Looking Back

Dec 27, 2006 by Adam C. Powell, Ph.D.

A lot of people advocate “buy and hold” investing. These days, the advice seems to be becoming more popular, as there has been a recent rally. If the market had soured over the course of the year, as happened in 2001, I doubt we would hear as many people recommending “buy and hold” investing. Nonetheless, I would have probably been a lot better off if I had not sold any of the things that I sold in the past year. Every single stock that I sold in the past year is worth more now than when I sold it.

Date   Ticker Price Then Price Now Difference %
11/6   ILF    $157.36    $169.50   $12.14     7.71
10/31  IYY    $66.51     $69.21    $2.70      4.06
9/21   TF     $10.29     $11.63    $1.34      13.1
5/5    EPP    $116.12    $124.60   $8.48      7.30
5/5    IVV    $132.80    $142.73   $9.93      7.48
5/5    IYY    $64.82     $69.21    $4.39      6.77
2/14   FXI    $71.88     $111.97   $40.09     55.8
12/27  EWT    $12.49     $14.52    $2.03      16.3
12/21  EWY    $43.95     $49.65    $5.70      13.0
12/21  IYT    $75.00     $82.38    $7.38      9.84
10/6   GLD    $47.01     $62.22    $15.21     32.4

While I won’t talk about how many shares of each stock that I sold, I am happy to share what I sold and when I sold it.As you can see, I would have had a whopping 55.77% more money had I held my shares of FXI rather than sold then on Valentine’s Day. One should note, however, that I did reinvest the proceeds from my sales. Thus, although I “lost” the potential earnings from holding in one thing, in many cases, I made money by holding something else.

So, my financial New Year’s Resolution is to do a better job of timing my sales so that I leave less money on the table. What did you sell last year, and when did you sell it? Did you sell too early or too late?