Add some oil companies to that mix…
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What about the 3rd one - Value Averaging?
Why most ppl are talking only about DCA like it’s the main alternative, when there are so many other strategies that one can employ… And because nobody can predict the future, who can argue which one is better?!
PS: sorry for the triple post, I’m just catching up with my favorite thread on this forum after a few weeks break
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My friend used to post about btc price on fb. And I also had a feeling it was to make himself feel better, not to provide valuable advice to help his friends.
When I finally bought some after the big crash, the price went even lower. He said, jokingly, I should have told him sooner, because if even I am buying, then it’s time to sell. 
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Well, easiest explanation, I didn’t include it because I hadn’t heard of value averaging. 
But the principal choice is still between investing everything at once and investing everything piecemeal. DCA vs VA then just determines in what way piecemeal.
If you want to go piecemeal then both might be an option. My own method is a lot more messy and opportunistic. A basic component is quite naturally DCA, however, monthly payments into VIAC.
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Very interesting strategy! Thanks for sharing!
If you’d like to dig deeper for value averaging, this is the book I’d recommend: https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B008L03XGO/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i0
Amazon tells me that I bought the book in March 2013 and I have to say it has served me well for the part of my portfolio where I apply this strategy. I’ve since only adjusted my approach once taking into account the ideas in this paper: http://www.smgfa.com/resources/Opportunistic_Rebalancing_JFP2007_Daryanani.pdf
This approach for example “forced” me to buy a considerable amount of shares of an equity index fund on March 23 this year … (that this happened to be the bottom of the market this year so far is pure luck, but that you buy more cheaply near local or global dips is at the core of the VA strategy).
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Anyone selling or sold their positions today since the last dip of March? The profits are too good to give up for the current downfall but I dont know which side this will end up either
selling? you mean buying? eheh
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I would say : do nothing this week lol.
I’d say this is an excellent time to be holding whatever other asset on top of stocks in our portfolios, for rebalancing purposes. Stocks go up, rebalance out of it and capture the gains. Stocks go down, rebalance in and buy them cheap!
For a very long term investing horizon, it’d probably get beaten by a 100% allocation but it gives some peace of mind that we are doing the right thing whatever happens to the market by actually having something we can do when we feel the need to make a move. For shorter time investment horizons, it gives a bit of stability to the portfolio, which allows for better planning.
Better: HODL ! 
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May I suggest a new thread about this? I’d like to know more about it.
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I was thinking about this as well. Profits are still good for me, even after yesterday. But two questions:
- Wouldn’t that be market timing? I’d be betting on stocks going down after I sold.
- What other assets? Used to be bonds, in home currency, but in this interest rate environment that doesn’t look very appealing.
So?
Market timing is no disease.
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No. But it either depends on knowing more than the market or luck. So for the vast majority it will an inferior long-term strategy. I am tempted, but it’s so extremely unclear if / when we’d see another massive drop that the risk of having to pay higher prices to rebalance back to stocks later on seems too high. And I don’t know what to balance into, my second question, other than cash.
Go ahead? Can’t promise I’ll contribute, but I probably will.
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If investing is your religion, market timing might be a sin.
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Supporting the motion. I’m not ready to create it myself right now but might get to it later in the year if @Alex doesn’t do it before.
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Sure! There are ways to do it in a planned way, so as to avoid timing the market due to emotions. I’ve finally gotten around to read @Your_Full_Name’s linked article and it’s pretty good at explaining the various ways of doing it and the consequences linked to them (thanks! I hadn’t heard of opportunistic rebalancing before, sounds interesting).
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It used to be bonds, indeed, but it can be anything not correlated (or with only a low correlation) to the indexes/stocks you are following. The list is not exhaustive but it could be:
- Bonds
- Real Estate
- Cash
- Precious metals
- Other commodities
- P2P lending (I’m not learned in it so I don’t know if you can easily close a position for rebalancing purposes)
- Cryptocurrencies (not advocating them - please don’t use them as an edge!)
- Specific stocks/sectors that you’d consider defensive for the scenarii you are considering
Options can be used as an edge but, since I don’t know the first thing about them, I don’t include them in a rebalancing strategy (since I don’t even know if you can do it that way).
I’d not touch anything I’m not able to understand and explain to a good friend / my closed ones until I am able to do so.
ETA: I’m just starting to study ways to better balance my portfolio (I’m 87.5% Stocks / 12.5% Cash for now - based on (age/100)² for my cash allocation). Nowadays, everything seems to be pretty correlated to me. This crisis turned into a liquidity crisis at some point (before the central banks jumped in), people seem to be selling their assets without much distinction. I’d put more value to an asset that can’t be traded on a stock exchange (for example brick and mortar real estate ) rather than something that can be sold in a panic (REITs, for example). Though that’s just me, at my very starting point of knowledge on the matter so if you have the will to enlighten me, I’ll be very glad to read you ;-).
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Herd immunity is not a complete fiction. In Bergamo more than 50% of the population has antibodies to Sars-cov2 which is close to level needed to obtain herd immunity.
But overall we’re far from the levels required except for those few regions.
https://twitter.com/DrSamirBhatt/status/1271233923599785990?s=19