
Originally Posted by
vondave
Hmmm, good question bai. I don't have a quick answer to how I would approach this. I think the thing to remember is that you should try to balance your overall portfolio so that you are not overly invested in one single stock or industry. Meaning, you try to create a well balanced portfolio to manage your risk. If you keep buying a single stock, or several stocks but they are all energy stocks like AP, FGEN, EDC for example, you expose yourself to huge risks because they all behave similarly and might move down at the same time hurting your portfolio badly.
I'm currently studying Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), portfolio construction, asset allocation, etc. These are subjects that deal essentially with the question you raised. When I know enough to discuss this more, I'll share it with you, but what I know so far is that the correct and scientific approach should be:
Step 1 -- decide on a benchmark portfolio. In our case, maybe base it on PSE index, I believe coz we don't have S&P 500 or Russel 2000 index man gud nga equivalent diri sa Pinas. Kung PSEi then your portfolio should have categories like 20% Commercial Industrial, 20% Financials, 10% Mining, etc. I don't really know coz I don't have data on hand, hehe.
Then step 2 - Noting the benchmark portfolio, you then buy stocks based on the breakdown choosing the best stocks within each category for your portfolio (or your preferred stocks).
Step 3 - You then overweight certain categories (or stocks) that you feel will perform better if you want to capture extra gains (alpha) and underweight others categories if otherwise. The more you tweak, the more volatile (beta) your portfolio becomes but the more extra gains you potentially earn. Diskarte na ni nimo.
Step 4 - Regularly rebalance your portfolio. If Financials are supposed to be only 20% of your portfolio but they gain in value and become 30% because they grew, then you sell the 10% extra and distribute it into other categories to maintain your portfolio's design. You need to do this regularly. Most financial services do it quarterly for their clients.
Wheeeew!!!!! This is modern portfolio theory but I'm still learning this guys. I will put this in practice by next month siguro after I've fully finished studying the two books I have on this right now. By the way, this is a scientific approach bai. And portfolio theory works not just in allocating categories within your stock portfolio but even asset classes within your overall investment portfolio, e.g. bonds, treasury bills, real estate, cash.