This correction-type thingy...

Glen_Clark

Damage wrote: »

I sold my last fund today, after watching the FTSE 100 take a large dive. I'm going to be around £200 down on where I started,

If you wouldn't sell it for £x why did you sell it when offered £200 less?

Incidentally its more entertaining to read the old Torygraph articles to see how much they have got it wrong http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/markets/questor/9722167/Questor-share-tip-BHP-Billiton-a-buy-despite-China-concerns.html

Bazofts_Revenge

Don't panic! Next week is pay day and as such I will probably be investing on the Monday following. The markets usually recover before I get chance to take advantage.... They will drop again the next day

Glen_Clark

I fear the next correction will be to the exchange rate of Sterling. We have a Current Account deficit of 5.8% of GDP, Politicians who have doubled the 300 year National Debt in 5 years yet talk of 'recovery' with all the braggado of a country with a Sovereign Wealth Fund, and a referendum on Europe looming, which could well turn into a referendum on immigration, and Britains withdrawal from the EU. Our economy is based on restricting supply and throwing taxpayers money at the housing market to stoke up demand and prices, making property speculation a better investment than productive manufacturing and exports to bring down the deficit - what could go wrong.........
Investing in foreign or even FTSE 100 shares gives you some diversification from Sterling, and the current exchange rate, buoyed by dirty foreign money launderers buying up London properties, could be the best chance you will get?

Al.

dunstonh wrote: »

Well its now well through the correction level and not far off crash level (FTSE being almost 14% down and its 20% to be classed as a crash).




A typical crash (the more frequent type) is in the 20-25% range. So, at nearly 14% down, we have already travelled a lot of the way there.

However, there is no way to tell whether today is the last day of decline before the markets decide that is enough and we go on to see a bounce and gains or whether it has another 5%, 10%, 20% to go before it does that.

All you can say is that it was better than a few months ago. Whether the future will be better is impossible to know.

I wonder if the old 20% maxim still holds true. These days, so many more investors can get out and in, so much more quickly, we react so much faster to unfolding events too.

There will be a lot of people, parked in cash, waiting to get back in. My thoughts, for what they're worth, we'll see a slow incline to Xmas but it'll get very stodgy next year. Dependent on US elections?

Damage

Glen_Clark wrote: »

If you wouldn't sell it for £x why did you sell it when offered £200 less?

Incidentally its more entertaining to read the old Torygraph articles to see how much they have got it wrong http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/markets/questor/9722167/Questor-share-tip-BHP-Billiton-a-buy-despite-China-concerns.html

Because the stage of being approximately £200 down is less than how far down I was before I sold the other funds (that were down further), then put the remaining amount into this fund to recover some of the loss (which was reasonably successful)! I sold this last fund after it did what it needed to do in order to prompt me to sell it (i.e. close down on the previous day a number of times), according to what I had decided in advance.

This was me minimizing my losses rather than potentially chasing them to an even worse level. Initially I made a few mistakes messing about with the funds in this ISA, but I think my more recent moves have been more sensible - or at least less stupid.

mike88

You are never going to time the market. However, at this time I would think about investing say 30% of the available funds and another 30% in a couple of weeks time depending on how things work out. Then the remaining 40% can be invested later on in the year if the markets have settled down.

Investing in shares is always a gamble but history tells us it is the best course of action to take. If you are investing for the long term market fluctuations and market timing should not overly concern you.

atush

Damage wrote: »

Because the stage of being approximately £200 down is less than how far down I was before I sold the other funds (that were down further), then put the remaining amount into this fund to recover some of the loss (which was reasonably successful)! I sold this last fund after it did what it needed to do in order to prompt me to sell it (i.e. close down on the previous day a number of times), according to what I had decided in advance.

This was me minimizing my losses rather than potentially chasing them to an even worse level. Initially I made a few mistakes messing about with the funds in this ISA, but I think my more recent moves have been more sensible - or at least less stupid.

Why sell at all in downturn? that is when I buy?

Madness, even at a 200 loss.

I would have been buying more myself, but have my cash reserves earmarked for a private investment.

I have few K though, so will be looking for a bargain. Certainly not selling.

ChesterDog

Atush is right.

In trying to avoid the drop, almost inevitably one ends up selling after prices have dropped. Only to sit waiting for a firm recovery in prices to show itself before rebuying.

A suggestion from me would be...

Never invest money whose value you cannot bear to see fall by up to 30% occasionally.

Never invest money that you might need to withdraw within 5-10 years.

Choose investments carefully and well.

Diversify, diversify, diversify.

Leave it alone.

Damage

atush wrote: »

Why sell at all in downturn? that is when I buy?

Madness, even at a 200 loss.

I would have been buying more myself, but have my cash reserves earmarked for a private investment.

I have few K though, so will be looking for a bargain. Certainly not selling.

Because relative to the possible eventual extent of the downturn, it could well constitute having sold at (or near) the top of the market. That remains to be seen. I bought it at what appears to be right near the top of the market, so to sell further into a downturn would be buying high and selling low, wouldn't it?

If you buy now, then the market falls by another 10 or 20%, how mad will my sale and 1.3% shortfall look like compared with your 10 or 20% loss? If that happens, then how would my re-investment at the lower level look madnesswise, compared with your early-downturn investment?

But as I said earlier, I'm not going to lose any sleep over being down 1.3%. My ISA is only just over 13% of my total capital, the rest of which is (effectively) in cash, and I won't be risking any of that until I know a lot more about investing.

Damage

ChesterDog wrote: »

Atush is right.

In trying to avoid the drop, almost inevitably one ends up selling after prices have dropped. Only to sit waiting for a firm recovery in prices to show itself before rebuying.

A suggestion from me would be...

Never invest money whose value you cannot bear to see fall by up to 30% occasionally.

Never invest money that you might need to withdraw within 5-10 years.

Choose investments carefully and well.

Diversify, diversify, diversify.

Leave it alone.

Yes, I appreciate that is a possibility. We will have to see how things turn out in the coming weeks or months. I'm just happy to have got myself more or less back to where I started, so I can hang on until I've learned a bit more before I make any more decisions.