What % of your portfolio is "experimental"?

[clifp]

I like to earn 12% overall and to keep it simple. Therefore, based on the rule of 72, I just put entire portfolio on red every 6 years.

.. I assume you bring red spray paint for the wheel to help your odds?

 

[aja8888]

10% made up of MLPs, T, MO, SO, YHOO. The other 90% is index ETFs & Vanguard funds.

 

[jollystomper]

2% experimental, consisting of individual stocks and ETFs. That is the amount I'm willing to lose completely without any impact to my finances.

 

[harley]

A touch under 3%. I originally started about 20 years ago with $5K worth of individual stocks, and it's grown significantly over the years, mostly due to lucky guesses and neglect. It's a great lesson, proving that a monkey with darts can outperform trained financial experts. Whenever I get a wild hair to move outside my financial plan I look at my various choices, both the winners (Apple, Brk.b) , the losers (Enron, WorldCom), and the winner/losers (Cisco, Pfizer), and I realize that I have no idea why some succeeded and others failed. I still do occasional trading (every couple of years), mostly to reset cost bases when my tax bracket is low.

 

[GrayHare]

The most interesting part of this thread has not been the percentages but rather what investments posters consider experimental.

 

[Fishingmn]

I currently have $2k I just moved to Lending Tree a couple months ago to play around with seeing if I could get the 9% returns they claim.

Otherwise, the rest is mostly in Vanguard index funds or real estate.

 

[Fermion]

10% of my portfolio is in my experimental investing account right now although it was closer to 7% at the start of the year. That account has a 40.2% return YTD and is almost always 50% or more cash.

But regular markets are what, up 23% YTD? This is one of those years where you can look smart but really just got lucky with a rising market.

An example of one of my experiments in that account is holding 3 Apple $400 Jan 2015 calls and having sold short 3 Apple $520 April 2014 calls. It has profited quite nicely from the roughly $75 per spread purchase price, currently closer to $100 per spread. I have a fair confidence of getting the full $120 in April based on a gut feel of Ipad sales. Actually if I am lucky and Apple is right around $519 I could probably get $125. (multiply these by 300 for actual money)

 

[Lsbcal]

10% of my portfolio is in my experimental investing account right now although it was closer to 7% at the start of the year. That account has a 40.2% return YTD and is almost always 50% or more cash.

But regular markets are what, up 23% YTD? This is one of those years where you can look smart but really just got lucky with a rising market.
...

Good returns there Fermion. Unfortunately physics teaches us that fermions have the property that only one particle can occupy one quantum state at any given time. So we cannot duplicate your returns. You realize that you have made us all feel lousy about our double digit returns now?

Just to get the record straight, M* shows returns by asset classes. The US returns YTD vary from 25.6 to 33.1%. Link here: Morningstar.com: Fund Category Returns

We should realize that bull markets make us all geniuses. My IQ has really shot up this year.

 

[Zathras]

About 4%. Although it started as 1.25% a couple years ago��

 

[ETFs_Rule]

The majority of my portfolio consists of index funds and VG Wellington and Wellysly. About 92%. I also have about 3% in cash.

Then I have a Fidelity account that I use to play around with Sector funds. I have been keeping track of my core funds rate of return since 2009 (and of course my FIDO fun account)

So far the fun account is ahead by about .6%. But I might still hit a home run with one of the Sector funds and then is "Go on a cruise time"

I've learned from numerous mistakes not to invest in individual stocks. I keep about 1 - 2% in cash and once in a while I spot a buying opportunity with SPXL (3X the S&P 500 index) and so I'll jump in for a few days or weeks and get out. But for the most part I just hold mainly the S & P 500 index.

 

[dtbach]

A touch under 3%. I originally started about 20 years ago with $5K worth of individual stocks, and it's grown significantly over the years, mostly due to lucky guesses and neglect. It's a great lesson, proving that a monkey with darts can outperform trained financial experts. Whenever I get a wild hair to move outside my financial plan I look at my various choices, both the winners (Apple, Brk.b) , the losers (Enron, WorldCom), and the winner/losers (Cisco, Pfizer), and I realize that I have no idea why some succeeded and others failed. I still do occasional trading (every couple of years), mostly to reset cost bases when my tax bracket is low.

Most of my "winners" have been the stocks I bought at the deepest parts of the 2008 Bear market (HOG and IRBT), others have been long holding (>10 years) such as MAT, NOC and EXC. I too owned some WorldCom at the urging of my financial manager at SmithBarney (who I fired in 2002). By the time it all works out, I should be at about the same returns as just holding an S&P500 index fund

 

[ls99]

100% of invested $.

AFIK past performance is not a predictor of future results. OTOH I do get a little under $30.- per month form a defined benefit pension, for life. Hey it covers coffee and tips for a few days per month.

 

[HFWR]

100% of invested $.

AFIK past performance is not a predictor of future results. OTOH I do get a little under $30.- per month form a defined benefit pension, for life. Hey it covers coffee and tips for a few days per month.

Not sure $30/mo would cover my coffee habit...

 

[calmloki]

I am the outlier.
Rental Real Estate 7%
Angel Investments 6%
MLP 8%
Shorts and options typically around 2-3%

Plus a bunch of individual stocks and bonds. Only about 30% of my assets are in Index funds.

Wait a minute - Rental Real Estate is experimental? We are in rental real estate, property loans, a lot on a cul-de-sac looking over the Columbia river that is slated to get a spec house, and cash. Thus far this year our worst performing investment is with Vanguard - the $ sitting in VG money market from my closeout sale of our small stock market holdings last fall. What a market timer I am!

 

[NW-Bound]

Experimental is in the eye of the beholder. A previous poster also noticed it.

If a poster does something he thinks might get a frown from the majority of the posters or if it is not widely practiced , he calls it experimental.

I call everything experimental, even cash, because I do not believe that any of the asset classes guarantees me a happy return. Even when an asset class that under/overperforms eventually reverts to the mean, the process may take 15-20 years, and that's a large chunk if not the remaining of my life.

The most interesting part of this thread has not been the percentages but rather what investments posters consider experimental.

 

[ls99]

Not sure $30/mo would cover my coffee habit...

Mother Superior Nun Habit Dress Costume Adult Standar



Well not coffe, but for this habit can get change back from $30. It is listed on fleebay for $19.49 "buy it now" Mother Superior not included.


Ok , return to to regular programming....