When I look back at performance where I compounded the highest:
1) Wife's accounts
2) Foreign stocks
3) Names where when thinking of selling I said "wait a few more months" (usually surprise on the upside.)
1) Wife's accounts
2) Foreign stocks
3) Names where when thinking of selling I said "wait a few more months" (usually surprise on the upside.)
With foreign the reasoning is easy. I consider myself at a disadvantage, so a deal needs to be brain dead simple, and knock out cheap.
i.e. - I have higher standards
i.e. - I have higher standards
Wife's accounts: I feel an obligation to make "good" trades, so again, higher standards.
Second, it's harder to sell. She has to log in and do it, or I have to remember.
Second, it's harder to sell. She has to log in and do it, or I have to remember.
Waiting: Most of the time I sell because I've given up. A stock has been flat forever etc. What I've found is in most cases that feeling of giving up is right before something good happens. It pays to be patient and wait. If nothing underlying changes then don't sell.
I have a new litmus test for ideas. If I can't wrap my head around it in 30m or less I won't invest. I don't have time for complexity, and the returns from simple & cheap beat complex. Yet the complexity is intellectually challenging.
