I own both. I'm about even with my cost on OKE and well under my cost on XOM. I bought for the dividend and honestly don't see the dividend being cut by either at this point. I added to the XOM just a couple of weeks ago. I'd add more, but I already have an order in for more MO and would prefer to add to that. BTW, both MO and XOM pay about the same yield.

the market has been on fire

S+P / NAS all-time highs

Dow back above 29k

wow

---------------------------------------

I, and my portfolio, are loving this current trend on Wall street.

How's everyone doing? People pulling back or putting in?

quote:

Originally posted by MikeGLI:
How's everyone doing? People pulling back or putting in?

I'm holding. I'm sitting pretty on what I bought only months ago. I do have XOM and XLE so since oil prices are going up, so are stock prices......I keep searching for any deals to buy, but nothing that looks attractive enough.

pretty much the same here -- I think we'll be sideways for a while as a few factors are sorted out by the market:

+ any new stimulus
+ new administration economic policy
+ continued drop in covid cases / effectiveness of vaccines
+ states re-opening economies

had a great 2020 though in the stock market

---------------------------

Holding, oil is doing well, hopefully airlines after that. I wish I put more than a “sure why not” into VSTO, as it’s more than tripled.

I just opened an account with Vanguard, going to make some picks today. Was thinking of airlines and manufacturers like Boeing. Other than that I don't know

Same as usual... Making steady contributions and holding Vanguard index funds and target date retirement funds. Boring, but simple and safe.

I am so glad that back in October, I discovered the ARK family of ETFs, which include ARKK, ARKG, ARKW and ARKF. They are actively managed ETFs, and have really outperformed the market.

Past performance is not indicative of future returns....

These are my purchases since 3/18/20. I go for yield and use modified dogs of the dow theory to find them

3/18/20 I bought Sysco SYY @ 27.05 now 75

3/19/20 Stockyards Bank SYBT 26.50 now 48.50

5/21/20 Altria group (phillip morris) MO 37.5 now 43.5 and 8% div

6/19/20 Wesbanco WSBC 20 now 31

10/29/20 Walgreens WBA 37.5 now 49

quote:

Originally posted by MikeGLI:
How's everyone doing? People pulling back or putting in?

I cashed out after the elections in the portfolios I control to where I was 97.6% in cash in the IRA accounts and 64.6% in cash in the taxable accounts. I had my managed account switched from 70% stock / 30% bonds to reverse.

I know I missed out in the big rally in the second half of November and since then but I consoled myself that I would have kicked myself had it gone the other way.

I've been working on investing back in and I'm at 67% cash in my IRA accounts and 44% cash in my taxable accounts. My managed account is still 30% Stock / 70% Bonds. I asked my advisor to come up with proposals to get me back to 70% stocks.

I use Motley Fool and Empire Research now to give me stocks to buy. I wish I had gone with Motley Fool way in the beginning instead of other advisor services. I was put off by the name.

My (admittedly) modest portfolio is up 36% the past month alone, 180% in the past 12 months-thanks mostly to some of the advice I got in this thread.

Now, to wait for the inevitable drop!

days like today it's good to be in the market

jumping in and out can crush you long-term

Dow +32K

the pandemic abating is great news for the economy

------------------------------------

quote:

Originally posted by Sig209:
days like today it's good to be in the market

jumping in and out can crush you long-term

Indeed. Timing the market is a crapshoot, even for professionals.

I add a set amount to my mutual funds on a regular schedule, regardless of the market. Allows me to dollar-cost average the shares, over the long term.

Effectively, if the market is down on a certain day that I'm set to buy, it just means I'm buying those shares on sale, and am therefore in a better position to reap a greater share of the benefits once they go up.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:
Indeed. Timing the market is a crapshoot, even for professionals.

I add a set amount to my mutual funds on a regular schedule, regardless of the market. Allows me to dollar-cost average the shares, over the long term.

Yep, dollar-cost averaging and diversification. It's about the only thing us common folks can do to try and stay above water long term.

quote:

Originally posted by JoseyWales2:

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:
Indeed. Timing the market is a crapshoot, even for professionals.

I add a set amount to my mutual funds on a regular schedule, regardless of the market. Allows me to dollar-cost average the shares, over the long term.

Yep, dollar-cost averaging and diversification. It's about the only thing us common folks can do to try and stay above water long term.

Talk to me about diversification. I do the dollar-cost averaging but have been thinking about whether or not I need to diversify more.

Personally, I'm very widely diversified, using a whole stock market index fund, international stock index fund, bond index fund, and an international bond index fund. Basically, I have exposure to every security in the entire stock and bond markets, both domestically as well as internationally, in proportion to their size within the market. Nearly as broadly diversified as one could be, practically.

With these funds, I'm currently at 90/10 stock/bond split, which will taper down to more of a 40/60 split by retirement.

The broad diversification through index funds is intended to provide steady returns over the long haul (decades), "slow and steady tortoise" style, while hedging against downturns and problems within individual companies and sectors. It means that I'm protected from the more extreme volatility of holding a smaller number of specific stocks, as if one stock - or one sector of stocks - goes down I won't take as much of a hit. But conversely, you won't ever see the super-high returns that are possible with carefully researching individual stocks to find high value picks at bargain prices.

(For example, Warren Buffet - widely considered to be one of the most successful investors of all time - made his money picking and choosing stocks using the individual company value research approach as a full time job. But he recommends this approach of using market index funds for the average investor, and it's how he has instructed his estate to be invested after his death.)

My approach is commonly referred to as a "Four Fund Lazy Portfolio". "Lazy" in that it's a "set it and forget it" kind of long term investing, without requiring research into individual companies, tinkering, or micromanagement. Pick your funds. Set up auto-investment on a regular basis (monthly/weekly/each paycheck/etc.). Check on it once or twice a year or so. Maybe rebalance your funds once or twice a year, if needed, if one fund has outperformed the others and thrown off your desired domestic/international or stock/bond ratio. (Unless you're in an all-in-one version of this, like a Vanguard Target Date fund, where the ratio of the four index funds are auto-rebalanced.)

https://www.bogleheads.org/wik..._four_fund_portfolio

There are also "Two Fund" and "Three Fund" examples here, which are even simpler:

https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Lazy_portfolios

https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Three-fund_portfolio