Do you set a stop-loss for your core ETF portfolio?

thanks for the kind words , but since this was 'your novice year' in the share market , if i am wrong about the second dip ( and i could be ) you are unlikely to see VAS or VGS at your buying prices again ( that is my experience from 'beginning in 2011 VAS never got close to my entry price during 2020 )

you MIGHT have to resort to a rival product in the next BIG dip if say 5 years away (maybe a property trust ETF , SLF didn't do enough for me but i exited that a few year back , it might easily gain traction in the next few years after falling through the floor if real concerns about much tighter lending from financiers rattle the market . , but you get the general idea i bought MVB , during the Hayne Royal Commission instead of trying to cherry pick which banks to invest in , as a recent example ( but bought extra WBC in 2020 when it dropped much lower than my 2011 entry price )

in 2011 ( through to 2013 ) i did not have a defined selling strategy and was just aware CGT applied IF i sold ( in profit ) so yes that is a nice bit of forward thinking

good luck

there is plenty to learn in the investing world

 

Obviously you have not be following one of the better financial journals.

From thestonkmarket report.

"A panicky mood was evident on Monday as pale, trembling CNBC anchors, framed on the television by the blood-red tickers of tanking stocks, reported the fourth day in a row of losses in the S&P 500.

Now over seventy basis points off the all-time highs, the S&P 500 has dropped to a level below every closing price for almost 2 weeks. With the markets in such disarray, analysts expect Jerome “J-Money” Powell to announce additional QE and lower interest rates on behalf of the Federal Reserve.

“It’s just so hard to protect investors. In the old days it was easy,” Powell said, between snorting cocaine through a $100 bill, “we just had to announce that we were close to a phase one trade deal with China and BAM, markets up 1%. I wonder what ever happened to that trade war, anyway,” he added.

“I think we’re entering a bear market,” says a retail investor, “I’ve never seen the markets drop like this, and I’ve been trading the markets for over forty days!”"

 

I believe a number of investors do that I've not heard of any going broke by adopting that approach. There is the possibly of some tax issues at the end of the FY but there would be ways to accommodate that.

I don't like to see people losing money and unless you are very good and well versed in trading aspects the possibility increases. You never really get it back. It's been torched. Although any losses can be used to offset later capital gains, I sometimes I wonder how much better off people would be if they didn't lose the money in the first place. By the way, I've been there, done that.

 

Surely this isn’t a published article and your idea of “fun” for a Sunday evening?

 

i have read similar reports , and then see if the market reaction is in MY favor ..ie down if i am interested in buying something in particular , or up if i should consider taking cash off the table .

if not i look at something else and WAIT ( maybe the market will move for ME another day )

and what is 'best' sometime Bloomberg has something useful , sometimes Reuters or Yahoo , ( and the list goes on .. even to some blogs )

but at the end of the day sometimes the markets move FOR YOU and sometimes they don't ( and i don't chase prices )

 

i resist losing money , but it is a consequence of going out on the risk curve , i am aware of that risk , and accept it , but do try to mitigate it were i can ,

i wouldn't call what i does as trading , well my crude system on QBE possibly qualifies , i see it still as 'investing' but still taking sensible opportunities on the way .

BTW i still don't like seeing novices left unaware of the dangers that lurk out there , if they are aware and still take that risk well that is their choice , i hope it goes well for them

 

Puts the fun back into investing.

Home - The Stonk Market

 

@twisted strategies - it sounds like you hold a wide basket of ETFs. As you can see from my holdings in the original post, I have gone with a "core, satellite, speculative" strategy (80% in VAS/VGS, 15% in thematic plays like ACDC and NDQ, and 5% in potential "rockets" like RAC and lithium. From your comment, do I infer that when you have spare cash, you buy lowest NTA to SP, even if it is something you're not currently holding but is on your radar (e.g. ETHI or ASIA) rather than rebalancing the portfolio?

 

@SatayKing - funny, no that's not one I've been following as it hasn't come up as a recommendation before by the regulars here Thanks for the direction for a moment of lightness

 

Cool. Glad you enjoyed it.

Satire can have a way of clarifying matters occasionally and I consider I have used it to my advantage.

It can be challenge to make things simple. It's how I approach investing now. No twists and turns, no complications. Select my preferred investment products, which are three ETFs and nine LICs, and buy with funds I plan never to extract from the market ever again. And then forget about them once bought and receive dividend/distribution income. Simple.