2015 YTD investment performance thread

[ikubak]

-3.03% YTD after the Friday 500+ drop.

After a week like this, I sit back and think about all those REALLY rich people and how they lost a lot more money than I did.

 

[eytonxav]

Down 1.38% YTD, and holding ~ 38% cash. Energy hurt me the most, as I've continued to hold those issues.

 

[unclemick]

Down just a little over 3% YTD as of today. Not pretty, but own a little too much of CVX. So not horrible considering........

CVX was I say WAS one of my few good stocks to keep my male hormones happy. But preseason has started and football is coming!

At 22 years of ER the YTD has been trumped by RMD. Pun intended.

heh heh heh - real money is full auto in a life cycle balanced index fund.

P.S. Still have CVX just like I'm gonna root for the Saint's. But the Chief's are also tugging at my sleeve fan wise.

 

[Running_Man]

Just turned barely negative for the year with Friday's action, my investments are now down $434 on the year.

 

[Running_Man]

As for preferred stocks the PFF ETF after Fridays action and including dividends is up about 3% on the year about the same as Mulligan

 

[jfn111]

Up 2.54% YTD
High was 4.1%
65% cash earning 2.1% in an interest income fund
13% MO
9% balanced fund
13% spread between various funds in the 401K

 

[Fermion]

Up 2.54% YTD
High was 4.1%
65% cash earning 2.1% in an interest income fund
13% MO
9% balanced fund
13% spread between various funds in the 401K

Did you have 65% cash during 2012 to 2014? Very high cash percentage!

 

[Cobra9777]

I'm down 0.8% YTD, better than most 60/40 benchmarks. Real estate and cash are the bright spots, especially the 2 rental houses. The stock portfolio is down almost 4% (worse than S&P 500) due to EM exposure and some tilt toward large-cap, high-dividend ETFs. The bond side is about flat YTD, which is also worse than the aggregate US bond market, mainly due to high-yield corporate holdings. Excluding cash and real estate, I'm down 2.5% YTD.

 

[Mulligan]

As for preferred stocks the PFF ETF after Fridays action and including dividends is up about 3% on the year about the same as Mulligan

Mine should have been closer to 4%, but I have to relearn a lesson every few months..... Don't combine entertainment with investing. Always have to dabble on the sides and chose shipping preferreds as my "toy". That cost me about a half percent...Sold them and I swear I wont do it again! At least I will try not to.


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[Rickt]

(-) 3.4% YTD as of yesterday. 100% individual stock portfolio.
This week's paper loss was one year's living expense

 

[jfn111]

Did you have 65% cash during 2012 to 2014? Very high cash percentage!

I retired in 2012 and was maintaining a 50/50 balance. I started thinking we were heading for a correction so I started moving more into cash last spring.

 

[audreyh1]

-1% YTD as of Friday 8/21.

On 5/18 I was up 3.6% for the year which was just enough to recover my start of year annual withdrawal.

 

[mathjak107]

(-) 3.4% YTD as of yesterday. 100% individual stock portfolio.
This week's paper loss was one year's living expense

there is no such thing as a paper loss .

just because you didn't create a tax event or swap assets does not mean it is any different .

would there be a difference if you closed your position each night and bought the same or different investment each morning to ride up or down vs keeping the money in play in the same investment ?

of course not , your balance is variable and changes all the time and whether you sell or not has nothing to do with your net worth at any point in time.

in fact whether we sell or not our draws are based on that value .

the term only a loss on paper is one of the biggest investing myths.

it makes you feel more comfortable because you can ride that investment back up possibly , but so what , if you sold you would be possibly riding a different investment back up .

as long as the money is kept in play whether you sell or not is irrelevant .

if you sell to cash or if you go more conservative and change reward potential then in effect you no longer are keeping that money in play and in effect if you were in a fund that moved heavier to cash then you would experience the same thing without selling if you missed the move upward .

 

[petershk]

Kinda true... Except of course taxes and trading fees which are meaningful in practice.

But the total post tax less fees is what ultimately matters in practice... So I think that it's worth considering when making hold vs buy vs sell decisions when the price fluctuates.

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[Rothman]

there is no such thing as a paper loss .

just because you didn't create a tax event or swap assets does not mean it is any different .

would there be a difference if you closed your position each night and bought the same or different investment each morning to ride up or down vs keeping the money in play in the same investment ?

of course not , your balance is variable and changes all the time and whether you sell or not has nothing to do with your net worth at any point in time.

in fact whether we sell or not our draws are based on that value .

the term only a loss on paper is one of the biggest investing myths.

it makes you feel more comfortable because you can ride that investment back up possibly , but so what , if you sold you would be possibly riding a different investment back up .

as long as the money is kept in play whether you sell or not is irrelevant .

if you sell to cash or if you go more conservative and change reward potential then in effect you no longer are keeping that money in play and in effect if you were in a fund that moved heavier to cash then you would experience the same thing without selling if you missed the move upward .

