Bad month for stock and shares?

d712

Hello


I opened a stocks and shares ISA at the end of the last tax year.


I was roughly 1% up overall about a month ago and now I'm about 4% down.


Has anyone had a similar experience over the last month or so?


I think my investments are fairly diverse so I don't think its case of having put all my eggs in one basket.

nearlyrich

My shares have all rocketed recently in my ISA, my Pension and my individual shares I hold. I try not to check too often as they do go up and down. Who is your ISA with?

Fiendarina

Hi - I've seen values go down over the last month, and was told it was due to the recent strength of the pound, which means anything with non-UK earnings doesn't look quite as good. Still up over the year though, even with the recent falling off.

bigadaj

d712 wrote: »

Hello


I opened a stocks and shares ISA at the end of the last tax year.


I was roughly 1% up overall about a month ago and now I'm about 4% down.


Has anyone had a similar experience over the last month or so?


I think my investments are fairly diverse so I don't think its case of having put all my eggs in one basket.

That's the problem with equities they are volatile.

Best not to check them too often if you take these movements too seriously, generic advice is to invest for a minimum term of five years, and ideally for ten or twenty or more.

In general then shares will typically return 4% over inflation in the long term, though a crash will result in values dropping by 20%, 30% or even 50% at worst, if you stay with it in the long term then the most probable outcome is good long term growth that will be much better than cash, bonds and probably property.

masonic

Sounds like typical volatility to me. It could happen for any number of reasons, or for none at all.

d712

I do check my investments very regularly. I know the advice is not to do that but I'm not going to panic and sell.


I will be holding to these for years, if these were funds I needed I wouldn't have invested them in this.


The way I look at it, I've only made a real loss if I sell them for less than I paid for them.


I look at them regularly so I don't get sudden nasty shocks.


Instead I get (at worst) a series of minor disappointments.

InvestInPoker

I am down 4% in the last 30 days, it doesn't matter.

Vortigern

Similar thread here:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5241175

God answer from bowlhead (as always)

DiamondLil

Vortigern wrote: »

God answer from bowlhead

:D Now there's a Freudian slip if ever I read one....

Vortigern

Oops! ......

bowlhead99

d712 wrote: »

I think my investments are fairly diverse so I don't think its case of having put all my eggs in one basket.

The FTSE 100 ended the week down 1.2%.
The S&P500 closed the week at a record high, ending a three-session losing streak from earlier in the week. Now FTSE is up again this morning.

If you keep your investments diverse and, every so often, sell some of the ones which are significantly up to fund some of the ones that are significantly down, you will do fine over the longer term

d712 wrote: »

I look at them regularly so I don't get sudden nasty shocks.
Instead I get (at worst) a series of minor disappointments.

That probably doesn't help, because when your minor disappointment is the tenth consecutive daily disappointment and it's perhaps 5% or so in just one day, you will still potentially get overcome with worry or emotion.

If instead you hadn't even looked at the holdings for another 6 months, you would perhaps have not even seen any negative movement (other than the wobbly line on the historic chart), or even if you did see a "nasty shock" it might have been accompanied by a "pleasant surprise" on another holding.

There is no real point looking at your holdings 250 times a year. You will get a mixture of daily successes and daily disappointments. If they were all of equal size and the final "score" was 200:50 or 150:100 or 126:124, you will walk away a winner.But in doing so you will have had 124 mornings or evenings where you were annoyed with the performance of your investment portfolio. Over a decade that's a thousand times when you have created a frown instead of a smile.

Why put yourself through that, to avoid a few "nasty surprises"? If your portfolio is down half a percent tomorrow again, surely you aren't going to change it, because your investment strategy can't be "change my holdings daily to try to make the best possible return". I would rather have a couple of times a year where I got an annoying "surprise" which I could blame on the market, rather than 100 disappointments where I questioned my investment competence, eventual ability to retire, mental health etc.