Steffen Welch: Quality over quantity
Long Dang: The question is how much money do you have to diversify or to own enough shares to make the investment count?
Dan Behm: Yes Quality over quantity, But also don’t allow any 1 position exceed 5% of your portfolio nor sector going beyond 18-20%. Btw… the sector rule I find hard to follow, 5% in any 1 position I strictly adhere too
Steffen Welch: If you had bought something like amazon 100 percent of your investment in the very beginning….. that would be an amazing portfolio….
Helen Sriubiskis: Have you been investing for a few years?
Noshee Khan: 7 stocks – either u have $100,000 portfolio or $1000,000 or $10,000 that is the way I do it…just rotate out of one to get another one..and I am quick in taking loss…not that fast in taking profit.
Dan Behm: Might I ask what 7 at roughly 14% capital are you currently holding… I traded back in the late 90’s and did pretty well with this philosophy before I got ahead of myself. Only I was in no more than 4-5 stocks at any 1 time
Noshee Khan: Right now I have EFX MCD CTRP JBL RCL AAL KSS
Helen Sriubiskis: The generally accepted rule is to never have more than 5% in any one stock.
Steffen Welch: Agreed.. ..was just offering a scenario example to the quality comment… and that there are exceptions to every rule.
Dan Behm: Steffen Welch Your Very rite, ive owned AMZN since 1997. Unfortunately whenever it gets to around 5% of my portfolio value given a whole share amount I sell and move into something else, between GOOG, AAPL,AMZN and MSFT there responsible for allot of the buildout in my portfolio, however looking back I wish I held them all and never sold any off. I cannot complain though as it’s allowed me to build out my portfolio…
Caleb Melton: 163
Helen Sriubiskis: You’re going to get a very wide range of responses. Some people have hundreds, and some people have very large portfolios, and some people make it their full or part-time job to study and invest in the market.
Shaun Mcghee: i was thinking to own 6 stocks for long term investment
Shane Gorman: Buy whatever works for you. I have about 25-30 different stocks
Ray James: anything over 15 +/- and you should just own an index fund…look at the studies.
Shaun Mcghee: dis my watch list
Helen Sriubiskis: If you’re just starting to build a portfolio, 6-10 is a reasonable number for the first while. Re-evaluate the strategy when the portfolio gets larger. Just my opinion.
Shaun Mcghee: i was thinking the same thing to helen to make it a littie more easyer to learn the market to invest my money into great stocks
Ray James: remember: concentration can make you rich or broke…too much diversification makes you a mediocre index fund. #wordstoliveby
Andy Brinkhaus: The S&P 500 index is still a contender if you want to “set it and forget it.” It produces a healthy yield with enough money. If you’re trying to build capital faster though, yes active trading is the way to do it but is time intensive.
Ray James: Cap weighted indexes kinda suck…
Chris Banton: I would probably start with Berkshire, Markel or Brookfield Asset Management and go from there. Companies that are diversified all by themselves.
Andy Brinkhaus: Don’t forget Blackstone Group
Helen Sriubiskis: To your Watchlist, add V (Visa), and HD (Home Depot). They have high dividend growth rates. There are other good ones too.
Wade Yandell: I would argue if youre just starting out, it’s not absolutely necessary to immediately reach the XX number of holdings you decide on. You have time to slowly buy your second, third, fourth etc position. Don’t diversify just for the sake of diversification, buy good companies that you understand, and that fit your objectives and investing philosophy.. Others may disagree though.
Shaun Mcghee: okay helen will do
Helen Sriubiskis: Well said, Wade!
Shaun Mcghee: good avice wade
Helen Sriubiskis: And, build up some cash to use when there’s a “sale”.
Shaun Mcghee: okay
Helen Sriubiskis: And go to www.seekingalpha dot com to read articles about the companies you’re interested in, and about DGI investing.
Shaun Mcghee: can i download the seekingalpha app
Helen Sriubiskis: You can sign up to “follow” certain authors and be notified whenever they post a new article.
Helen Sriubiskis: Yes. But the desktop version is a bit better.
Shaun Mcghee: okay will do
Helen Sriubiskis: An example article: https://seekingalpha.com/…/4109544-analyzing-2-dividend…
Analyzing The Only 2 Dividend Aristocrats With 4%+ Yields
seekingalpha.com
Helen Sriubiskis: CNBC is good too.
Sven Carlin: That is the eternal question: Here is my view on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2I3-6zzvuxU
How Many Stocks Should You Have In Your Portfolio
youtube.com
Helen Sriubiskis: Good video! You just gained one subscriber.
Ryan Vallieu: 2E9
Michael O’Ceallach: Shaun Mcghee, about 10-20 max but more importantly, get a good diversification in the sectors and make sure to by good companies at good prices. Learn about valuing companies.
