How often do you look at your total portfolio?

[JeremyALD]

Hey all

I've started to think I look at my share balances too often and this encourages rather reactive decisions. Whilst it's important to keep an eye on shares and SP I'm curious as to how often you look at your overall share portfolio (value and performance) and how often you look at individual SP.

Personally I have an app on my phone and I find myself looking at the SP of my stocks at least 3 times a day. I don't think it's particularly helpful as I'm not a day trader.

My question is how often do you review the SP of your stocks and the balance of your portfolio.

[winner69]

Jeremy me old mate - have you ever read Taleb's book Fooled by Randomness

I always thought this story was pretty good. It's all about a dentists portfolio and why its much more pleasurable not to look at your portfolio too often.

The dentists portfolio was like yours - giving a 15% return with a 10% volatility (or uncertainty) per annum translates into a 93% probability of success in any given year. But seen at a narrow time scale, this translates into a mere 50.02% probability of success over any given second. Over the very narrow time increment, the observation will reveal close to nothing. Yet the dentist’s heart will not tell him that… At the end of every day the dentist will be emotionally drained. A minute-by-minute examination of his performance means that each day (assuming eight hours per day) he will have 241 pleasurable minutes against 239 unpleasurable ones. These amount to 60,688 and 60,271, respectively, per year.

Now realize that if the unpleasurable minute is worse in reverse pleasure than the pleasurable minute is in pleasure terms, then the dentist incurs a large deficit when examining his performance at a high frequency. Consider the situation where the dentist examines his portfolio only upon receiving the monthly account from the brokerage house. As 67% of his months will be positive, he incurs only four pangs of pain per annum and eight uplifting experiences. This is the same dentist following the same strategy. Now consider the dentist looking at his performance only every year. Over the next 20 years that he is expected to live, he will experience 19 pleasant surprises for every unpleasant

Get the gist?

The moral of the story is that the narrower the time frame at which you're monitoring your chosen instrument, the greater the degree of randomness in the price fluctuations you're witnessing, which means you will invariably receive negative feedback much more often and are far more likely to change your strategy or exit trades that may have been sound all along.

[blackcap]

Jeremy me old mate - have you ever read Taleb's book Fooled by Randomness

I always thought this story was pretty good. It's all about a dentists portfolio and why its much more pleasurable not to look at your portfolio too often.

The dentists portfolio was like yours - giving a 15% return with a 10% volatility (or uncertainty) per annum translates into a 93% probability of success in any given year. But seen at a narrow time scale, this translates into a mere 50.02% probability of success over any given second. Over the very narrow time increment, the observation will reveal close to nothing. Yet the dentist’s heart will not tell him that… At the end of every day the dentist will be emotionally drained. A minute-by-minute examination of his performance means that each day (assuming eight hours per day) he will have 241 pleasurable minutes against 239 unpleasurable ones. These amount to 60,688 and 60,271, respectively, per year.

Now realize that if the unpleasurable minute is worse in reverse pleasure than the pleasurable minute is in pleasure terms, then the dentist incurs a large deficit when examining his performance at a high frequency. Consider the situation where the dentist examines his portfolio only upon receiving the monthly account from the brokerage house. As 67% of his months will be positive, he incurs only four pangs of pain per annum and eight uplifting experiences. This is the same dentist following the same strategy. Now consider the dentist looking at his performance only every year. Over the next 20 years that he is expected to live, he will experience 19 pleasant surprises for every unpleasant

Get the gist?

The moral of the story is that the narrower the time frame at which you're monitoring your chosen instrument, the greater the degree of randomness in the price fluctuations you're witnessing, which means you will invariably receive negative feedback much more often and are far more likely to change your strategy or exit trades that may have been sound all along.

Great story and good book that by Taleb, he makes a lot of sense. His Black Swan book is also very good reading. shows how even the experts with all the PhD's in the world can get is so wrong. Psychology is so fascinating when embedded in markets and market behaviour.

Jeremy... if you are a long term buy hold type character... no need to look at your portfolio any more than twice a year. Although in this day and age that is just about impossible with all the apps and that kind of thing. I now even get a monthly update from my Kiwisaver (useless as that is) when previously I got it annually. Its the time we live in when ppl want everything now unfortunately.

[JeremyALD]

Great story and good book that by Taleb, he makes a lot of sense. His Black Swan book is also very good reading. shows how even the experts with all the PhD's in the world can get is so wrong. Psychology is so fascinating when embedded in markets and market behaviour.

Jeremy... if you are a long term buy hold type character... no need to look at your portfolio any more than twice a year. Although in this day and age that is just about impossible with all the apps and that kind of thing. I now even get a monthly update from my Kiwisaver (useless as that is) when previously I got it annually. Its the time we live in when ppl want everything now unfortunately.

