A glum month for investing... need cheering up

Workerdrone

There is a saying which goes something like "Over the long term markets do go up"

I know we are all investing here for the long term, but even so it's been a bit of a rough 18 months globally. September/October also seem to be traditionally bad months for the markets. Every day is a sea of red on my fund tracker.

Anyone have any pearls of wisdom or real life experiences to cheer me up :-)

Albermarle

Since 28th March 2020 ( 18 months ago ) the S&P 500 has gone up 75%

NoMore

Workerdrone said:

 Every day is a sea of red on my fund tracker.

Don't check every day then

eskbanker

Workerdrone said:
Every day is a sea of red on my fund tracker.

If literally every day is red then you must be invested in something a bit off-piste, as there are plenty of green days too, for most....

dunstonh

I know we are all investing here for the long term, but even so it's been a bit of a rough 18 months globally. 

It's been a fantastic 18 months.  Everyone should have made a bucket load of money in that period regardless of risk profile unless they have really badly invested.

Anyone have any pearls of wisdom or real life experiences to cheer me up

You say you are in tracker.  That would indicate a single fund.  But what are you invested in? - it will help give us context as to what you are looking at.
If you are in global equities (probably the only area you should hold a single fund), then you would expect to be up around 40-50% in the last 18 months.    Current values are about where they were at the start of August.   So, just routine movement.   

Workerdrone

dunstonh said:

I know we are all investing here for the long term, but even so it's been a bit of a rough 18 months globally. 

It's been a fantastic 18 months.  Everyone should have made a bucket load of money in that period regardless of risk profile unless they have really badly invested.

Anyone have any pearls of wisdom or real life experiences to cheer me up

You say you are in tracker.  That would indicate a single fund.  But what are you invested in? - it will help give us context as to what you are looking at.
If you are in global equities (probably the only area you should hold a single fund), then you would expect to be up around 40-50% in the last 18 months.    Current values are about where they were at the start of August.   So, just routine movement.   

I shouldn't really complain. It has been a cracking 18 months for me investment wise. When I say its been a rough 18 months globally I meant more with political and economic instability (Sorry should have been clear), so I tend to turn to keeping an eye on funds as a cheery distraction. This has worked so far of late there's too much red for my liking

And when I say tracker, I mean in terms of the dashboard I have of funds and their top 10 holdings.

You are right though. I am still up from the beginning of August so I am sure it's just normal movement. I'm just so used to normal movement being upwards!

So I am in variously across mine, the wife and the kids pension providers

Me
A little bit in a High equity WP fund (Safe and steady gains)
An MSCI World information technology tracker
A UK Smaller companies fund
Global smaller companies fund
Threadneedle American select fund
Yes there's a bit of crossover in the above!

Wife
Baillie Gifford American fund
Japanese Focus Class B

Kids
UK Smaller companies
Baillie Gifford American class B
Global Technology Fund
A tiny bit in Pictet robotics

arnoldy

FTSE250 down 3.7 % over the last month - so not a great month - but in the scheme of things not overly important and a chance to pick up some more sharers cheaper with the volatility.

MaxiRobriguez

Generally I want to see red. Red means next month I will be able to buy more units of whatever I'm invested in. As someone who's accumulation phase is due to last another 15 years still, I would like nothing more than a 50% sell off tomorrow which doesn't recover for ten years.

The only thing that doesn't apply to is where I have reasonably high holdings in single stocks and where I won't invest more in them because it will mean the holding as a % of my total portfolio becomes too much. For example I've got 5% of my total portfolio in Unilever - I'm not going to add any more, so I want that to go up.

Everything else can tank though.

noclaf

MaxiRobriguez said:

Generally I want to see red. Red means next month I will be able to buy more units of whatever I'm invested in. As someone who's accumulation phase is due to last another 15 years still, I would like nothing more than a 50% sell off tomorrow which doesn't recover for ten years.

+1 I have a similar ish timeframe (just turned 40) and a big drop now would be welcome both from a S&S ISA and monthly sal sac pension contributions perspective.

Workerdrone

MaxiRobriguez said:

Generally I want to see red. Red means next month I will be able to buy more units of whatever I'm invested in. As someone who's accumulation phase is due to last another 15 years still, I would like nothing more than a 50% sell off tomorrow which doesn't recover for ten years.

The only thing that doesn't apply to is where I have reasonably high holdings in single stocks and where I won't invest more in them because it will mean the holding as a % of my total portfolio becomes too much. For example I've got 5% of my total portfolio in Unilever - I'm not going to add any more, so I want that to go up.

Everything else can tank though.

Now that's the kind of cheerful thought process I needed to here. Good advice.

Thrugelmir

Workerdrone said:

There is a saying which goes something like "Over the long term markets do go up"

I know we are all investing here for the long term, but even so it's been a bit of a rough 18 months globally. September/October also seem to be traditionally bad months for the markets. Every day is a sea of red on my fund tracker.

Anyone have any pearls of wisdom or real life experiences to cheer me up :-)

If you aren't actively managing your portfolio, only look at the position once every 3 months.