Sold 50% of portfolio at the bottom, want to reinvest but how?

bostonerimus

OpalMiner11 said:

Thank you very much to everyone for their input. It's clear that I need to make a plan and stick to it - be that investing once it reaches a certain level, or committing to investing over the next 6 months etc.

This is what happened to me over the past months. I've been retired for six years and live off my final salary pension and rent from an apartment I own. I also have substantial investments in the equity and bond markets some in retirement accounts that I can't get at yet and some in regular accounts. Anyway I'm debt and mortgage free and don't need to take any income from the investments. I also do a bit of part time consulting.
When the lock down came the consulting was cut back drastically and I halved the rent form my tenants as they were also not working. But the final salary pension kept coming in and as my outgoings were very small (just food, utilities and some taxes) I managed just fine without needing to touch my cash buffer. I rebalanced my investments close to the bottom of the markets as I had drifted from my 75/25 asset allocation. 
In short by having low outgoings and diverse income streams I was fine and was even able to help my tenants out. And because I'm not dependent on my investments for income I could be a little sanguine about the falling markets and just followed my usual rebalancing strategy.

newatc

I had started the process of moving into more defensive and passive funds (because of age and some health scares) when the crash/correction occurred and largely I've kept to the strategy but in selling funds (I had already decided to) I kept about 7.5% of investment portfolio back in cash as I felt sure that the market would fall and I would buy back in on the dip. I'm keeping to that line for the rest of the year.  I regard it as element of insurance and like all insurance, I'd rather not need it.

MaxiRobriguez

No one makes perfect decisions - you just need to learn from them to reduce impact of less-than-perfect decisions in the future.

I was carrying a cash allocation prior to the crash of c.15%, I then used half of that to buy up equities in early April.

That would make most people wince in envy, but at the same time the equities I bought have been largely defensive, and so have missed any significant rally (annoying) and I carried shares in a travel company into the crash, despite fully expecting lockdown conditions to impact on the industry (completely fallen asleep at the wheel, kicking myself).

No will get it right all the time. As long as you can analyse what you could have done better without hindsight, and apply the lessons next time, you'll be better for it. 

MinuteNoodles

OpalMiner11 said:

Hi all,
I made the stupid mistake of selling half of my portfolio in the middle of March (stupid mistake and I hope to not repeat it again!).
The market has since risen 15% and I don't need the money since it was for FIRE. What is the general consensus regarding putting it back?
Should I just lump it back in and wear the 15% hit, DCA slowly over the next months or wait a bit longer to see what happens?

Clearly you didn't learn the lesson in March. Dump it all back in, take the hit. If you leave it chances are you're likely to lose potential growth as the world is starting to come out of lockdown.

MinuteNoodles

OpalMiner11 said:

Good point - I was influenced on this occasion by a family member and also the media. I've done a finametrica risk assessment and it was pretty bang on for what I'm invested in (80% equities 20% bonds). I guess I've just learnt a lesson to not pay too much attention to the news and remember to hold for the long run.

I left mine put. My S&S ISA with VLS80 is about 3.5 years old now. Fund was down -12% at the bottom, down about £3000 but I didn't sell and in fact chucked more money in. As I type its now 8.46% in the positive, up £2k over what I've paid in. Looking at the charts the only purchases which are still in a loss are those I made from May to December 2019. 

[Deleted User]

I am busy transferring mostly cash DC funds into SIPPs.
The first one went through 12/3 I then bought HSBC Global Strategy Balanced and Fundsmith.
They are both up 6.69% and 21% respectively.
I have a strategy and I am following it.

Reg_Smeeton

MinuteNoodles said:

OpalMiner11 said:

Good point - I was influenced on this occasion by a family member and also the media. I've done a finametrica risk assessment and it was pretty bang on for what I'm invested in (80% equities 20% bonds). I guess I've just learnt a lesson to not pay too much attention to the news and remember to hold for the long run.

I left mine put. My S&S ISA with VLS80 is about 3.5 years old now. Fund was down -12% at the bottom, down about £3000 but I didn't sell and in fact chucked more money in. As I type its now 8.46% in the positive, up £2k over what I've paid in. Looking at the charts the only purchases which are still in a loss are those I made from May to December 2019. 

My main pot has been going 2.5 years with a small initial investment and irregular top ups since, as and when I have had money available to invest (almost exclusively in index funds). Annoyingly it feels that whenever I add cash the markets respond by going into a correction a few days later.... ! Anyway, I was down 15.6% when I checked on 18th March, and by yesterday I was up 1%, some rally that. I sold some gilts during March as equities were falling so am currently 90/10 split. Will rebalance back to 80/20 when I add more money later in the year.

Thrugelmir

MinuteNoodles said:

OpalMiner11 said:

Hi all,
I made the stupid mistake of selling half of my portfolio in the middle of March (stupid mistake and I hope to not repeat it again!).
The market has since risen 15% and I don't need the money since it was for FIRE. What is the general consensus regarding putting it back?
Should I just lump it back in and wear the 15% hit, DCA slowly over the next months or wait a bit longer to see what happens?

Clearly you didn't learn the lesson in March. Dump it all back in, take the hit. If you leave it chances are you're likely to lose potential growth as the world is starting to come out of lockdown.

No clear sign that globally the Virus is under control. Far from it. The civil unrest that is surfacing isn't going to improve matters either. 

Sailtheworld

Thrugelmir said:

MinuteNoodles said:

OpalMiner11 said:

Hi all,
I made the stupid mistake of selling half of my portfolio in the middle of March (stupid mistake and I hope to not repeat it again!).
The market has since risen 15% and I don't need the money since it was for FIRE. What is the general consensus regarding putting it back?
Should I just lump it back in and wear the 15% hit, DCA slowly over the next months or wait a bit longer to see what happens?

Clearly you didn't learn the lesson in March. Dump it all back in, take the hit. If you leave it chances are you're likely to lose potential growth as the world is starting to come out of lockdown.

No clear sign that globally the Virus is under control. Far from it. The civil unrest that is surfacing isn't going to improve matters either. 

News happens. If someone has invested according to their (real) attitude to risk they can let the news pass them by. There will be more news containing something worrying available tomorrow.

mcooke999

“Far more money has been lost by investors trying to anticipate corrections, than lost in the corrections themselves.” - Peter Lynch