(09-29-2021, 10:40 PM)KingIngram052787 Wrote:

(09-29-2021, 06:20 PM)jagibelieve Wrote: I'm kind of in between an investor like you and a "day trader/gambler" like some others.  I very seldom buy individual stocks and will ride them for a while, but most of what I do is sectors and ETF's.  I tend to hold for the most part and have been holding through this latest dip.  A few months ago as a "hedge" I got into some energy and financial ETF's.  They tend to do well on a down slide which happened for me.  I also look more at dividends.

I rode Boeing for a while and if I had held it I would have done better than I did, but I got out of it a while back because they don't pay a dividend.  However, I still hold an ETF that is heavily weighted by Boeing so I still reap some of the benefit of it moving steadily up.

I toyed with the idea of taking some profits last week, but didn't.  I'm thinking that I might move into a little more conservative stance rather than an aggressive stance (I am heavy into technology right now).  Between the inflation that is upon us right now and the chaos in Washington with the threat of higher taxes and raising the debt ceiling I do think that the economy is going to slow down much more than it already has.

The bond market right now doesn't necessarily look good to me either.  I would rather be in stocks right now and probably concentrate more on the "safer" sectors such as energy, consumer staples and maybe materials.

Just curious which ETFs in those sectors you would be looking at?

I don't really have any specific ones.  I hold and have had some shares in IYE as far as energy.  It has performed decent for me and pays a pretty good dividend.

For consumer staples, something like IECS is what I would be looking at.  Performance has been relatively steady and the dividend is decent.  One thing to note about this one is that it is actively managed so holdings could change more than a passively managed fund.

As far as materials maybe something like IYM.

Those are all very general ETF's  within broad sectors.  You can also get into more specific ETF's within a sector.  As an example, within the Materials sector you might focus on say timber and lumber (which would have been good a year ago) and look at WOOD.  Another example within the energy sector you might look at something like IEO which is more focused on oil and gas exploration and production.

A couple of tips of how I do it is to first of all look ahead and not so much at today's news.  Also think about what your goal is.  Are you looking for growth or value?  How much risk are you willing to take?  Do you constantly watch the price every day or maybe over a few months?

Look at the holdings of a particular ETF and think about the health of the companies of their top holdings.  Look at the dividends and how they are paid.  The bottom like is do some research.

TRM has put it quite well in this and other threads regarding investing.  Don't expect the stock market to be a "casino" and expect to "hit it big" over a month, a year or even 5 years.  Look at the long term.  The stock market took a huge dump this past couple of weeks, but I didn't panic and sell.  It will eventually come back up and climb even higher.  It always does... over time.

---