Thanks guys and Winner! Great advice. I think I want to be more of a long term holder. I've been buying and selling a fair amount the past six months and although I'm up about 15% I've also sold a few really good stocks far too soon that I wouldn't of sold if I was looking at share price less often, AIR and ATM spring to mind. I also sold down on THL after a drop and now that's back up at 3.90. still have quite a few though. think I'll try and view less often, although I naturally want to check all the time! My problem is I'm probably stuck between a regular trader and long term holder lol.

[percy]

I try to do my research before I buy.
I then wait for the company's next result,before deciding whether to sell,hold or buy more.
I prefer adding to shares I already own.
If I am unsure about anything about the business,I go back and read the company's previous announcements.If I am still unsure, I will often ring the company.
I also ring the company if I am happy with the result.Rang Todd Hunter at Turners today,to tell him I was really pleased with what they are achieving..Think he was rather surprised to be speaking to someone who did not have any questions to ask.!!!!!
Made the conversation more relaxed,and interesting for me.!!!

[winner69]

Great story and good book that by Taleb, he makes a lot of sense. His Black Swan book is also very good reading. shows how even the experts with all the PhD's in the world can get is so wrong. Psychology is so fascinating when embedded in markets and market behaviour.

Jeremy... if you are a long term buy hold type character... no need to look at your portfolio any more than twice a year. Although in this day and age that is just about impossible with all the apps and that kind of thing. I now even get a monthly update from my Kiwisaver (useless as that is) when previously I got it annually. Its the time we live in when ppl want everything now unfortunately.

Taleb's Antifragile is pretty good ....but you need to be dedicated to get to the end

[BeeBop]

I prepare a full net worth report every quarter. Update all account balances, devalue our cars, update cold hard emergency cash balances, shares, property values and so on etc (ROI, ROCE and annualised returns).

Really worthwhile exercise as keeps my other half well informed and me more comfortable with our complex net of finances should I meet my maker sooner than ever planned.

Great also, to track the growth over the timeframe...have done this in a variety of forms since 2000...although increments were super small at the start. A few years ago we considered paying for financial advice until I realised that we were doing just fine the way things are.

HOWEVER, I update my shares through my numbers app (auto update in price) several times a day when the markets are going well. Turn it all off and ignore when I wake up to bad market news!

[FIsaver]

Hey all

I've started to think I look at my share balances too often and this encourages rather reactive decisions. Whilst it's important to keep an eye on shares and SP I'm curious as to how often you look at your overall share portfolio (value and performance) and how often you look at individual SP.

Personally I have an app on my phone and I find myself looking at the SP of my stocks at least 3 times a day. I don't think it's particularly helpful as I'm not a day trader.

My question is how often do you review the SP of your stocks and the balance of your portfolio.

To be honest I look every day. But I've yet to react to the result. More than anything it's just part of reading the business / market news and then seeing how the index funds have reacted to that news.

Probably a bad thing to do but i'm a long term holder and still early on. I would see a crash as a good thing at the moment, and find some $ to buy more more more.

[alistar_mid]

I prepare a full net worth report every quarter. Update all account balances, devalue our cars, update cold hard emergency cash balances, shares, property values and so on etc (ROI, ROCE and annualised returns).

Really worthwhile exercise as keeps my other half well informed and me more comfortable with our complex net of finances should I meet my maker sooner than ever planned.

Great also, to track the growth over the timeframe...have done this in a variety of forms since 2000...although increments were super small at the start. A few years ago we considered paying for financial advice until I realised that we were doing just fine the way things are.

HOWEVER, I update my shares through my numbers app (auto update in price) several times a day when the markets are going well. Turn it all off and ignore when I wake up to bad market news!

same I have a net worth spreadsheet I update monthly with pretty much everything on it.

However I check everything pretty much daily - shares, managed funds, harmoney.
Part of the reason is because I'm in a boring as F job that I derive minimal satisfaction from so some of my self worth (that I should be getting from my job) is tied up in watching my investments go up.

When I was allocating capital to harmoney I would have it open all day at work lol, also now I have a few speculative ASX penny stocks that i watch through out the day.

I know, I know, most of my stuff is 5 year + time frames so I should only be checking once a week, and checking a few times a day doesn't do jack. I just need to find something to occupy my time and energy during the day lol so I don't compulsively check everything.

[winner69]

same I have a net worth spreadsheet I update monthly with pretty much everything on it.

However I check everything pretty much daily - shares, managed funds, harmoney.
Part of the reason is because I'm in a boring as F job that I derive minimal satisfaction from so some of my self worth (that I should be getting from my job) is tied up in watching my investments go up.

When I was allocating capital to harmoney I would have it open all day at work lol, also now I have a few speculative ASX penny stocks that i watch through out the day.

I know, I know, most of my stuff is 5 year + time frames so I should only be checking once a week, and checking a few times a day doesn't do jack. I just need to find something to occupy my time and energy during the day lol so I don't compulsively check everything.

At least you get some satisfaction from your job - even if it's minimal

Hope you not working for the government or anything

But at least you getting paid for being your own Investment Manager