Share selection debate continued

[#1]

John, et al, interested in your experiences here. My portfolio of longs has 2 shares that have pulled back to my entry price (ARI & SHF), and two longs that are hovering at breakeven point (1*risk). JSE-TOPI currently sitting on its trendline, and I am still bullish. Would you close out your portfolio that is hovering on entry? The shares in question have not really done much in the last rally, so the question is, is it better to stick with the stocks that have been moving, or wait to see if the non-performers' time will come?

[john_1]

This is were the idea of releative performance becomes relavent.. if it has not risen in this market were everything is moving up then do you really want to be holding if we have another leg down.. the purpose of trading is to capture time... this can be done because sectors rotate in performance..Mining then banks etc. Also they do not move in streight lines... the very simple answer is.. can you do better with your money?..If we break above the resistance..what sector is going to lead the next leg up(usually the same as the last leg) and if it does move will I be involved.

[john_1]

to continue..if you overlayed the weekly charts of the top 40 shares.. as one trend breaks above all other you would buy and you would sell or stay out of the 20 weekest trending stocks.. I hope this helps.

[#4]

Ja, this helps a lot, the issue of opportunity cost is a very unexplored concept. My underperforming stocks are not bad companies,and I am in the money with each of them, which means my risk is 0. But I am not sure that this is the best way to look at my portfolio, since the current, meager profits, could augment my capital, and could be better suited to other stocks. So, in effect, I may consider my portfolio as only 6% capital exposed, but, in this case, I am not adding my meager profits to my total capital, which would then push my total exposure over the 6% mark.