Liquidate entire portfolio until virus is over?

HCIMbtw

tropic_of_Username011 said:

I haven't bought or sold a single investment since 10 February. OTOH, my holdings include COST — have a look at the recent chart of that if you fancy a laugh

check out the value of staffline shares over the past year to make yourself feel a little bit better

Thrugelmir

HCIMbtw said:

tropic_of_Username011 said:

I haven't bought or sold a single investment since 10 February. OTOH, my holdings include COST — have a look at the recent chart of that if you fancy a laugh

check out the value of staffline shares over the past year to make yourself feel a little bit better

Ouch! Hopefully you exited before the freefall. 

bostonerimus

It's amazing how popular market timing becomes in a crash. If you have an appropriate asset allocation to your circumstances you should be just fine. Even those people retiring on DC pots should be ok as long as they have followed the rules of drawdown portfolio construction as the models include such volatility....maybe people will now understand why withdrawal rates are around 3.5% even thought the markets have been going up by double digits in many recent years.

If you have a robust plan then stick to it, don't be tempted to market time. You don't want to risk decimating your pot on the chance that you can make a killing. Just realize that if your plan was good the possibility of this downturn was baked into it and the survival of your pot is more important than seeking to maximize its size with the associated extra risk.

Sheriff_Fatmen

worldtraveller said:

For what it's worth, as planned, and posted earlier, I started to buy back in yesterday, with some of my accumulated cash over the past 6 months, at 27% from peak, into a Fidelity FTSE All Share Index fund. 

did you place the order yesterday and hence perhaps lost ~5% on today's valuations or did you time it to suit yesterdays valuations?

bostonerimus

Sheriff_Fatmen said:

worldtraveller said:

For what it's worth, as planned, and posted earlier, I started to buy back in yesterday, with some of my accumulated cash over the past 6 months, at 27% from peak, into a Fidelity FTSE All Share Index fund. 

did you place the order yesterday and hence perhaps lost ~5% on today's valuations or did you time it to suit yesterdays valuations?

No one should care!...even the OP. With a ten year time horizon such high frequency events will be lost in a sea of other variations.

Sheriff_Fatmen

bostonerimus said:

Sheriff_Fatmen said:

worldtraveller said:

For what it's worth, as planned, and posted earlier, I started to buy back in yesterday, with some of my accumulated cash over the past 6 months, at 27% from peak, into a Fidelity FTSE All Share Index fund. 

did you place the order yesterday and hence perhaps lost ~5% on today's valuations or did you time it to suit yesterdays valuations?

No one should care!...even the OP. With a ten year time horizon such high frequency events will be lost in a sea of other variations.

fair comment - I guess I was just kind of making the point that it's difficult to 'time' purchases to take maximum advantage of volatility/daily falls or rises, when some funds are valued the day after your order - e.g at 3pm the following day after the US markets have also had a chance to rebound

bartelbe

As a million other replies have said, worse possible thing to do. You turn paper losses into real losses.
I actually do the completely opposite, I put more money into shares in a crisis. Now be warned this is risky but I will outline my reasoning. Unless you believe the world economy will never recover, markets will eventually regain their value. So this is an ideal time to buy, while others are panicking.

I invest in bog standard tracker funds but have also taken a punt on companies I think will survive this crisis. My reasoning is, the companies that pull through will gain a higher market share and will be worth more.

In fact I never buy at the peak of the market, only when there is a crash. It is during the market peaks I build up funds, to put money in when the markets crashes. 

bostonerimus

Sheriff_Fatmen said:

bostonerimus said:

Sheriff_Fatmen said:

worldtraveller said:

For what it's worth, as planned, and posted earlier, I started to buy back in yesterday, with some of my accumulated cash over the past 6 months, at 27% from peak, into a Fidelity FTSE All Share Index fund. 

did you place the order yesterday and hence perhaps lost ~5% on today's valuations or did you time it to suit yesterdays valuations?

No one should care!...even the OP. With a ten year time horizon such high frequency events will be lost in a sea of other variations.

fair comment - I guess I was just kind of making the point that it's difficult to 'time' purchases to take maximum advantage of volatility/daily falls or rises, when some funds are valued the day after your order - e.g at 3pm the following day after the US markets have also had a chance to rebound

I agree, the thing to avoid in markets like this is making poor decisions based on short term variations that negatively impact your portfolio over the long term...and they can come clothed as opportunities to make money or limit losses.

eskbanker

bartelbe said:

In fact I never buy at the peak of the market, only when there is a crash. It is during the market peaks I build up funds, to put money in when the markets crashes. 

Timing the market is notoriously difficult to achieve - it's not a bad tactic to take advantage of the occasional corrections but hardly a sustainable strategy....

bowlhead99

bartelbe said:

In fact I never buy at the peak of the market, only when there is a crash. It is during the market peaks I build up funds, to put money in when the markets crashes. 

Think how much extra money you would have made over the years if you had been investing in the market throughout the 80-90% of the time it spends at, or within, 10-20% of its all time highs?

Long term, you'll generally make money by investing it as soon as it becomes available to you. Waiting 7, 10, 17 years for a decent crash can be quite counterproductive.

That's not to say don't invest at depressed prices, but don't need to try to exclusively invest at depressed prices. And recognise that an equity index that's 25% below its peak can still drop a  further third from there - it won't necessarily rebound any time soon.  That's why it can be quite useful to just dispassionately invest whenever you have the money - rather than hoarding a big stash of cash, trying to pounce at the right time, and then being disappointed about it if you didn't get it spot on.