Need suggestions on consolidating stocks

**Petunia 100** · 09-05-2020, 10:43 AM

I recommend broad market index funds.

**Like2Plan** · 09-05-2020, 10:52 AM

No advice for you on which ones to sell and which ones to keep. I sold all except 2 of my individual stocks about 10 years ago and put everything into the total stock market and I am much happier for it. In fact, I am feeling a little bit of anxiety looking at all the different stocks you have--thinking back to getting the monthly/quarterly/annual statements in the mail and what a pain it was to keep track of everything.

The only thing I can say is if you are going to sell- check and make sure you don't have the dividend reinvestment option going because you could end up with a wash sale (and a tiny bit of stock from the dividend that depending on timing could potentially end up in your account after you sell--which unnecessarily complicates things). Maybe you could do some strategic (long term) tax loss harvesting with some of the losers you want to get rid of ?

https://finance.zacks.com/longterm-vs-shortterm-capital-loss-deduction-1447.html

**disneysteve** · 09-05-2020, 12:06 PM

No specific advice for you but several comments and questions in no particular order (so bear with me on the lack of an organized approach to your post).

1. Is this a taxable account or a tax-sheltered retirement account? The answer to that helps guide how and when you should sell holdings.

2. Market timing doesn't work. Remember that. Repeat it a few times. Waiting to invest because you think the market might go up or might go down is a fool's endeavor. Invest regularly over time no matter what the market is doing. Will there be a correction? Absolutely. Will it happen in a week, a month, 3 months, or 6 months? Nobody knows. You could buy on Tuesday and the market could crash on Wednesday or you could wait until February and the market could crash in March. Or it could be stable and not crash until 2022. There is simply no way to know.

3. There is no "right" number of stocks to own. Heck, we own hundreds or thousands via our mutual fund investments.

4. From what you've posted, it appears that you don't necessarily have any good organized approach to what you buy or when/if you sell. You've got things that are down as much as 75%. Think about the numbers there. That means it needs to go up 400% just for you to break even. Is that really likely? Probably not.

5. If this is a taxable account, tax loss harvesting is something to consider, as Like2Plan suggested. That means balancing selling your winners and losers so that the capital losses offset the capital gains, reducing or even eliminating your tax bill.

6. I'm curious what the overall performance looks like. Have you calculated that? You're down on 18 of 44 and up on the other 26 but what's the overall annual return on the portfolio? How does that compare to an S&P 500 fund or a Total Stock Market fund? Are you beating the market on a consistent basis year after year? If so, good for you. If not, perhaps investing in individual stocks isn't the best approach for you.

**JBinKC** · 09-05-2020, 01:16 PM

You should really dedicate 1 hour a week per stock in continued research on each individual holding so I think 44 stocks for just one individual to manage efficiently even if it is a full time job is a daunting task ( and this eliminates the time in the due diligence of researching potential new purchase candidates and also the time placing a ranking on your current holdings.

As for what you hold you have to determine what is your investing style and the potential sectors where you may command some expertise.

**Singuy** · 09-05-2020, 01:49 PM

Warren said you just need a few good stocks. You have way too many and I don't even know if you fully understand why you would buy at certain price or sell at certain price. If you don't have the actual information, how are you suppose to make these kind of decisions? Real risk from individual stock picking is not the lack of diversification, but it's being too diverse. Conventional wisdom tells you the more diversify your portfolio is, the less risk you are taking. This is completely false for individual stock picking. Knowing the ins and outs of one or two good companies almost makes you a clairvoyant. I felt extremely confident putting 6 figures into a company I have fully researched on. Currently it seems like you are just blindly following stock trends.

I used to own a bunch of stocks but eventually got rid of most of them except for a few core. It's near impossible to follow this little index fund you created. What is the return on it as a total?

**disneysteve** · 09-05-2020, 04:57 PM

Originally posted by Singuy View Post

Conventional wisdom tells you the more diversify your portfolio is, the less risk you are taking. This is completely false for individual stock picking.

I meant to say in my reply that you've basically created your own mutual fund with this many stocks, but that isn't necessarily a good thing. Investing in a diversified index fund that owns hundreds of stocks is fine. Trying to replicate that on your own is not.

