My plan was to wait until I had owned ANET for one year then sell because of the tax implications. Do you think that’s a reasonable plan?
Depends on several factors. Do you have a gain or loss? How long till one year? Will it make sense to hold it if the stock continues to go down as growth slows? Do you think the company is solid or is there another company growing faster that you can slip the money into and making higher return during that period. I sold 3/4 of my position several months ago with Part ST and part LT gains and only had one quarter of it remaining a couple of weeks ago that was hitting the long term tax benefit.
TWLO, AYX and ZS are all up over 5% today. TWLO up over 8%…just today!! Most of our stocks are up 2-3% today. The Nasdaq is up 1%. This is typical as our stocks have a much higher Beta, which is the measure of a stocks relationship to the market. It works both ways and often our stocks will be down more than the market when it goes the other way. I try to choose great companies regardless of the stock so they significantly outperform the market. Last year the market averages were down 8% while the stocks I owned were up 47%. I suspect the market will continue to be volatile over the next 3-4 weeks at least. We are in earnings season when most of the companies I have will report earnings. I encourage you to listen to a call or read an earnings report. Get a feel for what they do, the metrics they use and how they are doing. You can find them on the Investor relations tab of their company websites and even sign up for emails when news is released. It’s a great day to be in these 11 stocks. Thanks partially to the Fed for their dovish remarks and standing firm on rates that has somewhat spurred the markets today. Thanks even more to fast growth, discipline and hard work that I have a solid set of fast growing companies identified that I can get behind. Happy earnings. season!
I received a question separately about limit orders to purchase a stock and their use. That is, you place an order to buy a stock if it drops to a certain price below it’s current level. I thought it might be helpful to post my answer for everyone:
A good rule of thumb is always to buy in thirds. I do not use limit buys or sells at all. I did about 20 years ago and I always got burned because great companies don’t always drop down to the stock level you may want…An object in motion stays in motion, so why would I want to buy a stock on the way down? When I want to establish a position in the stock, I buy 1/3 of the amount I want to ultimately hold at the market price and then watch it for a couple of days or weeks, and if all goes well, I buy more, otherwise I sell my position and get out. I tend to sell the same way but usually in halves. Hope that helps.