+1 I have had so many discussions with coworkers and others who don't want to sell a stock or fund that has losses in their 401k because they cling to the paper loss theory. I try saying would you buy that today over other choices the answer is an immediate no. Being a 401k holding the tax argument isn't even relevant, and trading costs so minimal it's really the flawed psychology of paper losses. Oddly enough no one ever talked paper gains, those seem real to them.


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[sengsational]

Although I see the logic in calling the paper loss idea pure fiction, there is another perspective that can be seen in a thought experiment: There are plenty of other fruit trees on an island, but your property is the only one with a mango tree. Within the small community on the island, only one other person likes mangoes, he's the richest one on the island, and has offered all he has for your plot with the mango tree. You say 'no'. Now he dies, his assets are split up, and the market price of your property goes from 'outrageously high' to 'normal'. What difference does it make? You said 'no' to a sale when the price was high. You're going to say 'no' to a sale when the price is lower. You still have exactly what you started with. Some external factor is gone that was setting the price. Do you have greater flexibility if something you own has people clamoring to get it? Of course. But if you said 'no' to selling it to the clamoring crowd at a high price, then, at least in the short term, you'd also say 'no' at the lower price too, and you'd be in an unchanged situation.

 

[pb4uski]

and then there is a paper loss on top of a paper gain (which is what happened last week with most of my equity positions).... I actually don't feel as bad about those because it is just giving up a little of my previous unrealized gain.

I guess that I have been doing this investing thing long enough (over 30 years) that these market movements (both up and down) don't bother me much.

 

[mathjak107]

that is an important point .

we tend to forget that even at the levels we fall to we would not be at those levels if we were not invested and tolerating these down turns . our balances would be much lower if we only did " safe "investments

 

[sengsational]

I am negative as well.
.
Yup it is amazing how many people here beat the market.

There's probably a few things going on here.

First, I'd say it's more likely for a person to post if they've got some 'news'. Having a down portfolio lately is not 'news', unfortunately.

Also, I think there's probably some cherry picking going on. For instance I can see that if "most" of my money is investment X, and that's done well, it's easy to look that up and report that. Or maybe some other way to report on a subset, like his and hers, where one of those is more conservative than the other.

 

[Mulligan]

There's probably a few things going on here.

First, I'd say it's more likely for a person to post if they've got some 'news'. Having a down portfolio lately is not 'news', unfortunately.

Also, I think there's probably some cherry picking going on. For instance I can see that if "most" of my money is investment X, and that's done well, it's easy to look that up and report that. Or maybe some other way to report on a subset, like his and hers, where one of those is more conservative than the other.

Well no one ever lies on internet.....Including my HSA account I am up about 4% (I am ashamed it has performed better than my regular account because it is too expensive to trade there, so I buy once a year and hold).But it goes back to what Mathjack said. I can have decent returns and be honest because it is what you are invested in. Not everyone here is 100% in index funds tracking market.
BUT, if the market raced up 25% the next 12 months, the best I could hope for realistically is 8%. I sacrifice long term capital gains, for increased yield and income. And there will be a day when its my turn in the barrel. But hopefully based on what I own, not a deep barrel.


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[simple girl]

OK so my numbers are - .18% YTD. Glad I didn't check it a few days ago. I only look at numbers once a month.

 

[utrecht]

As of yesterdays close (9/1), Im at -4.1%. Im at 60/40 so my benchmark is Wellington which is at -4.2%. Ive been outperforming Wellington by a good margin on the upside and staying even on the downside so Im happy as I can be in a downturn.

 

[Whisper66]

Negative, in the upper single digits.
My energy holdings, which make up close to one quarter of my portfolio, have been a boat anchor. Still sitting on a lot of cash.

Similar with my situation, except I've now invested the cash at the latest dip. So now I can go back to sleep for a few months and see if the recent investments pay off or not.

 

[twestern]

The good news is the market has hit bottom. My infallible proof is the simple fact that I increased my cash position on Monday again. I managed to make it bounce a few weeks ago, but this time I've locked in and sold at the solid bottom for the year. You can thank me later.

 

[Dawg52]

OK so my numbers are - .18% YTD. Glad I didn't check it a few days ago. I only look at numbers once a month.

I need to hire you to manage my portfolio. That's excellent in this market.