How's your YTD

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nords The last guy to comment on seeing his portfolio drop $3000 in one day ended up going back to work... It's not uncommon for a high-equity portfolio to have daily swings in the five-figure range, especially when the DOW moves triple digits.

Heck, i've picked up and lost 20-something thousand in a day. Doesnt even faze me anymore.

[retire@40]

Quote:

Originally Posted by () Heck, i've picked up and lost 20-something thousand in a day.* Doesnt even faze me anymore.

It's all relative. I remember when I first started moving up or down $1K a day and thought that it was amazing, considering I remember it took me a whole summer at my first job as a teenager to make $1K.

The other day I was up about $8K for the day and I didn't even mention it to my wife.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Mine only wants to hear about up days. Works for her. Works for me too. As far as she knows i'm such a good investor our portfolio only goes up.

[lazyday]

Quote:

Originally Posted by unclemick2 The corollary question is: what was your 'worst YTD' in your experience and what did YOU do - when the you know what hit the fan.

Skip me if you've heard this one:

1998 was probably the worst calendar year for my portfolio. I think that was when I sold Europe (at a small loss) and to the extent I could without paying premium or high ER, bought EM (where I had lost tons).
I had taken a temporary margin loan to buy an EM CEF that was trading at a discount, but open ending. I got to collect the discount, plus or minus EM market performance. Well, it was very much minus!
Lesson - even a "reasonable" amount of margin, only intended to be held a short time, can get ugly.
Other lesson - selling what dropped a little to buy what dropped a lot might work in your favor, maybe even sooner than you expect it to.

[Sheryl]

Quote:

Originally Posted by () Mine only wants to hear about up days.* Works for her.* Works for me too.* As far as she knows i'm such a good investor our portfolio only goes up.

Yeah,* I'm always crowing about the up days... but the down days are "don't ask, don't tell." I just wait until the next up day.*

BTW,* I've been thinking I need to apologize to the poster (I've forgotten who it was, Justin, maybe?) who several months ago talked about how they updated their spreadsheet every day at the close of trading.

My reply was, "That sounds like way too much work."

Well, now I'M doing it.* *

I have the asset sheet linked to a "countdown" page with a big red entry saying DOLLARS TO GO UNTIL FIRE: $________.

As of Monday that number is below $150,000.* And there are some adjustments yet to be made when my mom's estate is finally closed...* The excitement of being so close is scary.*

Good Scary.*

[unclemick]

Hmmm

I believe during one quarter during the darker days of 2000-2003, I was down 150 -200k out of a peak 1 mil portfolio.

Took a little grit to follow Bogle -'Do Something, Just stand there.'

Made the Norwegian widow happy - improved current yield somewhat.

heh heh heh heh

[laurence]

Lost 50% of my portfolio when the dot-com bubble burst. O.K., my portfolio was only 10k, but at the time 5k hurt like a mother!

[Toejam]

In response to Unclemick's questions regarding worst YTD returns:

My YTD return for the period 1/1/00 to 12/31/00 was -41%:
Balance on 1/1/00: $1,883,040 Balance on 12/31/00: $1,101,949 OUCH!
(Balance on 3/31/00 was $1,953,762 at the height of the tech bubble - if only I had the smarts to sell at that time.)

Yes, that is how crazy it was. Rather, that is how crazy I was to buy all these promising tech stocks that disintegrated that same year. I gradually sold off all my loser tech stocks, but kept the blue-chip ones like MSFT, INTC, and CSCO, which I already had for a number of years prior to 2000. Unfortunately, even these stocks are nowhere near their values in early 2000, but at least they are still worth more than when I bought them years ago.

After this fiasco, I have added large dividend paying stocks, large cap mutual funds, small cap funds, and international funds. No Google for me, even though some of the analysts say it will reach 600; it may well, but I don't want to chance it. Especially since I ER'd as of early 2004. I can't afford to make a big mistake like that again. But I don't mind putting a small portion of my account in Emerging Market ETF's and a Small Cap International Fund. I want to keep up with inflation by owning equities, but I am sure the time will come when I start diversifying into TIPS, bonds, and other more appropriate investments as I get older.

Lesson learned: Don't get overconfident, don't take big risks, and stay diversified. And, as Jim Cramer says: "Bull make money, Bears make money, but Pigs (Hogs) get slaughtered." (Not that I am a fan of Cramer . . . : )

[haha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toejam In response to Unclemick's questions regarding worst YTD returns: My YTD return for the period 1/1/00 to 12/31/00 was -41%:* Balance on 1/1/00:* $1,883,040* * Balance on 12/31/00:* $1,101,949* *OUCH! (Balance on 3/31/00 was $1,953,762 at the height of the tech bubble - if only I had the smarts to sell at that time.)