**kork13** · 09-05-2020, 05:02 PM

Agreed with the others.... It appears that you bought many of these stocks without a plan, on a whim with minimal research or planning for why you own it or under what circumstances you'll buy or sell.

I'd recommend that you offload all but the few that you actually know well & understand the company, then with those few, you can build a proper plan (written down, with specifics of what conditions would lead you to buy or sell).

**jeffmem** · 09-05-2020, 08:15 PM

Hi all,

Well that certainly was not the response I was looking for. lol. I guess there needs to be more explanation here as I can see why some would think there was no plan.

I will lump together answers. It may look like a mess, but there are reasons for most of the purchases.

1. Most of these were researched or had a reason to buy. There were a few I bought on a whim, but most were researched. NNOX is a recent pick, a risky one, but nevertheless it has huge potential if it works, IF is a big question I know.

Others that were bought without a plan was FSLY and BIGC and GE, I think these industies will be good, but I am not sure how long. GE I bought several years ago when I thought they would increase, but they did not. MRO was bought when oil fell in 2014, but it kept falling. And I held it, until now...

2. Many of these were recommended by Motley Fool, but still researched. Some of their picks are down. AND I sold many of their pics in March, I will get to that in a minute. I am not sure I can reveal which are MF stocks because I pay for the service. Mostly they win, but they do pick some losers, it happens.

3. There were a few I bought at the beginning of the pandemic and they are doing well long and short term I think they will do fine. Kroger, TDOC, Clorox were all pandemic picks and they are doing well and I think will continue to do well.

4. In March this year I sold more than 50% of my holdings, took cash and am now reinvesting. It was stupid, I owned FB @40. MA @76 Match cheap, DIS, Corning, Tesla Zoom, pretty much anything that was making money, I had very good companies and I had gotten them cheap. So you ask yearly gains, I have no idea as they were long term holdings, some of which I had 5-8 years. Never intended to sell them, but the pandemic changed that. I earned 60%, over 50k in profits. And what was left were those that had minimal gains or were losing money, and many of these are still in my portfolio as you see. I was going to wait until the end of the year to reinvest, then things started picking up, a little bit of I got a tad bit of FOMO fever, but I got in earlier on most. Just after I sold everything I tried to pick stocks that would perform in the short term, and indeed some of them have, and I have earned money doing a bit of day/week trading the last few months. And some of these newer stocks are down a few %age because the market corrected near my buy prices and I have sense added to some of those positions.

5. I plan to cut the number of stocks I own to about 20-25. Everyone even on this forum has a completely different view on how many to own.

6. Yes, the account is taxable. My binge sell in March is going to cost me a bundle. And thus one of the reasons I am highly considered to cut the fat from my portfolio, either way I am going to need to pay, either though stock loss or through tax and it could end up being both if I end up selling these stocks next year or after. I am not familar with tax loss harvesting, I had asked my accountant if I could defer the earnings, which of course is no. But it seems what I just said is exactely what tax loss harvesting is. So that means before December I need to trash some of these big losers and take the money to put it somewhere else.

7. After this last correction, from Friday last week, I am up 2% on my portfolio now. It was around 6-7% but I sold Apple, Tesla, and nvida.

8. Warren buffet has quite a large portfolio, I think at least 20 the last time I checked. But yes, I think I have too many at this point in time.

I think to take advantage of the tax loss harvesting that I should probably dump SWIR and MRO, maybe even Cisco which was just bought. GE..... The loss is too great, the amount of loss on that is what I will be paying in capital gains tax this year, which is about 6k. No way I am selling that, it is just going to have to wait for years to come when they finally come back.

**Petunia 100** · 09-05-2020, 10:44 PM

Your plan should include when to sell.

Originally posted by jeffmem View Post

I think to take advantage of the tax loss harvesting that I should probably dump SWIR and MRO, maybe even Cisco which was just bought. GE..... The loss is too great, the amount of loss on that is what I will be paying in capital gains tax this year, which is about 6k. No way I am selling that, it is just going to have to wait for years to come when they finally come back.

