I have about 30 individual stocks in my total portfolio. I own them in both tax-deferred and taxable. The amount has become a bigger allocation over time. It is now 13% of my total portfolio. I like the ability to buy individual issues on sale, let the winners run and sell the losers.
I set up a M* portfolio to track their results against the S&P, DJIA and Nasdaq. This is to keep me honest. Who else does this?
How are your results? Go ahead and brag.
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My 2 longest held positions are JNJ and AEP which go back well over 30 years. 8 positions in total, accounting for precisely 33% of the portfolio.
Yes, buying on sale is the best, yet the hardest. And if Jamie Dimon buys $25M of JPM, you should buy some too.
I also like allocating some money to "flyers", highly speculative. Most times you lose money...sometimes not. My 2 largest individual stock holdings by far were flyers at one point in time. Sometimes you get lucky.
i am failing in my 10yr plan to reduce the family pool of individual equity %.
90% of those names have been names where my largest funds dont play : some combination of small, foreign, illiquid.
my pool probably stayed even with an equal-weight global large cap benchmark, but that is less fun\educational. (except the inevitable tax loss harvesting...that's just 'educational')
the main lesson learned was to outsource mainstream GARP investing. i only held on to a single 10-bagger and had cut 4 others loose, where 3 were already american midcaps when initiated. my weak excuse...i am in preservation mode since retiring.
I too look at my mutual fund holdings X-ray before buying.
I see we lost a few posts with the site problems. This thread and some others.
@PRESSmUP I have a few 30 year positions myself.
Timkin makes top quality product. Has for many years. I probably installed some that came from your Father's place of business. No comics page in that WSJ! Or pictures.
Also the Western Electric advertising- they frequently explained what various parts of their telephone switching equipment did, again with lots of cool pictures.
In retrospect, that type of advertising was essentially engineering related. I've always wondered who that advertising was aimed at?
We hold several individual stocks in our portfolio; some have gone back several decades. Few tech stocks have grown well while others are evolving with time. They are part of the tactical sleeve (5-10%) where they are actively managed, especially in our IRAs. The rest of our portfolio is consisting of are globally diversified stocks, bonds, and cash. They are constructed to be boring and cost effective, and that is good enough for us. At present, we are consolidating our holdings for ease of management.
Most of the last month, when indexes are down, my individual stocks are actually up.
Today, chips, industrials consumer goods and oil are tanking big time. Nearly everything is down.
Stocks and bonds mostly recovered from their height on Wednesday. Oil future is over $75.
I think that is a wise place to be. Actually up nicely today on market weakness.
It is truly unfortunate that Oracle is part of the S&P500 index fund i am investing in.
Some of those may already have stretched valuations, some not so much. My next step once finding some possibilities is to check M* and search for analyst recommendations. HAL, for instance is a "moderate buy" and TSM is a "strong buy" and Emerson is merely a "buy", DVN is a "moderate buy". Meanwhile DVN, CLX, TSM, BMY and MDLZ are all below FMV according to M*.
We should all remember that anything can go lower. I am waiting right now, and assembling a list of possibilities. Many I own already, and will simply add to those positions.
Feel free to add to the list of "possibilities".
I tried many things and measured their success very harshly until I created my model.
One thing I was sure from the start, no single stock or bond.
I always wanted to own limited number of funds and the ability to switch the whole fund with a better one.
Every change must be at least 10% of my portfolio and usually starting at 20%.
Changing 1-2-3% is meaningless.
Your post has made me consider eventually adding back some of those as individual issues. I already have AMZN is an individual holding. My largest portfolio holdings are AMZN, NVDA and AAPL right now. AAPL and NVDA via mutual funds. Looking for a better buying opportunity though on all of those.
Another quick and dirty way ( I think) to look for defensive positions is to scour BRK top holdings. KO, a long time BRK fav, is a 2* wide moat stock with good fundamentals. It would need to come down to fit my criteria, though.
Some folks do not "cotton to" the MLP companies with the K-1 tax forms. I'm sticking with ET, oil/natgas midstream. (Energy Transfer.) Div is still pleasing: 7.24% as shown today. Looking in the rearview mirror, I'm glad I first bought-in when I did. My cost basis leaves a lovely feeling in my tummy. BLX with Panama City HQ offers 5.3% yield. Banco Latinoamericano de Comercio Exterior SA Class E.
These two are my bright spots amid the recent shit-show after the Orange war started.
Difficult to find GREEN (or BLACK) rather than red ink all around, right about now. The good news is that only one of us here is retired. Gas is up from $4.35 to $4.85. But how far can we go on Oahu, eh?
GIS (General Mills) - Consumer defensive. Analyst consensus is a hold. 5*, narrow moat, exemplary capital allocation.
CMG (Chipotle) - Consumer cyclical. Analyst consensus is moderate to strong buy. 4*, wide moat, exemplary capital allocation.
DHR (Danaher) - Healthcare. Analyst consensus is a strong buy. 4*, wide moat, exemplary capital allocation.
IBM - Tech. Analyst consensus is a moderate buy. 4*, narrow moat, exemplary capital allocation.
None are recommendations. Just ideas for consideration. Likely, I will eventually add a few, and/or add to existing positions. Just not yet.