selling investments now?

economic

anyone got itchy fingers and now tempted to sell their stock investments (fully or partially)?

anyoen think we are looking at a stock market correction now?

westernpromise

I have no views personally on this question, but if you are worried about a dip, why not buy a FTSE100 put?
https://www.theice.com/products/38716770/FTSE-100-INDEX-OPTION

If there's a dip your option goes into the money and if the FTSE goes up you write off the option premium you paid but at least you gain from the FTSE rise. Think of it as a cost of hedging. Doing anything - selling, not selling, hedging, whatever - has a cost of course.

economic

westernpromise wrote: »

I have no views personally on this question, but if you are worried about a dip, why not buy a FTSE100 put?
https://www.theice.com/products/38716770/FTSE-100-INDEX-OPTION

If there's a dip your option goes into the money and if the FTSE goes up you write off the option premium you paid but at least you gain from the FTSE rise. Think of it as a cost of hedging. Doing anything - selling, not selling, hedging, whatever - has a cost of course.

most of my portfolio is international based. so not exactly a perfect hedge. i also have a fair bit of cash to invest in so thinking rather then timing the market just buy into a falling market. i am investing long term.

i just wondered what everyone else is doing. are they following the traditional advice given in these forums of holding and not selling or are they breaking these rules?

AnotherJoe

The way to tell what "Everyone else" is doing, is look at the markets, not ask here, because if they were in the main selling, prices would be in free fall, and they aren't.

davomcdave

economic wrote: »

most of my portfolio is international based. so not exactly a perfect hedge. i also have a fair bit of cash to invest in so thinking rather then timing the market just buy into a falling market. i am investing long term.

i just wondered what everyone else is doing. are they following the traditional advice given in these forums of holding and not selling or are they breaking these rules?

The standard advice is to buy diversified assets and drip feed the money in.

ProDave

I have a small pension fund that I am thinking of cashing in or drawing in 13 months time. I converted it to cash on 12th January. For once I feel I have "sold close to the top"

westernpromise

Was that based on some insight or piece of analysis, or were you just feeling lucky? Serious question; I have no idea what insights I would consider sufficiently reliable to support any investment decision, but as my horizons are now multi-generational I am not sure I need them anyway.

ProDave

My little pension has been very volatile. It had fallen in value to £22K in February 2016. By the end of 2016 it had risen to £29K Since I want to be "using" it in some form in just over a year, it was time to lock in that value and avoid any potential drop in value (accepting I would also lose any rise in value if I got it wrong). In the month it took me to organise the change of fund investment (IFA failed to act on my instruction so I eventually made the change myself) it had risen another £1K. Though it was not a tracker fund, it did follow the FTSE 100 quite closely, and that has been heading south since the day after I made my swap. That's not to say it won't go up again of course but I see to many things that can go wrong in the short term.

It's no use waiting until everyone starts selling, you have missed the top by a long way then.

Thrugelmir

economic wrote: »

i just wondered what everyone else is doing. are they following the traditional advice given in these forums of holding and not selling or are they breaking these rules?

There's no rule never to sell. Top slicing, rebalancing etc are all good strategies. Providing you've reasoned out a sound argument with yourself and you've found something else that offers a better opportunity at the current time.

At you referring to funds or individual stocks. I'm invest in funds for the longer term. Tending to bail out for reasons of poor performance rather than a market being toppy. After all that's what the manager is being paid for. Liquidating holdings into cash or holding derivatives to hedge the fund against the downside risks.

Individual shares I trade on Company news rather than market.

GreatApe

westernpromise wrote: »

Was that based on some insight or piece of analysis, or were you just feeling lucky? Serious question; I have no idea what insights I would consider sufficiently reliable to support any investment decision, but as my horizons are now multi-generational I am not sure I need them anyway.

I think you are over investing if that is your plan, spend some ££££ today