Shaun Mcghee: bluechip stocks is good companies to invest in
Michael O’Ceallach: Shaun Mcghee, buy Vanguard ETF’s. Get diversified. Then learn. Slowly start valuing companies and buying them when you know how to do it. No rush. Do it right.
Shaun Mcghee: okay Michael O’Ceallach
Ted James: I’d say 7-10 stocks. If you have a larger portfolio, than nothing wrong with more than 10 ??
Michael O’Ceallach: 7-10 or get ETF’s. ETF’s give you large coverage of many stocks in many sectors. The only disadvantage is that for most ETF’s you don’t get the dividend income. You need to understand what strategy you want and why. For example, I choose dividend growth because I have been an expat my whole life and do not have government pensions to rely on why I grow old. I therefore need dividend income when I retire. You must choose your own strategy.
Michael O’Ceallach: don’t buy stocks if you do not know what you are doing. This is the last I will say in this. A fool and his money soon part. Keep that in mind.
Sid Castro: The rights ones. No hard #.
Shaun Mcghee: tru that Michael O’Ceallach
Eddie Lopez: Around $100,000 in stocks that give dividends. Then each month you’ll get around $2,000 in dividends return. This is just a estimate
Paul Woods: You meant $200 per month
Wade Yandell: If we all got 2g per month on a 100k investment, we would all be filthy rich. ??
Eddie Lopez: Yeah 200. One two many zero
Josh Templet: Bout tree fiddy
Carl Horn: 20 to 30 if not overly concentrated in one sector or industry. Of course the more the better. You see in some managed funds they stick to about 3% per position which equals about 33 stocks. Maybe overweight their best idea but not by a lot.
John Marshall: 20-25 max in my opinion.
Avi Tanny: Just dryships
Lemuel Mwangi: Personally, I have great balance with over 200 stocks
Lemuel Mwangi: My top positions is only 4%
Jason Khehra: Concentrated funds typically have around 25 stocks. I myself hold 30 stocks. Just make sure to keep some cash available for opportunities.
Lloyd Ruskin: https://www.fool.com/…/08/26/the-ideal-portfolio-size.aspx
The Ideal Portfolio Size
fool.com|By The Motley Fool
Phuong Tran: Honestly, there is no right or wrong number for this, but I think 30 to 50 is about right.
Bob Stag: Depends on how much time you have on your hands between life, kids, the Boss Girl, me right now comfortable with around 40. The stocks you own don’t take a lot of time to keep up on, you already did the DD, it’s the ones on your watchlist that takes the time.
Lenny Khmel: I remember reading somewhere that 18 is a magic number but it’s not written in stone. It’s just a lot harder to track more
Mike Ramsey: There are many different approaches that can work. The minimum is the smallest number you could live with and be able to sleep at night. Going below 10 gets really dicey, in terms of diversification, but that’s also related to what other sorts of assets you own. On the high end, the limiting factors will be the number of companies you feel you can adequately follow, and a point of diminishing returns where you start to emulate the overall market. Personally, I wouldn’t want to go much over 50, but some folks achieve good results with bigger numbers.
Robert Morris: I have a very large portfolio, and try to limit to fifty equities, ETFs and as few mutual funds as possible. Bonds don’t count, as I but them to hold to maturity. Very rarely will I sell bonds. If you have $100,000 or less, try to limit your portfolio to approximately 20 equities./ETFs.
Steven Groen: I plan to having between 60 and 100 dividend stocks. If a few stocks go sour then there isn’t a big dip in my portfolio. It would also give me income every 3-10 days if needed. That would be so cool.
Phuong Tran: It also depends on how good your stock picking skill is because after all, diversification is a hedge against ignorance. ?
Ted James: 69, heheheh ??
Robert Freeman: its not a competition or something for others to judge. if your portfolio is working for you then you are #winning. what else matters?
Michael O’Ceallach: For me the goal is to make 2000+ a month in dividends. This requires up to 200k investment if I wanted that today. At least that is what the divie calculators are saying.
Nandy Colon: $2,000 a month on dividends at a $200K porfolio value at this moment will require a yield of 12%. Not sure if this is what you mean but it sure looks like. If this is right then it seems to be a very high risk portfolio.
Michael O’Ceallach: Nandy Colon , agree. The calculator is off.
Michael O’Ceallach: I think it calculated based on compounding if I invested 200k today
Greg Williamson: In order to stay diversified, you need to own at least 20-25 stocks in my opinion and you can never own too many, provided that you have the time to keep up with them all. Some say that being over-diversified can minimize returns but I strongly disagree!
Robert Morris: Greg, you should be able to know all about every stock in your portfolio. Most people don’t have the time to track the news and events of more than twenty or so equities on a daily basis. Throw in all the rumors (that you may not know are rumors) and you can quickly become overrun with maintaining your portfolio.
Michael O’Ceallach: It’s usually recommended to be 10-20 max