Anyone ever sell off their entire portfolio as a whole?

[k1xv]

It all depends. Is it in an account where there is no capital gains tax, such as an IRA? If not, if you sell everything, will the losses totally offset the gains? Are there brokerage commissions? How much?

I suppose if you sold it all off, you could put the proceeds into a short term savings account until you decide what to do with it. They are presently paying about 5 percent.

I have put a lot of my portfolio into electric utility companies. With all this emphasis on going electric, somebody is going to have to move all those electrons around.

 

[Dave Hess]

I have in the past and felt certain things I had were losing momentum.
I just bought VOO and slept better.

 

[John105]

I have in the past and felt certain things I had were losing momentum.
I just bought VOO and slept better.

We have a friend always giving free (bad) advice. He sold everything early, during the
Pandemic, and screamed chicken little every time there was a setback. I looked it up the day he sold, the S&P was 3534. It’s gone up 60% since. How would he, a person who had 10-15 years left to work at the time, justify all or nothing? And to do that to his wife’s retirement as well?

If a person did what you did and there’s a 30% downturn, it still is wise what you did. Seriously.

And again some of us old folks are of the generation where there hasn’t been a sustained downturn. So we may be biased. I started investing 1994.

 

[k1xv]

Most people, in making decisions about shopping for every day goods, look for bargains. They buy when prices are discounted.

But when it comes to investments, amateur investors always want to buy when prices are up, and then they want to sell when prices fall.

I tend to look for things that I believe are under priced. And sell when I think they are overpriced. Just sold Apple stock that I I bought a few months ago when I thought they were too low, and recently sold, even though its price continues to climb. Nobody ever went broke taking a profit. And if higher tariffs against Chinese made products go into effect, Apple shareholders won't be happy.

 

[barryh]

Anyone just sell every single position?

I did just that in 1993 when we were buying a house. Can't remember the exact figure but it would have been approx. £100K.

Impossible to do it these days without incurring a large amount of capital gains tax.

 

[KJSmith]

A little different situation, but yes.

About 6 months before I retired, I moved all my 401k investments into cash.
I also cut my contributions down to 6%.

Then about 3 months before retirement, I did an in-service transfer to an IRA with my new broker.
I cut all contributions just before the transfer.

All the money I had been contributing went to personal savings.

I left March 1st, So I also changed my W2 in December so they would take the least amount possible.

 

[Astro14]

I sell stock positions individually here and there, but let's say the whole thing goes up 3 percent in one day. Anyone just sell every single position? I bought a few of those electric vehicle stocks and probably 3 or 4 other positions that turned bad. I mean overall I'm up, but I think it wouldn't hurt to just start over with a clean slate and with better picks that you know would probably perform well

I can’t tell if you’re trying to time the market or reallocate and rebalance your portfolio.

The latter is part of investing. An ongoing effort to ensure the asset allocation is appropriate. Cull the unproductive. Reinvest the funds to align with objectives.

The former? Well, that’s a fool’s errand. Nobody does market timing well. They tend to sell low, buy high, panic, and then miss out on all the good days.