Is your portfolio at a high?

With the current market swings, playing the "high yesterday, low today, higher tomorrow" game is getting tedious and a bit boring imo.

My portfolio is well into an ATH vs last year (as well as lifetime). If it swings a few $k on a daily/weekly basis I really can't be bothered.
 
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marko said:
My portfolio is well into an ATH vs last year (as well as lifetime). If it swings a few $k on a daily/weekly basis I really can't be bothered.
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I agree with your sentiment. However, that is not what "ATH" means. "All-time" means "all-time."
 
Just checked and I am down @1% from my ATH of June 2nd. When I look at the figure that represents that 1% and consider it in real dollars it seems large, but in this almost video game context where the ups and downs have been many multiples of that number, it seems small.

IRL vs. Digits on a Screen.

What a weird and unexpected feeling!!
 
Out-to-Lunch said:
I agree with your sentiment. However, that is not what "ATH" means. "All-time" means "all-time."
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Sure. But yes, no, yes, no, yes every other day in this volatile market just seems like a silly game to me.

You reach a high, you drop $50 (or $5k) the next day and suddenly you're not as wealthy? Then the next day, you're up $200 (or $20k) and we're celebrating again? Until tomorrow? On several million dollars? Rounding up or rounding down?

What time is it? Oops! I forgot to add that $147 dividend from last night, so 'yes'.

Am I wealthier right now than I've ever been? Yes, I am, give or take a few thousand.

YMMV.
 
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marko said:
Sure. But yes, no, yes, no, yes every other day in this volatile market just seems like a silly game to me.

You reach a high, you drop $50 (or $5k) the next day and suddenly you're not as wealthy? Then the next day, you're up $200 (or $20k) and we're celebrating again? Until tomorrow? On several million dollars? Rounding up or rounding down?

What time is it? Oops! I forgot to add that $147 dividend from last night, so 'yes'.

Am I wealthier right now than I've ever been? Yes, I am, give or take a few thousand.

YMMV.
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That's what this thread is for, a silly game.
Ya know, you don't have to play if you don't want to. :)
 
marko said:
Sure. But yes, no, yes, no, yes every other day in this volatile market just seems like a silly game to me.

You reach a high, you drop $50 (or $5k) the next day and suddenly you're not as wealthy? Then the next day, you're up $200 (or $20k) and we're celebrating again? Until tomorrow? On several million dollars? Rounding up or rounding down?

What time is it? Oops! I forgot to add that $147 dividend from last night, so 'yes'.

Am I wealthier right now than I've ever been? Yes, I am, give or take a few thousand.

YMMV.
Click to expand...

You don't have to play. I'm the one who started it. My intentions were
* Report ATH once per day, not hourly. If I have consecutive days, I report once every several days.
* Do not report when you are lower than ATH. It doesn't matter if it's $5K or $50 or -0.1%
* ATH means ATH, after all expenses
* This is not the place to report your favorite trade, stock, or system.
* For me, the most important thing is portfolio volatility in a down market. If 95+% of portfolios are down and yours is at ATH, it's amazing.
 
Been flirting with a new high for the last few weeks. I get close, then pay a big credit card due to traveling, then get close and something drops. I know I will get there one of these days.
 
Is there an MM fund that reports interest daily? That's a sure way of getting an ATH every day, as long as your expenses are below that interest.
 
NW-Bound said:
...I am an active investor, and have been spoiled by trading in IRA and Roth IRA with no concern for taxes. I have to manage investment in the growing taxable account differently. Back to indexing? Arghh.
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Indexing in your taxable account, correct, to avoid nasty Capital Gains Distributions.
But that doesn't mean just S&P 500 or Total Market index funds. I've increasingly been putting new taxable account money into large growth index funds like VGT and QQQ, with lower dividends than VOO/VTI...
 
FD1000 said:
...* For me, the most important thing is portfolio volatility in a down market. If 95+% of portfolios are down and yours is at ATH, it's amazing.
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Quite true.
But there's a caveat here. The simple way to get a continuing string of nominal ATHs is to keep all your money in a HYSA and/or MM funds, especially one where interest is compounded daily.

But you're not likely to outpace inflation by much with that approach. To do that, you'll generally want to hold a good percentage of equity funds in your portfolio, thus increasing risk/reward and volatility, thus less frequent ATHs but likely larger ones over time...
 
