Thanks for details, Clive!

I use a fixed stop loss set at 7% below the purchase (or start dates) price, no trailing adjustments. How did you come up with this particular number - 7%? Years ago I tried all sorts from attempting to better the entry/exit timing, trailing stops etc. but found that this simpler approach was just ...

OTOH there are also many purely or 90%+ domestic type companies, especially in the FIRE & health care services sectors, such as Bank of America & other 2B2F banks , Wellpoint Health Insurance, Utility company, Real Estate Investment Trusts owning half-vacant strip malls, US airlines , etc. ...

The stop loss style that I use (SL7 = start a position with two stops, a time stop set at 12 months after the purchase date and a stop loss at 7% below the purchase price (if the stop loss is hit then sit in cash until the time stop date)) is less prone to large gaps.  Rather than a single year lon...

Bonafede wrote:

craigr wrote: Simple beats complicated.

Well said CraigR. Thanks again to you and the other posters for continuing to humor and help poor souls like me .

-b

"So the last shall be first, and the first last..."

PP won't make you rich, but it'll help preserve and grow what you have.

I've been in your shoes at some not very distant point. And I'm not alone. I'm almost sure you will end up with a simpler allocation at the end of your mental journey. As I've mentioned earlier, my slice-and-dicing ended in a core TSM + some emerging markets value. As to Mebane Faber's approach etc...

And then as mentioned replacing the Cash portion perhaps with Mebane's Quant method? I think I've officially reached the point where even I think I'm trying to complicate the PP too much. Always good to learn though! Thanks! -b I've been in your shoes at some not very distant point. And I'm not alo...

Here's the link: http://www.mebanefaber.com/timing-model/
You'll see a download link to his paper “A Quantitative Approach To Tactical Asset Allocation”?.

You might find also interesting this post:
http://www.mebanefaber.com/2009/06/25/c ... g-systems/

In the broader context perhaps double-dip recession fears are making their way into the investors minds:
David Rosenberg: US 'Virtually Certain' to Fall Into A New Recession 

I second MediumTex's point: it's so good to be in PP!

There was a time in my "PP journey" when I thought about mixing PP and VP but eventually I came to a conclusion that HB's advice to treat VP as money one can afford to lose is the most sensible choice. The %% allocation between PP and VP IMHO doesn't have much sense - I'd better think abou...

Sell it. No rule of law = no respect for contracts = too much risk, especially to foreign capital. The fact that Russia has terrible demographics would seal the deal for me. I know this all firsthand. I saw the '98 Treasuries bubble bust and 4x currency devaluation in one day, the merchants were cl...

Confess everything! What country ETF? Everyone makes these mistakes in investing so you just learn and move on.    Oh boy... craigr is the one I can not hide anything from.  ::) RSX (Market Vectors Russia) . Heavy on energy stocks. The ETF itself is new, but I was blinded by a nice multiyear run of...

Wong and Otto, thanks for your insights, very thoughtful. I guess if negative emotions and time spent on mourning the investment losses were easily quantifiable I'd sell it all long time ago.  8) Right now I'm almost certain I will sell one portion soon and then it'll be easier to get rid of the sec...

SmallPotatoes wrote: What price can you put on piece of mind?

Sell it all and invest it in your PP. You'll eventually recoup your losses. You'll sleep better too.

Vote update:
Sell half - 2
Sell all - 1

Ideally, you should have a system that automatically indicates when it's time to get out. Think of the PP's rebalancing bands for instance. Once you decide on the bands you should act on them without second guessing. Same thing goes for buying, this way emotions will be out of the way. Right you ar...

MediumTex wrote: If your best friend asked you the same question, what would you tell him/her?

I would say "hold on to it", although mentally I really would like to get rid of it.

I agree with Clive, sell half if you are undecided.  Don't limit yourself to binary choices if you don't need to. OK, looks like we have 2 votes for partial sell. I seem to like this idea - in fact I have this ETF in 2 separate accounts so it's a no-brainer to sell the smaller of the two portions. ...

In case my use of the CR abbreviation is unclear... CR = Crawling Road.
I hope CraigR will approve.

I own a country-specific ETF that accounts for around 10% of my VP. I bought it in April 2008 - at that time I knew nothing about PP and was peacefully blinded by buy-and-hold paradigm. Yes, it was performance chasing as this ETF had been doing great for a few years when I bought it. I saw my positi...

Although i do realize that it's better to keep this forum PP-related. Yes, but remember the VP can be discussed too!!  ;D I have to admit I have a similar reaction as you to threads on the Bogleheads forum. Even though I still peruse it daily. And even though I have only one toe (well, actually 3+ ...

Just sharing my thoughts about CR forum. During the last several months I was mostly reading BH threads, including "the great HB PP thread" and then jumped into this forum as soon as Craig started it. It just dawned on me that nowadays I spend very little time on BH and put much more atten...

I'll try to be alittle more clearer  ;D. The asset starts with a weight of 25% then when it goes up to 35% you rebalance. If it goes down to 15% then also rebalance. My personal choice is up band of 30% or down band of 20%, but there is not a very meaningful difference between the two though. OK, s...

That is right, I was testing for extreme cases. I personally settled in rebalancing every time an asset increases/looses it weight by at least 5% of total PP. These translates to 30% and 15% bands. The 10% are less work and they work just as well. Interesting - so it means asymmetric bands: fluctua...

LNGTERMER wrote: Thanks foglifter, so in this case I am assuming you would still rebalance if the bands go off sync. How about a ticker for and I bond?

I'm not sure if I bonds have tickers... maybe you could just treat it as a MM fund - with a share price of $1.

:D I view the PRPFX/EDV 90/10 strategy and the ibonds in the PP cash portion to be the two best ideas I have come up with in the whole PP discussion. MediumTex, that is very interesting, are you saying instead of SHY for the cash portion we hold PRPFX/EDV 90/10? No, I believe PRPFX/EDV 90/10 was hi...