I have a connundrum. I am perplexed at what style of trader I should be. Although I enjoy the thrill of the daily chase in the markets and individual stocks, I am not sure my personality can handle the ups and downs, anxiety and panic, and momentary thrills cut short by the sudden gap downs in stocks I was certain would be winners (ie. RGEN).
Too Much Noise!
I have been listening to too much noise. "I have an awesome mutual fund, check it out." "My ETF investments weathered through 2009." "My grandfather made his fortune in penny stocks." "Diversify, don't put your eggs in one basket." What does all of this mean? Do I diversify and invest in everything?
Then I'll just order one couch potatoe portfolio to go please, with a side of gold bars and a barrel of crude!
I have some money. I want to invest it. It is currently burning a hole in my trading account. I bought some stuff. The stuff hasn't moved. I made some profits on a couple of small tech plays and one mining venture. Then I bought some ING mutual funds, some index ETF's and although I have green on my screen, there are small bits of red that bug me and plague my mind with fear of failure.
I want to automate my investing to a comfortable level of regular contributions to some basic things like mutual funds and broad market ETF's. But I also want to enjoy the ride of trends, the thrill of the venture pops and the occasional volatile day trade. Am I crazy?
Is this bipolar psychotic trading?
What I've decided to do is hedge my bets. I picked some funds with 4 to 5 star performance over three years to focus one half of my investments on a regular basis with a 33% bonds, 33% Canadian Equities, and 33% Other (mostly US Equities) split. Of the remaining 50% of my savings, I decided to allow the market and a couple of my favorite gurus drive these decisions. So half of my investing is a no-brainer process that I will try to rebalance semi annually and use cost averaging to help weather any falls in the market.
The other 50% is the fun part. I can't seem to decide if the penny stock world, the sector trend investing, or value investing is the way for me to go. I have a moderate to high risk tolerance for this 50% that I would otherwise probably spend on stupidities anyhow. So I am going to create a program for myself. Not a computer program, but a set of regular activities, analysis and predefined reactions to execute my plan.
Pick Some Pros to Do The Work
I've nailed my Gurus to 3: Tony Turner, whose club I have decided to join; Ron of the Doityourselfinvesting.com duo, whose newsletter/club I recently subscribed to; and The Motley Fools who are just plain cool and whom I want to invite to dinner!
I'd love to get in on all those penny stock millions, but honestly, I don't have time to sit and watch my screen on intraday charts, sweat bullets or cry in my soup. Kudos to those warriors with the constitution for that, but I will pass.
So, feeling confident with my decisions and plan, ING will run my RRSP and TFSA with their Streetwise Funds; I have some small bits of this and that over at TD in the e-series funds for my youngest daughter's college days which are still a far way off; and as for the rest--it's time to get cracking and figure out what to buy and when.
The Fun Part: shopping!
Too Much Noise!
I have been listening to too much noise. "I have an awesome mutual fund, check it out." "My ETF investments weathered through 2009." "My grandfather made his fortune in penny stocks." "Diversify, don't put your eggs in one basket." What does all of this mean? Do I diversify and invest in everything?
Then I'll just order one couch potatoe portfolio to go please, with a side of gold bars and a barrel of crude!
I have some money. I want to invest it. It is currently burning a hole in my trading account. I bought some stuff. The stuff hasn't moved. I made some profits on a couple of small tech plays and one mining venture. Then I bought some ING mutual funds, some index ETF's and although I have green on my screen, there are small bits of red that bug me and plague my mind with fear of failure.
I want to automate my investing to a comfortable level of regular contributions to some basic things like mutual funds and broad market ETF's. But I also want to enjoy the ride of trends, the thrill of the venture pops and the occasional volatile day trade. Am I crazy?
Is this bipolar psychotic trading?
What I've decided to do is hedge my bets. I picked some funds with 4 to 5 star performance over three years to focus one half of my investments on a regular basis with a 33% bonds, 33% Canadian Equities, and 33% Other (mostly US Equities) split. Of the remaining 50% of my savings, I decided to allow the market and a couple of my favorite gurus drive these decisions. So half of my investing is a no-brainer process that I will try to rebalance semi annually and use cost averaging to help weather any falls in the market.
The other 50% is the fun part. I can't seem to decide if the penny stock world, the sector trend investing, or value investing is the way for me to go. I have a moderate to high risk tolerance for this 50% that I would otherwise probably spend on stupidities anyhow. So I am going to create a program for myself. Not a computer program, but a set of regular activities, analysis and predefined reactions to execute my plan.
Pick Some Pros to Do The Work
I've nailed my Gurus to 3: Tony Turner, whose club I have decided to join; Ron of the Doityourselfinvesting.com duo, whose newsletter/club I recently subscribed to; and The Motley Fools who are just plain cool and whom I want to invite to dinner!
I'd love to get in on all those penny stock millions, but honestly, I don't have time to sit and watch my screen on intraday charts, sweat bullets or cry in my soup. Kudos to those warriors with the constitution for that, but I will pass.
So, feeling confident with my decisions and plan, ING will run my RRSP and TFSA with their Streetwise Funds; I have some small bits of this and that over at TD in the e-series funds for my youngest daughter's college days which are still a far way off; and as for the rest--it's time to get cracking and figure out what to buy and when.
The Fun Part: shopping!
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