A Lesson on Locking in Losses: Remember Buy Low and Sell High (or Never)...
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.
Learn from my mistake-buying high and selling low is always a losing proposition. Thankful…
Learn from my mistake-buying high and selling low is always a losing proposition. Thankful…