Value of pension is freaking me out

zagfles

Parking_Trouble said:

Deleted_User said:

What is the purpose of counting some short term “losses” or “gains” in one small portion of the overall portfolio?  I am managing 10 investment accounts which, together with cash accounts make up the overall portfolio.  Have absolutely no idea how each one performs in isolation although, I guess, could find out. 

Why wouldn't you be interested in individual accounts?
Don't you want to validate why the value of an account has shifted?
Surely it's a constant learning process.

Not short term. Those who obsess over short term movements tend to make schoolboy errors like buying yesterday's winners. Eg they hear about funds that have gone up 100% over the past year and think "I want some of that" and sell their boring old VLS100 or whatever and buy funds that have performed much better. Then they see their new fund plummet because of course the reason for the massive rise is also the reason for the massive fall, they are invested in far more volatile stocks, or predominantly in an area which has seen volatility eg tech.

Workerdrone

zagfles said:

Parking_Trouble said:

Deleted_User said:

What is the purpose of counting some short term “losses” or “gains” in one small portion of the overall portfolio?  I am managing 10 investment accounts which, together with cash accounts make up the overall portfolio.  Have absolutely no idea how each one performs in isolation although, I guess, could find out. 

Why wouldn't you be interested in individual accounts?
Don't you want to validate why the value of an account has shifted?
Surely it's a constant learning process.

Not short term. Those who obsess over short term movements tend to make schoolboy errors like buying yesterday's winners. Eg they hear about funds that have gone up 100% over the past year and think "I want some of that" and sell their boring old VLS100 or whatever and buy funds that have performed much better. Then they see their new fund plummet because of course the reason for the massive rise is also the reason for the massive fall, they are invested in far more volatile stocks, or predominantly in an area which has seen volatility eg tech.

It’s good advice, and I suspect it’s what a lot of people do by mistake. I do monitor regularly but I rarely sell anything, I sometimes just switch my future monthly savings into a new fund to diversify a bit. I always think zoom out on the markets charts and look at the general direction over the long term.

I read a meme on Facebook the other day which went something like

”In movies, why are vampires always rich?”

”Man, if you’ve been alive since 1860 and are still poor do yourself a favour and just step into the sunlight”

Thrugelmir

Audaxer said:

segovia said:

The markets have taken a bit of a hammering since the beginning of the year, mainly in the USA. The FTSE is showing signs of some resilience.  Interest rate increases in the USA and Ukraine is spooking the markets. Netflix dropped 25% as they claim they will not meet their subscription targets, that didn't help the Tech Sector. Its worrying as I have seen my portfolio drop 40K in 4 weeks, It will come back again. 

A £40k drop sounds a lot, but it depends on the total value of the portfolio as to whether it's a big percentage drop.

%'s are the figures that really matter. Values have to be put into context of the the total investment portfolio. 

cfw1994

zagfles said:

Parking_Trouble said:

Deleted_User said:

What is the purpose of counting some short term “losses” or “gains” in one small portion of the overall portfolio?  I am managing 10 investment accounts which, together with cash accounts make up the overall portfolio.  Have absolutely no idea how each one performs in isolation although, I guess, could find out. 

Why wouldn't you be interested in individual accounts?
Don't you want to validate why the value of an account has shifted?
Surely it's a constant learning process.

Not short term. Those who obsess over short term movements tend to make schoolboy errors like buying yesterday's winners. Eg they hear about funds that have gone up 100% over the past year and think "I want some of that" and sell their boring old VLS100 or whatever and buy funds that have performed much better. Then they see their new fund plummet because of course the reason for the massive rise is also the reason for the massive fall, they are invested in far more volatile stocks, or predominantly in an area which has seen volatility eg tech.

Agreed that short-term checking is faintly pointless....but regular checking can show you trends. 
Obviously historical ones ("past performance is no guarantee, etc"), but until you invent the perfect crystal ball, it helps as part of your decision-making toolkit.

Audaxer

Thrugelmir said:

Audaxer said:

segovia said:

The markets have taken a bit of a hammering since the beginning of the year, mainly in the USA. The FTSE is showing signs of some resilience.  Interest rate increases in the USA and Ukraine is spooking the markets. Netflix dropped 25% as they claim they will not meet their subscription targets, that didn't help the Tech Sector. Its worrying as I have seen my portfolio drop 40K in 4 weeks, It will come back again. 

A £40k drop sounds a lot, but it depends on the total value of the portfolio as to whether it's a big percentage drop.

%'s are the figures that really matter. Values have to be put into context of the the total investment portfolio. 

That's what I was saying. 

Thrugelmir

Audaxer said:

Thrugelmir said:

Audaxer said:

segovia said:

The markets have taken a bit of a hammering since the beginning of the year, mainly in the USA. The FTSE is showing signs of some resilience.  Interest rate increases in the USA and Ukraine is spooking the markets. Netflix dropped 25% as they claim they will not meet their subscription targets, that didn't help the Tech Sector. Its worrying as I have seen my portfolio drop 40K in 4 weeks, It will come back again. 

A £40k drop sounds a lot, but it depends on the total value of the portfolio as to whether it's a big percentage drop.

%'s are the figures that really matter. Values have to be put into context of the the total investment portfolio. 

That's what I was saying. 

By including your quote I was attempting to reinforce the message. 

[Deleted User]

Parking_Trouble said:

Deleted_User said:

What is the purpose of counting some short term “losses” or “gains” in one small portion of the overall portfolio?  I am managing 10 investment accounts which, together with cash accounts make up the overall portfolio.  Have absolutely no idea how each one performs in isolation although, I guess, could find out. 

Why wouldn't you be interested in individual accounts?
Don't you want to validate why the value of an account has shifted?
Surely it's a constant learning process.

I have an overall asset allocation which is distributed between accounts for tax efficiency, cost minimization  and logistical reasons. 

Lets say my SIPP X-O account has some US and EM stocks and some other account has some Developed market stocks and bonds while a third account has US value stocks and TIPS.  I know how the overall portfolio performs. That matters to me, particularly 10 and 20 year performance. 

 If I want to, I can find out how US allocation performs (split between accounts).  And fixed income.  I don’t particularly care because it does not matter to my bottom line but record the data.  Why should I care how a portion of my allocation performs in a particular account? What do I learn from it? I need to know the tax status and charges on the account but that does not require knowing performance of a portion of a portion.