A Lesson on Locking in Losses: Remember Buy Low and Sell High (or Never)...
US REIT Index Fund-FSRVX 1 Year Performance Towards the end of January I decided to rid myself of my REIT index fund, FSRVX, and exchange half of it for an Emerging Market Fund, FPMIX, and a Total International Market Fund, FSGDX. At the time I rationalized that I had very little international exposure in my portfolio and I was tired of my REIT fund’s under performance-I believe it was down around 6% at the time I sold. If I’m honest, I was probably chasing last year’s outstanding returns for international funds. The financial news media’s chatter about Amazon being the death of the American Mall, and thus Retail REITs, finally caused me to give in. And of course, six months later my Emerging Market fund is down -7.7% YTD, my Total International Fund is down -4.8%, and the REIT I sold is up 1.2%. So you see-I sold my REIT when it was down, locking in losses, and bought two international funds just as they were about to lose value. Emerging Market Index Fund - FPMIX