My trading activity this year has been very limited. I chose not to react to the market dip around March due to Coronavirus. In my earlier days I probably would have taken some action. Concern, and dare I say, panic, may have set in and I’d have sold. I’m reminded of a quote (origins unknown but is attributed to anyone from Clint Eastwood to Eisenhower); “don’t just do something, stand there!”. That is, don’t over-react! Often we have a strong emotional instinct to react to news or events. Remember that everyone else is probably experiencing similar feelings, too.
One thing which has become clear to me recently is how much better my fund investments have fared compared to my stock picks. To be fair, my stock picks last year were hit by a double whammy poor choice, and dropping the ball in terms of getting out when I should have. OK, in fact that’s not a double whammy at all – I just didn’t stop out when I should have. What stock you ask? Ted Baker. Down around 90%. Damn. But hey, my fault – I should have stopped out, and for a few reasons (none which excuse the fact), I didn’t.
3 of my other stocks, Ormat Tech, Volkswagon, and IBM have performed admirably. Two others, both UK based Morgan Advanced Materials and were hit hard by the Coronavirus slump and haven’t yet recovered.
My plans for the future will probably involve more investment into funds, and with the remainder I’ll play with some more technical / AI based investments on a market I haven’t yet decided. More to come on that, obviously.
I have sold my Platinum holdings to start that shift in focus, and more will follow soon.