How are your investments doing?

[DarkBlack]

So for example, if I have 3 stocks in a SEP IRA and a “cash” account and I put a sell stop in on them and say 1 goes down and the sell stop is triggered, is what’s left after the sell just directed into the cash account?

Another thought on your question…
Depending on your brokerage, your sales proceeds will go to your cash account, or to a money market, assuming you’re not setup for margin.
If your IRA is with Fidelity, for example, your sell proceeds should go automatically to a money market, which to you acts like a cash account to buy stocks again. Nice as you earn current MM rates, something around 4.x% now.
If you’re with Schwab, your proceeds go to your cash account. You’ll just have to go online and manually buy into a MM before 4:00, if you want the interest in the interim. You can buy stock the very next day from the prior day’s MM purchase if you want

 

[CH4Ohio]

That sounds like "buy high, sell low" I never sell at a loss.

Sounds good in theory. But if a stock tanks, selling at a specified loss would be better than watching it go all the way down.

I'd like to say that I never sell at a loss. But that would also imply that I'm not willing to get out when I should.

The discussion we've been having is about jumping into volatile stocks and taking advantage of short-term increases. If you're going to speculate in this way, you have to be ready to get out if it goes down and limit your losses.

 

[Hay Dude]

Another thought on your question…
Depending on your brokerage, your sales proceeds will go to your cash account, or to a money market, assuming you’re not setup for margin.
If your IRA is with Fidelity, for example, your sell proceeds should go automatically to a money market, which to you acts like a cash account to buy stocks again. Nice as you earn current MM rates, something around 4.x% now.
If you’re with Schwab, your proceeds go to your cash account. You’ll just have to go online and manually buy into a MM before 4:00, if you want the interest in the interim. You can buy stock the very next day from the prior day’s MM purchase if you want

Fidelity is indeed my trading platform (one of them), but my account is called “cash”, not “money market”. It is also FDIC insured.
From that account I can buy other stocks, or dump more money into FXAIX, or other accounts I have.

 

[kenmac]

My advisor (which handles my accounts) use to use Fidelity. For some reason, last yr they moved everything to BNY Pershing for the custodian

 

[Oaktree]

I had a bad experience with a Fidelity advisor long ago who had contacted us after we passed some level. We assembled our data and went to see him. After 20 minutes I realized he wasn't considering what would have been our primary income after we retired, our state government pensions. He said he wasn't allowed to include that in his analysis.

I also use Fidelity for some of my investments. Had a similar experience this past year where an advisor tried to pressure me into letting them manage my entire portfolio. I would have had to give them complete control to buy/sell stocks, mutual funds, everything. Sounded like an all or nothing proposal. Uhhh, no thanks.

I may not have Warren Buffet's track record, but I've done pretty well over the years. Don't really want to give up control.

Does anyone have any experience with Morgan Stanley? I have a small inherited IRA with them, and they've been trying to get me to move my regular IRA there too. Apparently they have some sort of family plan, where family members' assets are combined for purposes of determining fees (sisters have accounts there). I'm reasonably satisfied with the outfit that handles my IRA currently, but their fees are a bit on the high side.

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

Fees are a super important part of investing.
I've have very good Fidelity and Vanguard consultants over the years that didn't cost me a dime.

 

[riptides]

My only issue with Vanguard is it is a employer provided account. So there are limits on what it provides and how it provides it. I believe a lot of employer provided accounts have similar restrictions.

 

[drssg]

Every time my 16 year old son looks at his investments on a down day and talks about how ****ty the markets are… I roll my eyes and say, “so, you are new here, huh?”

All of my 30%-40% years, had down days… people focus on the wrong ****. Never mind the 200+ days that trade positive.

I am glad he is investing and going through his emotional phase while at home with me. Hopefully when he is older, he will remember this and stop being so soft.

I'm impressed that your 16-year-old son has investments. When I was 16 my financial concerns were considerably more short-term and less constructive.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

I'm impressed that your 16-year-old son has investments. When I was 16 my financial concerns were considerably more short-term and less constructive.

He wanted to know how I retired at 47, and how we live completely debt free. So, we began discussing how time is more important than money for an investor. He was amazed when he saw the impact of time. So, we began that journey.

Trust me, he also has frivolous, short term concerns lol

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

When I was young this is all I thought & dreamed about...

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

A couple years later this is all I thought & dreamed about...

 

[ultrarunner]

No cars in your thoughts?

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

12...14...16...(roughly)
Bikes...girls...cars

 

[Richard]

Then say the stock gets up to 140 and I have a sell stop at 120 and the market crashes and it hits my sell stop at 120. The tool sells all my stuff automatically and I have a profit of $20 and all I had to do is move sell stops.

Sooooooooo, what happens if you have your $140 stock..... either over night or over a weekend, bad news comes out and the next opening there is an order imbalance.... and it opens at $90? Even stop losses have risks. If you used a market stop, you got taken out at $90 and what happens if the stock bounces up and closes at $110... What if instead, you had a stop loss limit in at say, $120.... stock opens at $90. You aren't taken out because of the limit....and the stock proceeds to drop to $70.

Do you use market stops? Limit Stops?

Those are wild, made up numbers but I've seen stuff like that happen.

If you do actuary stuff then you are likely good with numbers.


Regarding bonds in retirement..... maybe some. What if instead, someone has a Roth account.... what if those assets are dropped into dividend paying stocks, REITS, Utilities, Corp Bonds.... things that create cash flow. This cash flow is now tax free with the ability to sell covered calls against (stock) positions (for more tax free cash flow), market gains (and losses because we all know, the market WILL and IS going to go down at some point in time, it's part of its DNA)

What if someone has a taxable portfolio? Now, bonds might have my interest. (though might take a sizable amount of funds) Put cash into (whatever state you live in) Municipal Bonds. Stagger them so the bonds (which pay semi-annual) can pay monthly. Now, you can have a portfolio of bonds, no risks of stocks (nor any growth from them) but the income is now tax free and potentially monthly.

(above are all my thoughts/opinions, not advice)

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

Yeah, I bought my son a car... He decided he wanted a Mustang, so he spent his money to buy it... So he is still capable of succumbing to wants.

 

[California]

My only issue with Vanguard is it is a employer provided account. So there are limits on what it provides and how it provides it. I believe a lot of employer provided accounts have similar restrictions.

So true. In the early days of 457 (non profit and government IRA) we were allowed only one change per month. I phoned and asked what was the cutoff for this months change. Was told this afternoon. So I drove to the HR office and submitted my change.

Refused. The clerk was already inputting the stack of monthly changes. "We'll input it a month from now with the next batch." I made a big fuss - 'Let me speak to your manager' who turned out to be who told me cutoff was this afternoon. So my changes got slipped into the this month batch.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

I hope nobody is holding GM stock.

 

[DarkBlack]

I hope nobody is holding GM stock.

I’m not patient enough to sit thru her 1/2 hour monologue. Can you summarize the main point?

 

[steve tym]

I had some old GM stock, before they went bankrupt, it just vanished.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

I’m not patient enough to sit thru her 1/2 hour monologue. Can you summarize the main point?

Essentially, Canada just boinked an unruly pig on the nose. GM just lost 15% retail against every competitor in the country and Canada wants their billions in plant investment back. It's a great time to buy a Chevvy, because Canadians don't want them. Inventory costs are already eating GM alive, plus losing a huge market.

Canadians are developing some reasonable regulations for late stage capitalism. This one is a wakeup call for all international markets. The Canadian tariff law is a landmark in international trade regulation that will doubtless be copied my numerous nations around the world.