Hi, probably a stupid question, but maybe it makes sense. I started to buy VT in August last year, after that I bought some other ETFs, too and put more and more money into the portfolio. Currently it is about 80k CHF.
The profits I made are mostly gone since Friday due to the Israel conflict etc. Does it make sense now to sell before I actually loose money and buy again later?
Thanks
Who’s to say it won’t go back up to higher levels than before 10 minutes after you sell everything?
I would only consider selling if I was 100% certain that VT will never go back to the levels where it was previously, and I can’t know that. If anything, it might be a good time to buy more at a discount.
Sometimes the market goes up, sometimes it goes down. In the long run it will even out.
No.
Prudent advice would be to do nothing. Because that normally is best thing to do.
The question is how do you convince yourself to do that.
VT I would keep, still 1670 USD profit. I was unspecific in my post, sorry for that. I have other ETFs like SMH where I’m about to go below 0 and some where the ETFs already dropped below 0. Basically the ones which I bought this year. SCHG and SMH I made like 500 CHF each but it is gone now. I’m also holding XHB, AVUV and AVDV.
For the non VT ETFs I paid 45k USD and the current value is 44.6k USD.
My thought was if it would be a good idea to sell them before I loose money and then buy again once the market has recovered from the current news.
You can try but you most likely wouldn’t be able to time your moves perfectly.
Perhaps you should take some time to think and review if your non-VT investment’s should even be in your portfolio. It seems you are not really convinced about these investments long term and maybe only wanted to trade.
What exactly is your plan ?
I consider stocks/ETFs as a long term investment. That means I should stick with them as long as it follows my thesis.
For broadly diversified index funds, my thesis is 5% +/- 2% real returns over longer periods(30+ years). That means short term fluctuations shouldn’t phase me.
For individual/specific bets, either my thesis involves cutting my losses if it goes below zero or it doesn’t. If it does, I would sell. If it doesn’t, negative returns in and of themselves are irrelevant.
Make some money, buy more at cheaper prices, wait for them to recover, ???, profit
Market timing doesnt work.
You should have done your due dilligence before even starting to invest that much money. This drop is absolutely nothing in grand scheme of things.
You should buy more not sell. Keep buying.
Hi, I read a lot here before I started last year August. The plan was to have ETF as “main” ETF but also to try some other with more risk. I still believe in SCHG and SMH and also read a lot before I bought them. XHB, AVUV and AVDV I didn’t read that much I have to admit and I didn’t have time to find out, because I just recently bought those 3.
The plan is still to have mainly VT but also some others which can have a higher risk. But I probably need to think about the split. Increase VT and less from the others.
Before I sell, I anyway need to talk to the tax guys. Since I’m not holding them for longer than 6 months, I would like to know if selling somethin where I don’t make money, counts to that rule, or maybe I ask this question separately here. I didn’t find it in the forum and it might be interesting for others. If a sell of an ETF with no profit also counts to that rule, I wouldn’t sell because I don’t want to be classiefied as a professtionell.
Sorry, don’t get it.
I probably would, not right now but still cheaper than what I have paid. But…don’t have money 
Do nothing is the best strategy in most cases.
You invested beyond your risk capacity/tolerance. Probably just temporarily as you are a new investor and first need to get used to the markets volatility - but potentially, your strategy will be too aggressive for yourselves even once you got used to the markets. Time will tell.
What to do now? IF your future investments in the next 3 years are as much as you already invested. Simply invest every additional franc into a 50%/50% Portfolio. Half of it goes into your ETF and the other half into a Savings account. Your Equity Percentage will gradually come down. Then let it run its course and check again every year (and POST here before you change anything in your strategy).
If your future investments in the next 3 years is less than what you already invested. Sell 50% of your ETF and keep it in a Savings Account. Then as well invest everything new into a 50%/50% Portfolio only… and at the same time and as well check back once a year.
Thanks, the last is the case. Most of the money is now in those ETFs and a couple of stocks. I plan to buy every month, but only for a couple hundred CHF because most of the income is going into artwork and real estate. What I bought came basically from my savings account. Every once in a while maybe some more than a couple of hundred CHF, but far away from what I have invested currently.
I need to find out if it would have a negative impact to my trader status if I sell now ETFs which I didn’t hold for 6 months. I hope I get an answer here, otherwise I will try to get an answer from the tax department.
No you won’t, it’s not as simple as breaking one of the rules making you automatically a professional investor. Myself and many others in this forum break at least one of the rules (e.g. I use leverage) and nobody here has been classified as professional so far.
Thanks, then I probably better not ask the officials and fly under the radar, if I sell 
Why are you talking about selling?
ETFs and stocks are supposed to be a long term investment.
If you bought an apartment for 1M$ and your friend offered you 0.9M$, would you go ahead and sell it because it dropped 10%?
Don’t open the brokerage app and go do something else.
Look again in 5 years and be happy you didn’t sell
There’s no risk in asking him, he’ll tell you the same thing.
They are specifically looking for people that trade for a living.
I get your point, but I think it is not comparable.
I know that it is long term, but that doesn’t mean that it couldn’t make sense to exit something you recently bought at the wrong time and start again with buying at lower prices than what I did. I know that timing the market is impossible for me, but I wouldn’t buy now if I sell and I wouldn’t sell if I lost 50 chf.