Four Superpowers Every Portfolio Needs by Carl Delfeld
Thursday, December 9, 2010: Issue #1404
But what kind of investor are you?It’s important that you’re aware of your
personality and temperament when it comes to crafting your investment strategy. That’s because you can use it to profit and protect yourself much more effectively.
Of course, it would be nice if there was a foolproof service that matched up investors’ portfolios with their personality traits.
There isn’t – but I’ve got the next best thing. Here’s how you can better align the two – and ensure that your portfolio includes these four superpowers…
#1: Dial “D†for DiversificationLegendary value investor Sir John Templeton nailed it on the head with this sage advice: “Diversify. In stocks and bonds, as in much else, there’s safety in numbers.â€
#2: Employ the “Core/Explore†StrategyOne way to prevent being too conservative or adding too many risky investments is to balance out your approach with a “core/explore†portfolio strategy.
The premise is simple: Just determine what proportion of your assets you primarily want to allocate towards more protective investments and put this into a conservative, well-diversified, “core†portfolio. It should have plenty of fixed-income investments and cash, plus a good balance of global equities and precious metals.
#3: Use Trailing-StopsNothing is more painful than picking a great stock and watching it peak… only to see it fall back to earth again. But it’s easy to avoid riding this rollercoaster.
A trailing-stop strategy automatically gets you out of a stock if it drops by a certain percentage. It mitigates a loss, protects your hard-earned gains and stops emotions from cluttering up decision to sell.
#4: Become the Quality Control Manager Over Your Foreign Investments If you’re only taking a U.S.-based approach to investing, you need to branch out and grab some foreign exposure, too. The good news is that there’s much more research and information available today than there was not so long ago.
But if you employ these four ideas in your investing strategy, then there’s a good chance that you and your portfolio will match up much better.
http://www.investmentu.com/2010/Decembe ... needs.html
It's all about "how much you made when you were right" & "how little you lost when you were wrong"