Tuesday, July 11, 2017

7/11/17 The Stalemate Chess Move/ VT + VTWSX

This bull market has probably perplexed more traders than any other.  (Of course, if you're in buy-and-hold mode there's no perplexity at all!).  Looking for reasonable (re)entry points with indexes near all-time highs is an exercise in frustration.  

I'm inclined to overweight energy (due to recent under-performance), financials (due to recent strength +/- Friday's earnings releases by banks), and/or emerging markets (a sector poised to continue climbing from multi-year lows).  The problem?  Short-term gyrations are likely to throw me off (as reflected in my last two trades).  So I'm better off not trying to predict which sectors will outperform at this point.  

Having captured good gains in emerging markets from the 2016 lows, it now makes more sense to retreat to a safer investing profile.  In other words, if I'm going to give back any gains, I want to 'mute' the losses via maximum diversification!

When I'm unable to decide on sectors, yet still bullish?  There's only one fallback position, which is the total stock market.  It's the closest I can come to preserving capital while remaining fully invested!  Opening positions in VT (Vanguard Total Stock Market etf) + VTWSX (Vanguard Total Stock Market mutual fund).      

11 comments:

  1. 'Just in time' investing!

    Global markets soar. EEM (emerging markets) +2%. VGK (Europe) +1%. US indexes-> DJIA +120 points (+0.6%), SPX +0.7%, NDQ +1.1%.

    Hence the total world stock market (VT)-> +0.86%

    Therein lies the value of being able to admit when I'm wrong. It frees me up to make a 'U' and reverse my stance.

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  2. Look at the nice move for RH. Pissed I didn't take a position.

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  3. Nice jump in AKS today. Since people don't trust Trump news, there is a good chance that it will give back some of its recent gains tomorrow. So I decided to close at $3.70 the call options I purchased on AKS at $3.36. Will buy back in the next few days if AKS drops back to $6.30 or so.

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  4. Sold one account (non taxable) of CBMX at 5.50. Kinda surprised if actually filled. +28%.

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    1. Nice! So you don't believe in CBMX being bought out?

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    2. Even if we just look at its 6-month chart, it looks like it should hit $6 soon...

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  5. BDI is up today, GNK is up too -- what is NMM doing 4% down??? Its 1-year chart shows that it has flattened out at a very strong support level. So I just bought more of it at $1.555. I have a sell limit on it at $1.67 from a previous purchase at $1.52.

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  6. AKS is down today as predicted. :) But if today's pullback does not follow through next week and the price starts rising again, I'll have to buy in again...

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  7. Looks like EMES has bottomed out at the level of the low made on Aug 2, 2016. Now might be a good time to buy it, for those who have been waiting patiently. For someone looking for more diversification, OIH and XES charts look good too...

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