About 20 minutes a week managing trades eg adjusting stop losses A few hours a week research, adding to and removing from watchlists Maybe 20 minutes a week updating my trade log in excel My planned holding time per position is months so turnover of stocks is low.
Then diversification should not make a difference Then diversification should not make a difference No one knows; it is more a case of managing your position than diversification. That does make diversification easier although not better Not really relevant as the same goes for all active managers. Can you beat the index or are you better off trading an index ETF? That possibly makes the trading cost a non factor. Depends on how often you trade. A trader who trades only a few stocks but trades often has higher costs than a long term swing trader. I can have a single position and move into the market slowly, pyramid my position to a full position as the market moves in my favor. A smooth equity curve is nice to look at but my goal is protection of capital and superior returns. I feel that the more positions you hold the more you will tend towards average. If I was satisfied with average I would buy SPY. I have 20 stocks over a 5 portfolios that I manage and feel I'm over diversified.
For me diversification is really important. Putting all funds at one place is simply making your account prone to blowing up in a second. So its much better to distribute money in different avenues to keep your earning scope high.
%% 500 may seem like to many; but look how few, manage to beat SPY over a decade...…………………………………………..
I came to the same conclusion, narrowed down to about a dozen stocks and two brokerages. It is very difficult for me as a retail to manage more than a dozen, reading all the news, earning, read all of their financial statements, read up on all of their managements, products, SEC filings, drug developments, clinical trials.... And watch all their charts in real time. You are right Mr. turtle, It is very difficult to beat SPY if you own 500 stocks and my goal is to beat SPY/DIA/QQQ. Otherwise, why go through the trouble. My friend specializes in trading options on one tech stock, for more than a decade and makes a good living doing it.
%% Amen + I cant really watch 500 stocks like I want to; so that is why I trade SPY, UPRO...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................When people buy junk like TSLA, junk silver,LOL. I do still study single stocks; but buy ETFs, ETFs x3.............................................................................................................
I just watch the charts. Someone else gets the news before I do so I'm at a disadvantage if I attempt to trade it. In theory the chart tells me how other investors interpret the fundamentals.
I hear you but I am not that good at reading charts. Sometimes @dozu888's pro boys hide their trades very well and it is difficult to detect them just by looking at charts. As an example, Buffett bought billions of AAPL stocks over a few months' span and I was not able to detect when he bought even after the facts, just by looking at AAPL charts.
I had no idea that Buffet was buying. All I know is that the trend is positive. Not a stock I own so I haven't followed it.
%% Exactly; charts are just price data with a picture. My old CPA preferred price data , in a list, on a page like taxes, so to each his own.