If 20% is a sharp decline, maybe you should consider something less volitile than equities.
Yes it is normal. Trivial? well that's a judgement, but I'd say when you're up 50%in TTM instead of up 70%, that's no big deal.
I agree retracing back 4 or 5 years does carve a big chunk out, but that isn't what is happening.
What I held has retraced back a few months to a year. Back to early pandemic levels at worst so far. I de-risked last fall so this is great for me and I have decades of time to wait
I can't speak for sags, of course, but I never short the market. I have, however, built a substantial cash position over the past year. That hasn't been from selling, just kept accumulating dry powder because the markets were so frothy.
I think lots of people have dry powder
It takes a specific type of person to not respond defensively but the most profitable approach is to buy and hold a broad index without flinching during rough patches, like now.
I think it's due to our very poor financial literacy, realistically risk tolerance is a more advanced topic.
www.getsmarteraboutmoney.ca
Shorting isn't gambling, it's just risky.
I get no enjoyment from casinos or lotteries
IMO ... it's more than you think. AFAICT - the key issue limiting the number who are willing to stay the course is that most don't follow the market beyond a few talking heads and/or reacting to news snippets with no context like "markets down 20%" with no mention that there's years of growth before that.
if you own a broad based US index you own a lot of this type of stock. Apple,Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon and a few other Mega Techs make up % of the S&P 500 index. Energy makes up about 4% of that index so you missing out on the bull market in oil stocks. Have been focused on energy, materials, insurance and health and I am up 1% ytd. It would have been higher if 25% of my holdings weren't in VTI. I have sold my VTI and will be focused on sectors until the fed is close to its tightening cycle. By then there will be a lot of great opportunities. I can see bonds being a great investment in a year from now.
My wife, whose investment approach was GICs and indexing decided to start a fun portfolio at Questrade this year. She bought TSM near peak and bought LSPD around $26 in March to watch it run up to $42 and come back down to $21. The amount invested is infinitesimally small and she is prepared to lose the whole works. I think people like to test themselves at times. She has reconfirmed indexing is best for her but will still have some fun money. I think it was important as she is now prepared to keep DIY and realized that giving a MER to a fund manager is a waste of money when she can purchase the likes of VGRO. A portion of that MER now goes towards speculative plays. More importantly, when I pass she will be able to handle converting my portfolio over to an index products as planned. I hope to handle most the bulk of that work during RRSP wind down.
It's a matter of "when" and not "if".
... even it is, why get into it or make things complicated for yourself? Aren't you in the "decumulation" stage at this point (ie. do you need the $).? Or just that you're alarmed from reading the prior 2 posts gabbing on Fortis?
