Time to buy? What are you buying?

[BeachOrCity]

Its SO EASY to wait right now......

People are psychologically waiting (including me)......

I won't be able to call the bottom better than anybody. But I KNOW we are not there yet.

 

[luckydude]

Okay, I decided today to start putting some of my money back to work. This morning I purchased shares of C, CMG, MAR and V.
Is anybody else dipping their toe in and if so, what are you buying?

Just bought a top-of-the-line ASUS gaming laptop and the Doom Eternal game. My kids' school is cancelled until further notice and we're stuck at home due to "stay at home" order, so the kids and I will be spending a lot of quality time together blasting aliens in the virtual world (and forgetting about the market)...

Lucky Dude

 

[luckydude]

I think it will be a lot longer than a few months. At this point the properties can be sold and returned to single family use. Values are still up at this point. It's not like 2008-2010 when prices had dropped so severely. In fact, in many markets I own in we are just back to the 2005-2006 peaks. Lots of the airBnB types (short term rentals or STRs) were bought between 2010 and the present so most have equity if they sell.

Now, actual commercial properties might be different. I wouldn't want to own a retail strip center right about now. Even people that own multi-family buildings are worried as they don't know if people are going to pay the rent on the 1st. Time will tell.

In all, I think it will be a long while before there are incredible buying opportunities in real estate. Just my two cents....

DW and I had been thinking about getting into multi-family real estate, but the increasingly onerous laws boosting tenant rights (at the expense of landlords') as well as rent control measures here in Cal put us off. So we're sticking to ag real estate. Just sold a good-sized farm for a nice profit. Given all the food hoarding on account of the pandemic, we don't expect ag real estate to take a dive unlike equity, but we're on the lookout for a good deal to do the 1031 exchange.

Lucky Dude

 

[unclemick]

Small amounts of VT (total world stock index) over the next 12 to 18 months. Out of my over 70 1/2 RMD extra money we are not now spending for expenses.

heh heh heh - or if a good buy on a used tractor (diesel) pops up. And yes I may try to take it with me via a trust or foundation.

 

[Cayman]

We're not there yet. We're a long way from "there"
Patience grasshopper

 

[harley]

Not really buying other than a few gambles in a Roth gambling fund. But I do think I'm going to continue converting tIRA to Roth during all of this. I've got the cash to pay the taxes, so this could be a good opportunity to move large numbers of shares of VTI with a lower tax consequence.

 

[ckelly78z]

I have bought into some pharma stocks that look promising IBIO is a company that can quickly put a new Covid19 vaccine into production using fastpharming where they use a plant base rather than eggs, which lowers the time frame from months down to weeks.

I am also watching AYTU, a company that is providing a blood test Covid19 testing kit that gives results in 2-10 minutes, and is non invasive (unlike the highly touted 45 minute swab test).

Both of these stocks look to go parabolic when big news occurs.

 

[wrigley]

Even my wife is now interested in buying bargain stocks now She is thinking Southwest, P & G, and I am thinking Disney. I think there is more bottom to the market, but who knows. If states start shutting down for 2 months, like California, this is going to be really ugly for a long time.

Bought DIS last week when it hit $80 a share. If Disney doesn't come back, the world is going to end!

Looking at RCL Royal Caribbean. Just haven't jumped yet. The cruise line industry at this time is a little scary.

Mike

 

[atmsmshr]

We're not there yet. We're a long way from "there"
Patience grasshopper

Yup

As far as Cruise Line Industry - some might go bankrupt and wipeout shareholders. What government is going to bail them out and why? Panama and Bahama flagged vessels bailed out by USA? I am against bailing them out.

 

[racy]

I use +/- 20% re-balancing bands on each mutual fund in our portfolio. The Sm Cap band tripped so I brought it back up to a little above it's minimum. Going to see how my Investment Policy Statement works...

 

[audreyh1]

You mean you are selling some of your actively managed mutual funds to take these capital losses and putting the money into index funds? That is a great idea. Just want to make sure I understand. Even at the market peak, my cost basis would not have generated as much capital gains as I thought, since I pay taxes on the distributions each year.

