund will be the way forward for me

It does of course matter just where those shares were/with whom. What might have made more sense would have been to switch, instead of selling, into 'lower risk' funds. That way you'd have bought more units for the same money.