I had a horrible big loss recently from tech and commodities. It wiped out 20% of of my life saving in just these 3 weeks, and I had total loss of 30% this year. I have no courage to continue. It seems too late to sell. However, I can't afford to lose more. Should I sell them all? I have POT, RIO, AAPL, DELL, EMC, YHOO...
It's a little late to sell now. Most of the fluff has been wiped out of said stocks. You might as well ride it out now, and look for any big rally to start offing into. But as a word of advice, never sell into a panic.
Excellent advice from Rice Rocket. For the investor, now is the time to be buying commodities, not selling.
these commodities look like the dot com implosion...check out coal:mee,pcx...Potash and ferts are complete bubble plays.I would sell all this stuff on any rally.Whether you want to re buy them as investments is another thing. Most tech never even recovered 50% from the dot com bust:csco,orcl,sunw,msft,yhoo-all still down 50-90%... Too late to sell most tech except aapl that has potentially, a long way to drop.
a) Don't freeze under fire. Don't become paralyzed, once you do you're as good as dead and risk kissing 100% of your life savings goodbye. b) If you're under mental stress because of your positions, take the losses and goto cash on all (half) of your positions. It can clear your head, help you think more rationally rather than emotionally. c) If you sell (all or part of your positions), be mentally ready to buy back stocks at higher prices once they break out on high volume out of solid base formations (look at individual stock charts of 1982, 1995, 2003). This is where most people fail. They simply can't buy back stocks higher when they got out lower.
great advice - five stars - despite usually not thinking maklodanian. I would add that selling half is psychologically easier. sell half, think, self half of the remaining half, think, etc. anytime sell all if you think it is the best thing to do.
While it is true that commodities have more or less imploded as of late, it seems that is where the similarity of today's commodities and the dot.com's of yesterday end. I wouldn't buy stock in a commodity that did not exist and could not be sold for a profit. Consider the dot.com's and tech stocks that really produced something of value. These came back 30 to 50% in a few years from the bust. A 30% recovery from the top after an 80% drop is a 50% increase from the low. A 50% return over 2 to 3 years is very nice, and not that easy to achieve. Commodity stocks at current prices are offering returns such as this or better, and very attractive in my opinion, especially those that pay nice dividends. They are classic hedges against inflation, of which we should have plenty going forward. That's why i said now is the time to be buying the commodity stocks not selling them. There is no guarantee that they won't go lower, however, so if it were i, i would scale in. But if i had been caught holding a boatload and did not get out before now, i would not get out now, but hold. That said, if a person is apprehensive and can't sleep because their account is way down, then the advice to sell half is not bad.