Sunday, March 27, 2011

Creating a Combined Portfolio


Here is a retrospective of posts from a few weeks back (Re-travelling a Random Walk into a safe investing). A concept materialized: Perhaps one of the explanations the hit-or-miss option exerted itself so agreeably was due to a genuinely multifarious registry?  Therefore, we should make an investigation.
Here you will see a chart that provides a summary of the distribution of stocks industry by industry in a portfolio of stocks that have been selected at random.

Count Sectors
5 Consumer Goods
3 Oil and Gas 
2 Agro businesses
2 Metals & Mining
2 Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology
2 Tobacco
1 (This is multiplied by fourteen)  (Everything in its entirety including – Systems Software, Conveyance, and so forth).
You will easily observe that no industry accounts for more than 17% of the portfolio.  The sample includes most of the companies split into groups for clothing, cars, electronics, home improvement and mega departmental stores even for retails.
Therefore, what is the impact of this varied distribution of asset allocations?
Tend to have stocks in your portfolio that tend to counterbalance each other, my experience says.  When you see an increase in the value of energy stock, you can observe that transportation stocks will lose value. For example.  Although externally this will appear bothersome, the reality is that what's transpiring may be a specific measure of unintended circumventing
 (Or deliberate - if this were the manner in which I had expected things to go).  There is less risk overall — but this means that while you won't be in danger of losing much, you also won't make as much as you might with other less secure investments.   One of the consequences of using this method of risk reduction can be a slower market track by one's portfolio.  Of course, this increases its effectiveness if you build your portfolio to closely follow the broader market.
Naturally, this suggests that once the commodities exchange descends, then you're, in all probability, destined to undertake an exact circumstance.
However, investment in a growing economy would definitely result in a growth in one' portfolio.
Like with so many modern-day situations, our grandmothers' advice still rings true - "don't put all your eggs in one basket. “Diversifying your portfolio solidifies your long term gains.  Our country has been through some very difficult times financially — if you believe in the power of positive thinking as I do, investing is a perfect way to show your faith that one day our economy will be not only recovering, but thriving!
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All about how to invest in real estate

Are you considering investing in real estate? For a long time real estate was thought by many to be a sure winner – that is until the collapse and ongoing problems in the housing market. But if you had been paying attention, you probably would have known that investing in real estate is not a sure thing – and you might have been among those who foresaw the crash.

If you look back over time, you can quickly find other periods when prices for homes (or other classes of real estate) were inflated, and people lost money when they ended up selling (by choice, or otherwise). Of course, one thing different this time from many of the recent bubbles is that this was a national crisis, not localized as many of the problems typically are. This is part of what made the problem so severe, as many of the mortgage-based investments were constructed by creating bundles of mortgages from properties from diverse areas in order to reduce risk – the thinking being that bubbles tend to be restricted to specific localities, or at worst, regions. But this time, the problem was occurring almost everywhere in varying degrees, so the diversification ceased to work.

In spite of all of this, you still want to try your hand at this. After all, prices are down, so there must be opportunities. So how do you avoid a train wreck? First – just as you would do with other investments, do the research. And it doesn’t matter whether you are talking about commercial real estate or homes. In what kind of neighborhood is the property located? What are other similar properties selling for? What kind of condition is the property in? If it is a home, how well rated are the local schools? How does the cost per square foot compare with normal rates in the same general area? And so on.

But – here’s the rub. You could be looking at an area where there is a widespread bubble. So how do you deal with that? You have to look at some fundamentals. If it is a home, is it affordable for the average family that would be expected to live in this home? If not, then there is a possibility that the home is overpriced. Same thing for businesses – for example, if there is a glut of office space not too far away, then there may be an adjustment coming up. But, hey, if we had a perfect crystal ball … well, we don’t.

So at some point you have to use your judgment to determine whether your prospective purchase makes good business sense. Bottom line: if you are feeling overextended, then it might not be the best choice.

One other comment though – if the home you are looking at is for your own personal use, then you need to consider that, no matter where you live, you are going to have to pay something (unless you are living for free with friends or relatives). So then part of the equation is looking at whether you will come out ahead over time compared against your current expenses against what you might gain in equity over time. Again, if it doesn’t feel right – take a closer look.  But, sometimes it is better to lease than to buy – do the math and then decide.


One alternative for investors who want to get involved with real estate but are uncertain about how to go about this is to invest in a real estate investment trust or similar security. To be honest, my own experience with these over the years has been that some have done well, and some have not done so well. But you can start with smaller chunks of your money – thousands instead of hundreds of thousands. So you can limit your exposure to a level with which you are comfortable until you have a better feel for this. One more caution – real estate investments can be complex when it comes to taxes, so keep this in mind when you are comparing alternative places to invest your money.
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