NW-Bound said:
Is there an MM fund that reports interest daily? That's a sure way of getting an ATH every day, as long as your expenses are below that interest.
Click to expand...
My TIAA Traditional in my 403(b) reports interest every trading day, with a crediting rate around 4% per year. In fact, I think it earns interest on non trading days as well, but reported on the next regular trading day. Here's a snapshot of one of my TIAA accounts after Thursday's close, with "Trad" chugging along as usual alongside two rather volatile Vanguard index funds...
Screenshot_20260620-111202~2.jpg
 
NW-Bound said:
Is there an MM fund that reports interest daily? That's a sure way of getting an ATH every day, as long as your expenses are below that interest.
Click to expand...
One could just be in only CD's and use the interest accrual method.:)
 
TheWizard said:
My TIAA Traditional in my 403(b) reports interest every trading day, with a crediting rate around 4% per year. In fact, I think it earns interest on non trading days as well, but reported on the next regular trading day. Here's a snapshot of one of my TIAA accounts after Thursday's close, with "Trad" chugging along as usual alongside two rather volatile Vanguard index funds...
Click to expand...
Dtail said:
One could just be in only CD's and use the interest accrual method.:)
Click to expand...

I never have an interest-bearing account that reports daily. I am too lazy to ever do interest accrual method, although I am now up to 45% in these accounts.

There are times when I neglect for several months to log into I-bond accounts to get an update. I spend so much time on my larger active accounts, and neglect for several months some legacy MFs that I hold directly at the MF companies. It makes for a nice surprise when I remember to log in to check. Or it's a bad surprise when they report unusual large cap gains at year end, and blow away my tax planning. They are on the chopping block, I have been threatening for years. :)

I look at my active accounts in order to catch surprises, whether positive or negative. Interest-bearing accounts like Stable Value or I-bond or TSTXX, what is there to see day to day? Hence I can safely ignore them.
 
TheWizard said:
Quite true.
But there's a caveat here. The simple way to get a continuing string of nominal ATHs is to keep all your money in a HYSA and/or MM funds, especially one where interest is compounded daily.

But you're not likely to outpace inflation by much with that approach. To do that, you'll generally want to hold a good percentage of equity funds in your portfolio, thus increasing risk/reward and volatility, thus less frequent ATHs but likely larger ones over time...
Click to expand...
The above approach is terrible. There is a way to achieve both, and I have done so for over 25 years. We have been running a great thread for it called Why I like certain alternative investments
 
TheWizard said:
...and many of the funds discussed in that thread are indeed equity (stock) funds of one type or another...
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And many of the funds I used to own for years were stock funds too. At this juncture of my life, I don't need to use them; my portfolio of all bond funds has done as well as diversified stock funds anyway. What?
 
FD1000 said:
And many of the funds I used to own for years were stock funds too. At this juncture of my life, I don't need to use them; my portfolio of all bond funds has done as well as diversified stock funds anyway. What?
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Everyone seems to have a little different approach to what to do in retirement when they have too much money.
I don't really see that as a problem whatsoever...
 
Really no value of substance, but to look, report, and have fun playing the game. I find it interesting and a way to post and socialize here on ER. I would say not open the post or comment if you feel it is silly and worthless.

Just have fun or go play another game, that is what I tell my 3 year old granddaughter.
 
street said:
Really no value of substance, but to look, report, and have fun playing the game. I find it interesting and a way to post and socialize here on ER. I would say not open the post or comment if you feel it is silly and worthless.

Just have fun or go play another game, that is what I tell my 3 year old granddaughter.
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Ouch. I was just stating an opinion, but coming from @street whom I totally respect, I'll accept the scolding along with Friday's ATH.
 
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marko said:
Ouch. I was just stating an opinion, but coming from @street whom I totally respect, I'll accept the scolding along with Friday's ATH.
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I meant know bad feelings Marko!!! I should have not said anything. My apologies whole heartily. Thank You for making me rethink my post.
 
street said:
I meant know bad feelings Marko!!! I should have not said anything. My apologies whole heartily. Thank You for making me rethink my post.
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No! You're right, no apologies necessary. Please! Now we're both getting "silly".
All good my friend. All good and good night.
 
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Back to this no value subject but a fun one to be part of. I would guess there could be some ATH numbers after today to end the month, half a year in.

We will see Nasdaq & S&P are in positive territory again.
 
Not quite ATH but ~5K short. Been a good day and a great month with a lot of growth.
 
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