Gyroscopic Investing

At least for me, with some GB variation/ Emerging Market (far and away the best) and silver in the mix.

Today is one of those good days where all are up!

Why the PP makes so much sense being diversified, vs. being in one of the categories below (like I used to be)

--Stock bears cannot believe the market continues to rise!
--Stock bulls, the fed will never let the market drop ever again!
--Bond bears are still befuddled why things haven't crashed!
--Bond bulls, plenty of upside compared to the rest of the world!
--Gold bears, it's a barbarous relic, dammit. Why does it continue to hang on?
--Gold bulls, why isn't it $10,000 with all the crap going on in the world?
--Cash bears, damn, where is that hyperinflation everyone has been talking about for a decade?
--Cash bulls, where else is the world going to put their money?

PP, thank you for a little piece of the action on each of these!

Great post. Well said.

First time my portfolio returns have exceeded my yearly income and it's June? I keep wanting to sell a portion to cash but I'm flush with that too. It feels easier to make money in the market than in Vegas and that's scary...

buddtholomew wrote:First time my portfolio returns have exceeded my yearly income and it's June? I keep wanting to sell a portion to cash but I'm flush with that too. It feels easier to make money in the market than in Vegas and that's scary...

Hmm, that could be a good trigger point. When a year happens that my PP gains equal my salary, look to retire! Hopefully those two lines don't cross when I'm 120.

We have been traveling for a while. I had not checked on our portfolio for at least a month. I was surprised to see how well it is doing. I guess I'll let the wife buy that tee shirt she wanted in the tourist shop.

Yup, great post. Lovin' the returns so far this year!

Drip Drip Drip, what a difference a month makes. Aargh.

Yes, not the first time all assets go up and then down together with gold and bonds falling the most. I continue to add to losing asset/s as I want the protection that any one of them can deliver. So far, only stocks seem to hold up in all conditions

Same or worse in Europe. In mid-June my Euro PP was +2.2% since 1 Jan, now -0.6%. Not helped by the Euro's recent strength relative to the dollar (+3% in the last month). I suppose I should be buying, but I topped up gold and bonds back in June of course. The fortunes of war.

I'm ok to purchase gold and bonds when they decline, it's when they rise but not enough to require a rebalance and then fall that gives me anguish.

Again, last thing I want to do is sell to take a profit right when stocks start their decline.

What is the return of the portfolio for the year so far?

Don wrote:What is the return of the portfolio for the year so far?

From peaktotrough.com ...

YTD return is 4.69%

On 6/6 it was up 7.18% so the drawdown has been about 2.5%.

That's assuming one started the year completely balanced at 4X25.

Curious that gold and bonds have declined while stocks are mostly flat. It might have something to do with the increased value of the dollar.

This is a blip rather than a long term trend though. Just hold on to your hats and wait. I get the feeling that something interesting is going to happen over the next few months.

Sophie,

What interesting things occur to you?

This sounds like an entertaining topic.

We will probably get used to the North Korea situation.

Could the EU fray a bit more and increase the dollar value?

Thanks.

bedraggled wrote:Sophie,

What interesting things occur to you?

I'm not Sophie but a good old-fashioned trade war would be a nice test for the PP at the moment.

Also, and I realize that this is not an original thought, I believe that the PP and almost every other portfolio out there is likely to have lower than historical returns over the next several years. Stocks are richly valued and investors tend not to ignore low-hanging fruit. The result is that other assets are richly valued as well.

Anything that beats inflation, even if it's only by a bit, will be fine by me.

PP EU down 2,5% (since June 15 2017)

Canadian PP is down about 0.4% on the year. Lost about 3% YTD gains over the past couple weeks.

Started my annual rebalance. Sold stocks (FSTVX) from 28.7% of portfolio back to 25.0%. Seemed like a good day to do it.

Now I have to hold my nose and buy LTTs. I hope the yuck factor will turn out to be a good sign

...and back near highs for the year, at least in my allocation.

2 weeks after complaining.

I should just not check!

The question is whether the cycle will repeat itself once more and what, if anything, do you intend to do about it?

Step 1. Equities, Gold, Treasuries up
Step 2. Equities up, Gold and Treasuries down

The only solution I can come up with is to sell a portion to cash and then reinvest at a lower price. Not sure I can time it well enough for it to matter even if I am right.

It looks like step 2 is a no go as of today

Same shit...feel like a sucker again!

Always expected on jobs report day. It seems we are in amazing economic shape. Part of me wants to believe it, part of me thinks it is all an illusion.

Be very, very quiet... new high for the PP and gold over $1300. What the heck is going on???

No complaints.

What happened?
Went out to buy a new car, came back and now I can't pay for it