Investments strategy with new administration?

[California]

I take my investments very seriously, always, so no play room with them at all.

99.99% serious investor here. Occasionally gamble when I think I see an opportunity that isn't yet widely known. The Peter Lynch principle. Back in the day, selling early Ebay stock bought half of what my Subaru cost.

Years later, recently, I started following the drama surrounding GameStop. This has to be the most manipulated stock of all time. 17k employees and $4B revenue. And a recent stock issue gave them a $4B war chest to go buy some other business but there's no news yet.

GameStop stock price jumps around seemingly randomly. It's been $10 and $65 in the past year. The theory is that hedge funds shorted 400% of the available shares, ie are selling options for shares that don't exist, so as options expire there is a scramble to grab anything available at any price to meet obligations. But with those same players manipulating the price to their advantage. Who knows.

At any rate I gambled that a future options expiration date would raise the price, made a short-term $400 on that gamble, and got out. My interest is more just arms-length curiosity rather than financial. I think sooner or later, how the stock price gets manipulated will come to light. They are the poster child for what Occupy Wall Street was concerned about.

 

[drssg]

I'm going with a split between $Trump and $Melonia crypto, so I should be covered.

 

[Racenut]

So who uses an advisor vs self management? I recently inherited an account, along with an advisor. I still have my own accounts which I have always done myself, and now I'm trying to compare, though at this point I only have 4 months to compare against. My account is 2 ETFs and 3 stocks. The managed account is 45 different holdings. Seem like that's just over-complicated. My account is performing a bit better overall, but market has been generally good, it's easy to make money when the market is good. I do see that when we have a bad day, my account also has a worse day lol. I've just put money away and hoped it be there when I get old... now as I do get older, I'm a lot more interested in trying to learn how to maximize returns.

 

[riptides]

So who uses an advisor vs self management?

I self manage. The tools at the major brokerage firms are pretty intelligent and through.

I view the advisor as someone who can speak plain English instead of waddling through algorithms and statistical models. They have their place.

My account is performing a bit better overall, but market has been generally good, it's easy to make money when the market is good.

I usually go into way back mode to see how things have performed before investing in them. That accounts for market down turns.

In Fidelity terms the models I use return "significantly below average market".
Meaning I plan for the worst case scenarios.

 

[MossRoad]

S&P 500 is up nearly 200% in past 10 years. Combine that with your own contributions over the last 10 years and, well, you do the math...

$1000 ten years ago would have been $2000 five years ago and $4000 today. Quadrupling your net worth in the past 10 years was easily possible.

It was up about 85% in the past 5 years. Combine that with your own contributions and you could have easily doubled your net worth during the last administration.

Dollar cost averaging is the key.

With that said, and us nearing retirement age, I don't want to experience the minor setbacks like 2008 and Covid19. So considering moving to less risky investments at this point in our lives.

 

[RSKY]

I am the opposite. I "play" with 80 to 90% and parked 10-20% in bonds and a money market.

Check out FELV under Fidelity.

Right now I am thinking of having more "cash" available just due to another possible retirement effort and goals that have been met.

But timing the market...well....

I went back and looked at mine and was wrong. About 1/3 Fidelity manages for me, mostly bonds and very low risk funds. Another 1/3 was in laddered CDs but they all got called. That money is now in mutual funds. On the mutuals enough are in what I consider low risk to bring that total low risk investment up to over half. The remaining funds are like FSELX. Higher paying but riskier.

RSKY

 

[RSKY]

I find it a little unbelievable that you're getting 20- 25% return. Typical, is around 6-7% if you're investments are broad and balanced. Not saying you're not getting those returns, but your risk must be way out there.

Log on to fidelity.com and put the pointer on news and research. Go down to mutual funds and click on that. Select Fidelity only funds. When the screen comes up with the list of Fidelity's funds it will show YTD, 1yr, 3yr, etc.. Click on the 10 Yr column and you will see that the FSELX fund has averaged 25.99% over the past ten years.

I started my oldest grand in that fund in the first part of 2022 with $7,500. Her account now has over $15,000. But that was due to the first year when the fund made double the ten year average. I believe at one time it was at 78% for 12-months.

I found out the hard way that local financial advisors put your money where THEY make the most. It takes about 10 minutes a day to look at my investments. And I do so every day. About 4 or 5 times a year I may move something around. Every two or three years I will have a month of so when I move a bunch of money around changing funds for some reason or another. Other than that I just do nothing but look. And smile.

RSKY

 

[WM75Guy]

So who uses an advisor vs self management? I recently inherited an account, along with an advisor. I still have my own accounts which I have always done myself, and now I'm trying to compare, though at this point I only have 4 months to compare against. My account is 2 ETFs and 3 stocks. The managed account is 45 different holdings. Seem like that's just over-complicated. My account is performing a bit better overall, but market has been generally good, it's easy to make money when the market is good. I do see that when we have a bad day, my account also has a worse day lol. I've just put money away and hoped it be there when I get old... now as I do get older, I'm a lot more interested in trying to learn how to maximize returns.

We do both. Some of our Merrill Lynch accounts can only be accessed thru an advisor, not self management. He also provides easy to read prospectus sheets on our ETFs. The minimal fees we pay are well worth it. Most individual stocks I handle myself.

 

[orezok]

I think investing in a bomb shelter might be the best option.

 

[kenmbz]

I worked on Wall street for 15 years.
Asset mgmt, bond trading support etc.

Best advice we got from the COO:
FAs are there to make money for the company, not for the investor.

Do your own work for investing. If you can't or won't, put it in something safe.
S&P 500 is safe, long term. CDs are low risk, low return.
You worked for the money up front, keep working for it in investments too.
There are horizon funds that target certain years and go from high risk to low risk as the horizon (year) gets closer of you like to have more mgmt involved.

Most FAs I met were pure salesmen, some really do want to make clients money, but they need to tow the company line and make money as their end goal.

Not advice, just a warning. Do the work or park it safe. Don't panic, Don't listen to Cramer (he no longer has his series 7 for a reason, less chance of getting sued).
a news story can impact the market more than anything real about P/E or quarterlies.
Or lack of a news story can also impact the market.

I have so , so many stories.