Yes. The worst culprit active funds with several years largish cap gains distributions (which kept reducing my unrealized cap gains) now have unrealized cap losses, so I am harvesting that and buying corresponding index fund.

 

[tdv2]

Not buying but wholesale unleaded gas looks pretty cheap at $0.625 / gallon.

https://futures.tradingcharts.com/marketquotes/RB_.html

 

[GreenEggs]

Please read this before you do anything:

https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Bogleheads®_investing_start-up_kit

What does that have to do with individual stocks?

And how much cash would I have on hand if I'd followed their "load up on index funds & bonds and stay the course, no matter what comes"?

I'm seeing a lot of regrets here from folks who decided to ride this to the bottom.

 

[BreathFree]

I'm stuck at home and bored, so I've been gambling with 5% of my portfolio, buying on big down days and selling on the next up day. It makes me feel like I am doing something, but any gains are absolutely dwarfed by my retirement portfolio losses. I still haven't re-balanced my portfolio or sold any stock that I held prior to the crash.

 

[BeachOrCity]

My personal opinion is any bargains right now are in individual stocks, NOT the market as a whole. Be careful folks. The market is trading in the high teens PE based on 2019 earnings. Maybe 2021 will bring back those earnings? Maybe not? Doubt they could be higher.
Not exactly cheap.

 

[Fermion]

I am having to really hold myself back this morning from buying Merck at $67.50.

Dang that is cheap. I am going to watch it closely and pounce when we get the big unemployment figures if it drops to the low $60s.

 

[Gatordoc50]

I am nibbling a bit by buying the whole market. I have some cash from a house sale that I was looking for an opportunity to buy in. I have changed my buy in points as I now believe we could go very low.

 

[audreyh1]

Of course my small cap and international funds are just getting killed!

 

[BreathFree]

Of course my small cap and international funds are just getting killed!

I rebalanced in both today. A very small amount. Small Cap Value and international are a regular part of my portfolio,

 

[BreathFree]

Same here. I sold real estate last year and couldn't bring myself to put the proceeds in the market at all time highs so decided to wait for a pullback. I was supposed to invest it at s&p 2500, but it dropped so fast I waited. I just bought 100k in spy today at 222.80 hoping to sell it on a pop if stimulus bill passed. I may just keep it, it brings my AA back in line. I still have a substantial amount of cash left to put to work but could definitely see this market go lower.

 

[Pointby2]

I've dabbled a bit. Picked up some SO for the dividend. It continued to fall. Also bought some VCV, closed end CA bond fund now with a tax free dividend over 5%. Couldn't resist.

 

[brewer12345]

Still in cash. I bought some short term quality corporates which rose today, but I don't think prices are low enough in equities. We are getting there though.

 

[MuirWannabe]

Still in cash. I bought some short term quality corporates which rose today, but I don't think prices are low enough in equities. We are getting there though.

Honestly, you’re last sentence brings me some good feelings. You predicted much of this so early on. I know you’re no magical genius. But dang, you nailed this. So, I’m hoping you’re last sentence is equally prescient.

 

[brewer12345]

Honestly, you’re last sentence brings me some good feelings. You predicted much of this so early on. I know you’re no magical genius. But dang, you nailed this. So, I’m hoping you’re last sentence is equally prescient.

We are closer to the bottom than we were a month ago!

Actually, what I was thinking was that I had to talk a friend's 80YO mom off the ledge. This is a woman who holds individual equities for decades and I had to browbeat to get her to diversify a giant position in a single stock. If she is thinking about selling, there aren't many sellers left. Now we just need to find the bottom and test it a few times.

 

[W2R]

I am one of those boring old index fund buy-and-holders. I don't market time but I *do* rebalance, every January plus also when things get badly out of whack.

The latter applies.

I just noticed that my AA had gone from the desired 42:58, to 35:65. So, I just forced myself to rebalance by:

(1) selling VBTLX (Total Bond Market), and
(2) buying VTSAX (Total Stock Market) and VWIAX (Wellesley)

I just couldn't bring myself to plow more money into my international fund, VFWAX (FTSE All-World Ex-US Index Fund), which like some other international funds is getting hit pretty hard. If I was perfect I would have put money there too but I am not. Maybe in a few days.