Just gone through my various brokerage accts and didsome calculations. On an entire annual portfolio basis for the year, I am down about 14% (23,000) on about 165k in total. Though, on a Monthly outlook, profits are approx. 14%; except in July and August, which my monthly profits went down two 4% due to a huge, stupid position I had in VLO and HOC; which I just got out of a couple of weeks ago with a small profit. If I calculate and compound my monthly profits, I've up nicely. Mostly because I made, again, large positions in early 2006, which I am still waiting to get out of. I really do not like taking losses, and will only sell if the fundamentals show I will not be able to pull out a profit within a years time. Chances are, I could make up the losses in another trade, but I still am stubborn, and hate to take even the smallest loss. Granted, this is not my main income, but I am trying to grow it to become a stable income; should I need to make it a primary income in the future. On a portfolio basis, how did I do? Keep in mind, I started the account with 5k, then added another 20k in bonds and funds. Then turned the 25k (approx) into 96k with no additional funds added by me. All additional fundings had been earned from trades. Be kind...
You might have lost money this year, but maybe you gained some experience out of it. I learned that more important than setting goals on how much money to make in a given year it is more important to not lose capital. Take a look at this book http://www.amazon.com/Weinsteins-Secrets-Profiting-Bear-Markets/dp/1556236832 Might help your portfolio trading style. Good luck.
Can you be more descriptive and detailed? Tell us exactly the positions and basis. Dont let your pride get in the way. Sometimes its good to take a loss right now so you can free up capital for another opportunity. Let me give you a good example. While you held those positions waiting for them to go up, there were many other missed opportunities. I could sit here all day long making a long list of those equities such as Mastercard which doubled and GROW that quadrupled. In fact, you could have gotten into almost any stock over the summer and saw a gain except for ethanol and some other select stocks. When you do take a loss, turn that negative pent up energy into positive drive where you look for opportunities and aggressively get into them. However, since I do not know your positions, I cannot say with certainty if you should take a loss at this time. I do see where your mistake lies. In any given year, there are one or two corrections of at least 8%. Jumping into a position early on in a given year is never advisable. Historically, the market corrects during the summer time. You should patiently wait until July-August and then look for deals. Buy in July and then sell in early January to avoid taxes for 16 months. For example, jumping into a long position in the market right now is not advisable unless your truly believe in the saying "Buy high and sell higher". While the market may go up about 4% between now and May, there will be an eventual correction of 7-10%. You learned that buying high and selling higher is unpredictable. You got in at a time when everyone was really bullish, but you didnt know when to get out. I say the best time to get in is when everyone is in a panic and a stock corrects down to its 200 week moving average. That time will be in July. My advice is to always wait for the market to correct first before going long. The market will correct at least once, but most likely twice, in one calendar year.
AS for my posiitions, I am all over the place. I am in Steel, Gold, little oil, pharma, retail, bio, semi's, hardware, software, insurance, etc. I try not to be to invested into a sector too much to protect myself on a sector down day. I used to use stops a lot, but I always get stopped out at 8%, 10%, 12% and then the stock bounces back the next day. There have been times that I have done well without a stop loss. Most recently, it worked well in MIKR, CVS, EBAY, MSFT, and CHL.