So what you are saying is you will accept no or low return for years to come so that you don't sell at a loss. But, that strategy does not avoid loss at all. How much has the overall market gone up while you were holding GE, and how much will it continue to go up while you hang on waiting to "break even"?

If you owned no securities at all, but instead had the value of this portfolio sitting in cash, how would you invest it?

**LivingAlmostLarge** · 09-05-2020, 11:53 PM

easier to see cost basis and current value You should reformat and post that way

**jeffmem** · 09-06-2020, 03:24 AM

Originally posted by LivingAlmostLarge View Post

easier to see cost basis and current value You should reformat and post that way

These two are already there. Purchase price is cost basis and Last is current price. Or you want actual dollar figures?

Petunia 100

So what you are saying is you will accept no or low return for years to come so that you don't sell at a loss. But, that strategy does not avoid loss at all. How much has the overall market gone up while you were holding GE, and how much will it continue to go up while you hang on waiting to "break even"?

If you owned no securities at all, but instead had the value of this portfolio sitting in cash, how would you invest it?

Yes, I know I should have a plan when to sell, but most companies I hold for years. I held SLV for 10 years because I had bought too high. I finally sold it last week, and for a profit, which was more than I could have gotten from any bank. But I got my money back with interest. Yes, the rest of the market went up, but I was not willing to lose more than half the value of the stock. Every buy is a risk, a calculated risk, but nevertheless a risk, and 10 years ago I had a much more risky portfolio than I do now because I learned more. Yes, some mistakes still happened. I have over 10k invested in GE. With a 7+K unrealized loss. I don't think it is a good strategy to sell a company like GE at a huge loss like this and take the remaining 3k to put it in something else unless I am sure that 3k can return the 7k+ in a relatively short time. Now with this last few months crazy market, I might have won, but no one knew what the market would do during the last 2-3 months, nor does anyone know what the market is going to do the next three months. GE could make a comeback, I have no idea yet. MRO and SWIR probably are failures for the forseeable future. Oil has remained low and unless there is a war, it may not rise for a long time. SWIR did not get their stuff together. SWIR is a MF pick. It was a good pick when the picked it, it rocked to $50 a share before falling on its butt. MF generally does not advise to sell stocks so often, they leave the losers because the winners will out pace the winners 10 fold. And indeed that did happen before I sold all my long term holds in March.

As for how I would invest if I had the value of this portfolio, I would probably invest in many of the companies I sold in March, but with how fast some of these companies rose it is scary to think how much they could fall and never rise again. TSLA, SHOP, NVDA, they rose fast, but unsure of the future. I am not really sure how I would invest it to be honest.

**Jluke** · 09-06-2020, 05:31 AM

If it is a taxable account you can always tax loss harvest. -3k on your taxes and offset winners if you sell any. Otherwise can carryover losses greater than 3k to the next year.

If not taxable then maybe let the losers ride.

**Singuy** · 09-06-2020, 05:42 AM

Okay I think you need a reset and change your investment strategy asap. Sounds like you panic sold some companies during the Covid drop and FOMO bought some stocks during the recovery.

Have you ever heard a conference call? Why would GE recover and not go down more? Do you know why it's down so much? Why did you think it was a good value when you first invested according to company guidance? Your answers shouldn't be "because it dropped so much" or "I don't want to sell at a loss" as those answers have nothing to do with the company but everything to do with your own feelings.

Now do this mental exercise with ever stock you have. And if you think it's too overwhelming to listen to 44 conference calls and look at 44 balance sheets then you have too many stocks.

**disneysteve** · 09-06-2020, 06:15 AM

Originally posted by jeffmem View Post

Hi all,

GE I bought several years ago when I thought they would increase, but they did not.

So sell it.

MRO was bought when oil fell in 2014, but it kept falling.

So sell it.

I had very good companies and I had gotten them cheap... And what was left were those that had minimal gains or were losing money, and many of these are still in my portfolio

It sounds like you've sold your winners and continued to hold your losers. That's a very common investing mistake. I can almost guarantee that you would have a lot more money right now had you done just the opposite: sold stocks that were doing poorly and continued to hold the ones that were doing well.