One thing for sure Toejam- you got the "right stuff."

Ha

[preben]

I moved from saving to investing (on a bigger scale) in 1998.

Biggest loss was in 2000 where I lost about 30% holding way too many silly tech stocks.
(proud holder of Yahoo bought at $250/share..... ).

My current portfolio(back tested with a few substitutes) would have walked through it with a gain of 5% :. in 2001 and 2002 I progressed into my current portfolio so took some of the grunt of the losses compared to 2000.

Since I am talking back-testing then my current base portfolio would have LOST 2% (Asian crises and commodities) in 1998 while the SP500 hammered along with a 28% GAIN. Also in 1999 the SP500 beat me with 2% (18% vs 20%). So if some of the US large cap growth profecies come true this year I might be sitting here posting a loss in a years time compared to most others gains.

Cheers!

[Spanky]

During the tech boom, many small startup companies offered generous stock options. The caveat was that options can only be exercised after a year. Many people started to join these startups in hopes that they too can become rich. They were excited when the stock prices skyrocketed. Many became millionaires in paper and dreamed about early retirement. Then their dreams were dashed as their options became worthless after the tech sector crash. It's too bad for new employees, but it was great for those who were able to exercise the options and did before the bust. I wonder if they are still working?

[justin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sheryl BTW, I've been thinking I need to apologize to the poster (I've forgotten who it was, Justin, maybe?) who several months ago talked about how they updated their spreadsheet every day at the close of trading. My reply was, "That sounds like way too much work." Well, now I'M doing it.

I don't think it was me. I love spreadsheets, but updating them once a day "sounds like way too much work". I keep my Yahoo Finance portfolio tracker pretty much up to date (correct number of shares), but Yahoo provides the price updates and totals and percent return, etc. I just click on my portfolios and see how they did for the day.

[HFWR]

The compute with my spreadsheet crashed, but I seem to remember going from $330k down to around $150k circa 2000-2002...

Back to $300k in three years!! 8)

[BUM]

Still putzin'

IRA 7%
Joint 4.something % (still cash heavy)

Townhouse-by-the-sea...priceless

[LOL!]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toejam My YTD return for the period 1/1/00 to 12/31/00 was -41%:* ... Yes, that is how crazy it was.* Rather, that is how crazy I was to buy all these promising tech stocks that disintegrated that same year.* I gradually sold off all my loser tech stocks, but kept the blue-chip ones like MSFT, INTC, and CSCO, which I already had for a number of years prior to 2000.* Unfortunately, even these stocks are nowhere near their values in early 2000, but at least they are still worth more than when I bought them years ago.*

As others have hinted at, the decline was not limited to just tech stocks. Take the venerable Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund. I remember buying this fund to do a tax-loss swap with the S&P500 index fund in 2001.

In Oct 2002 VTSMX was worth less than 60% of what it was in March 2000. Diversification among equities didn't save your portfolio back then.

[SteveR]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LOL! As others have hinted at, the decline was not limited to just tech stocks.* Take the venerable Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund.* I remember buying this fund to do a tax-loss swap with the S&P500 index fund in 2001. In Oct 2002 VTSMX was worth less than 60% of what it was in March 2000.* Diversification among equities didn't save your portfolio back then.

Also some individual company stocks took hits for other reasons or were part of the general down draft during that time. My former company took such a hit and the stock price dropped by over 60%. Stock options granted before that were pretty much in the toilet since the stock price is still only 15 higher than the low of that period. Sucks to have been granted options for several years prior to 1999-2000. A few brief runs moved the stock price up right about the time the set the strike price and then the price plunged again so most options up to 2002 are still under water. Too bad. I could have ERd for good in 2003; now they will die by drowning while still on the table. Next time, just give me the cash... but that is a whole other thread.

[Jay_Gatsby]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LOL! Diversification among equities didn't save your portfolio back then.

That's what I tell myself when I second-guess my dot-com mania of investing in tech stocks in 1999-2000. *Put differently, I would have lost a significant chunk of change in any case. *However, the problem wasn't investing in tech stocks during that time, but rather not scooping up value stocks and other solid brick-and-mortar stocks that were out of fashion (and therefore really cheap). *I did buy some, but not nearly enough.

[justin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LOL! In Oct 2002 VTSMX was worth less than 60% of what it was in March 2000. Diversification among equities didn't save your portfolio back then.

I'd take a 40% drop over what I got: the majority of my holdings went down 95-100%.

VTSMX was diversified, I was not.

[Intuit]

YTD for 401K #1 was 8.56% and #2 was 7.3%. All in all, I was happy with growth.

[preben]

Well microcaps and reits did eek out a small 4-5% gains in 2002 - so some equity did ok. (naturally gold equity and foreign bonds+commodities did great too as the USD weakened). CHeers!