Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.
Like @hank, I can't bring myself to invest in a thing that's already had such a run-up. I think like Buffett re: gold. Dunno where he stands re: silver. Lots of industrial/medical uses. rono pointed that out.
We are unwinding our gold position slowly after a meaningful gain over last several years. Gold is near $4,800 per ounce. Gold does not produce earning and dividend, but it serves as a trading instrument in this environment.
TACO trade! I bet, like me, your shit was up bigly, today? Jan. 21st, 2026. I'm currently investigating an unowned prospect: Banco de Sabadell, out of Spain. Looks like there is often not a single share traded through a whole day, lots of times. I'm looking at the ADR, ticker BNDSY. Some months ago, BBVA was wanting to take over Sabadell. There was only partial approval from regulatory entities; the offer became "hostile." I think the whole business is completely dead, now?
$7.52/share. Divvy over 4%. Schwab says the divvie is granted semi-annually. I'm wanting some informed thoughts about whether or not to buy or stay away. Thanks in advance.
*EDIT TO ADD: Looks like this puppy was left in the dust, going nowhere today, after Markets leapt...
@Crash- Since you mention a 4% divvy and I believe that you like income, you might be interested in knowing that I just picked up a couple of non-callable 3.7% FDIC CDs at Schwab, one for 1 year and 1 for two years.
One was Wells Fargo and the other was Goldman Sachs. Seems like at least a couple of the big boys are not thinking that the Fed will be lowering rates significantly for a couple of years. I thought that was interesting.
Not gonna happen unless some really nasty inflation breaks loose in the economy. That's why I took one 1-year and one two-year. Unlike that other guy I have no idea what the future holds, so I try to stay as flexible as possible.
Earlier in the week I off-loaded a small basket of individual stocks (BRK-B about 40% of the lot and 5 other). The old expression "If you can't stand the heat ..." comes to mind. There's a reason mutual funds were invented and rose in popularity. Proceeds were redistributed across my fund portfolio and also used to beef up the dedicated cash position from below 20% to 22%. (There's substantial additional cash / bond exposure inside the diversified portfolio holdings). I'm coming off 3 very good double-digit years. No need to push limits at this time.
My "cash" position is split between PAAA and AGZD. The former holds short term collateralized debt similar to JAAA. The latter tracks a high quality intermediate / long duration bond index while cancelling out interest rate risk with shorts on treasuries. I recognize these, especially the former, are riskier than CDs. Should produce a percent or two over money market funds longer term.
BTW - Conventional wisdom says the risk markets will continue to roar until we get close to the mid-terms as the Admin pulls out all the stops. Probably correct. But not willing to risk life savings on that bet at this age.
Buy low, sell high. BLX has had a great run up, along with everything else in the past couple of days. (and prior, too.) I've got a sell order in for just over 4% of my total investment there. So, as Liz Ann Sonders has said: "trim high and buy low." ...Looking to replace FBP. Too volatile, and on the 2nd day of a fabulous run-up, it was down by over 2%. I'm not panic selling. The damn stock looks great on paper re: fundamentals. But there is a very big SHORT bunch of parasites betting against it. I will choose from among:
a) the Big 5 Canadian banks or b) EWC (Canada) or c) GAL (worldwide allocation.) d) Banco de Sabadell is out of the running by now. But it will pay to wait. Everything's at new highs! A nice problem to have. If I do not choose the banks, I'll be settling for a smaller divvy. Breaking my own rule.
Little behind on posting this week due to pre-semester crazy.....
Sold my small position in WES
The other day I bought starter in INR for growthy exposure to the Utica/Marcellus regions. Might compliment that with MPLX on any major pullback, too.
Still looking at ex-USA investments in the coming weeks. AND, I'm thinking about (gasp!) adding some fixed income primarily in the form of local-denominated emerging bonds.
I don't invest in individual stocks (except for one stock) but I would heed the following advice if I did. Bolding was added for emphasis.
"Don't gamble; take all your savings and buy some good stock and hold it till it goes up, then sell it. If it don't go up, don't buy it."
—Will Rogers
In my limited experience, 10 (about equally weighted) seems to be the minimum number of individual stocks to hold inside a portfolio basket / sleeve if you like sleeping at night. (Might even be higher). But the 6 I held for a couple months proved too volatile. Years past I got away with much higher allocations to particular stocks (occassionally over 5% of portfolio). Escaped without damage. But in hindsight it was foolish.
Still looking at ex-USA investments in the coming weeks. AND, I'm thinking about (gasp!) adding some fixed income primarily in the form of local-denominated emerging bonds.
Same here. Still researching good active managers in this space.
@rforno If you don't mind the question, why did you sell WES?
It's the smallest of my pipeline holdings and I've been thinking of moving that $$$ elsewhere in the pipeline space .. it's the only MLP I trade in/out of b/c it's more volatile than the others I own. I also am looking to broaden my exposure in the Utica/Marcellus than the all-popular Permian plus elsewhere in the world. (But I could well be back into WES down the road, too.)