So you ask yearly gains, I have no idea

You have no idea what the annual return of your portfolio is? If that's the case, how do you know if you're doing well? You need to know your return so that you can compare it to some benchmark.

Just after I sold everything I tried to pick stocks that would perform in the short term

Stocks are not short term investments.

Yes, the account is taxable. My binge sell in March is going to cost me a bundle. And thus one of the reasons I am highly considered to cut the fat from my portfolio, either way I am going to need to pay, either though stock loss or through tax and it could end up being both if I end up selling these stocks next year or after. I am not familar with tax loss harvesting, I had asked my accountant if I could defer the earnings, which of course is no. But it seems what I just said is exactely what tax loss harvesting is. So that means before December I need to trash some of these big losers and take the money to put it somewhere else.

Exactly. Sell the losers. The losses can help offset the gains.

GE..... The loss is too great, the amount of loss on that is what I will be paying in capital gains tax this year, which is about 6k. No way I am selling that, it is just going to have to wait for years to come when they finally come back.

This makes absolutely no sense and is exactly why so many investors under-perform the market. They're afraid to admit their mistakes and take their losses. You made a bet. You were wrong. Move on.

Symbol	Qty	Last	Purchase price	Gain (%)	comments
AAPL	1	120.96	103.17	17.24%	sold most on fall, but would like to buy back
AMD	10	82.01	79.04	3.76%	want to buy more waiting for better price.
AMZN	2	3,294.62	1,368.95	140.67%
APPN	75	58.47	47.69	22.60%
APT	100	12.66	2.37	434.74%	money maker, but need to wait 5-10 yr cycle
ASML	9	367.42	377.34	-2.63%
BA	13	171.05	186.22	-8.15%	holding
BIGC	14	106.98	121.20	-11.73%	bought too high, it was IPO recently
CLX	10	212.52	170.46	24.68%
CRM	5	254.7	215.77	18.04%	recent spur of the moment purchase
CRWD	13	125.19	113.97	9.85%
CSCO	140	40.82	46.04	-11.33%	stupid purchase
CWBHF	275	3.17	8.47	-62.51%	chance purchase, seems need to wait.
DOCU	1	216.26	209.06	3.44%	sold most on fall
FLO	150	24.05	18.46	30.29%	long term hold, good dividend
FSLY	10	80.92	98.29	-17.67%	I don't know what to think
FVRR	140	111.28	92.02	20.93%	Plan to add more
GE	500	6.42	20.88	-69.26%	Ouch, kept buying, kept falling
GLD	31	181.64	188.93	-3.86%
GOLD	50	29.05	30.00	-3.17%
IBIO	1,000	1.93	5.07	-61.97%	stupid purchase, thought they would get gov't funding
IDXX	20	370.66	223.84	65.59%
JNJ	30	148.59	130.88	13.53%
KR	80	35.47	30.39	16.74%
LMT	3	385.02	376.63	2.23%
MRO	200	4.93	19.35	-74.52%	Long term hold because oil went way down
NFLX	1	516.05	497.29	3.77%	Had 5 sold 4
NNOX	50	36.4	39.50	-7.85%	chance purchase, wait and see.
NVDA	1	504.9	458.28	10.17%	sold most on fall
NVTA	150	32.12	19.97	60.81%
PYPL	70	191.84	108.78	76.36%
QRVO	9	118.89	125.22	-5.06%	Will buy more
SHOP	6	973.02	1,031.77	-5.69%	If it goes under 900, I will probably add
SPCE	140	15.92	27.32	-41.74%	don't know what to think at this point. Sell?
SWIR	350	11.74	18.17	-35.41%	Ouch… bad… really bad.. Considering to just cut my losses
TDOC	10	198.29	130.00	52.53%
TSLA	1	418.32	304.40	37.42%	Planning on buying back, but I want a lower price.
VEEV	10	269.59	264.98	1.74%	Planning to buy more when price is lower.
WEX	43	159.46	166.05	-3.97%
WMT	5	142.83	144.66	-1.27%
WORK	80	29.07	26.59	9.35%
ZNGA	400	8.75	6.13	42.77%

Need suggestions on consolidating stocks