On a more subjective level, I get slightly unsettled by how often WES comes up in the 'retail' universe punditry as a must-own stock in articles as it has in recent weeks ... when the herd starts baying about a 'good thing', my gizzard starts getting queasy if I also happen to own it.
Took another stab at buying individual stocks - a tortuous path in the past. This time I created a Fidelity basket with 12 holdings, obviously in smaller amounts. Dust is still settling, but I think there's 8 mid caps and 4 large caps. For some reason Fido allows purchases of fractional shares in SONY (which is included in the basket) but would not allow fractional shares for NSRGY or HEINY (which were therefore left out). Go figure. What I'm attempting to do is have an equity basket that "does its own thing" rather than moving with the major indexes and which remains fairly stable day-to-day. A big order. Total portfolio weight 2-3%. Will keep a finger on the ejection button.
@hank Advantage plans took a hit Monday, down 16%! Maybe something to keep an eye on?
Yep. My timing is always perfect! The 3 holdings with insurance exposure (including BRK-B) all took a hit today on the news @Derf alluded to.
I added 3 more stocks today, raising the total to 15. The most interesting is AUKNY (Auckland International Airport) a play on infrastructure + further depreciation of the U.S. Dollar as Rieder takes the reigns at the Fed. (Rick Rieder is now being reported as the top contender by Bloomberg.) The roughly $25 share price makes it easy to integrate with the other holdings. Like most ADRs this one can only be bought or sold in whole shares at Fido.
Appreciate the encouragement guys. This stock sleeve represents only 3% of my portfolio. Not too big a gamble. Opportunity to learn. My tracker app makes this many holdings quite easy to monitor. Not for everyone. Cheers!
Comments
@Crash- NOT SILVER !!!
(hee hee heee)
Congratulations on ya!
$7.52/share. Divvy over 4%. Schwab says the divvie is granted semi-annually. I'm wanting some informed thoughts about whether or not to buy or stay away. Thanks in advance.
*EDIT TO ADD: Looks like this puppy was left in the dust, going nowhere today, after Markets leapt...
One was Wells Fargo and the other was Goldman Sachs. Seems like at least a couple of the big boys are not thinking that the Fed will be lowering rates significantly for a couple of years. I thought that was interesting.
Earlier in the week I off-loaded a small basket of individual stocks (BRK-B about 40% of the lot and 5 other). The old expression "If you can't stand the heat ..." comes to mind. There's a reason mutual funds were invented and rose in popularity. Proceeds were redistributed across my fund portfolio and also used to beef up the dedicated cash position from below 20% to 22%. (There's substantial additional cash / bond exposure inside the diversified portfolio holdings). I'm coming off 3 very good double-digit years. No need to push limits at this time.
My "cash" position is split between PAAA and AGZD. The former holds short term collateralized debt similar to JAAA. The latter tracks a high quality intermediate / long duration bond index while cancelling out interest rate risk with shorts on treasuries. I recognize these, especially the former, are riskier than CDs. Should produce a percent or two over money market funds longer term.
BTW - Conventional wisdom says the risk markets will continue to roar until we get close to the mid-terms as the Admin pulls out all the stops. Probably correct. But not willing to risk life savings on that bet at this age.
a) the Big 5 Canadian banks or
b) EWC (Canada) or
c) GAL (worldwide allocation.)
d) Banco de Sabadell is out of the running by now.
But it will pay to wait. Everything's at new highs! A nice problem to have. If I do not choose the banks, I'll be settling for a smaller divvy. Breaking my own rule.
I don't invest in individual stocks (except for one stock) but I would heed the following advice if I did.
Bolding was added for emphasis.
"Don't gamble; take all your savings and buy some good stock
and hold it till it goes up, then sell it. If it don't go up, don't buy it."
—Will Rogers
Sold my small position in WES
The other day I bought starter in INR for growthy exposure to the Utica/Marcellus regions. Might compliment that with MPLX on any major pullback, too.
Still looking at ex-USA investments in the coming weeks. AND, I'm thinking about (gasp!) adding some fixed income primarily in the form of local-denominated emerging bonds.
On a more subjective level, I get slightly unsettled by how often WES comes up in the 'retail' universe punditry as a must-own stock in articles as it has in recent weeks ... when the herd starts baying about a 'good thing', my gizzard starts getting queasy if I also happen to own it.
I added 3 more stocks today, raising the total to 15. The most interesting is AUKNY (Auckland International Airport) a play on infrastructure + further depreciation of the U.S. Dollar as Rieder takes the reigns at the Fed. (Rick Rieder is now being reported as the top contender by Bloomberg.) The roughly $25 share price makes it easy to integrate with the other holdings. Like most ADRs this one can only be bought or sold in whole shares at Fido.
Appreciate the encouragement guys. This stock sleeve represents only 3% of my portfolio. Not too big a gamble. Opportunity to learn. My tracker app makes this many holdings quite easy to monitor. Not for everyone. Cheers!
Am 1/2 filled on a starter position in EBBGF, one of Enbridge's preferreds.