Let’s say Joe Investor is dissatisfied with his portfolio performance. In haste, he sells all his stocks that are losing money and buys more of his winners. He feels good about his decision until a few months later when he’s in a similar situation. He does some more research. Joe has a portfolio of over-priced stocks and has some missed opportunities with the stocks he sold.
So, what happened? Chasing the high flyers is synonymous with driving down the road in a forward direction while using your rear-view mirror. Joe Investor was right to reassess his holdings. You should always monitor stocks you hold to see if there have been any changes in the fundamentals—cash flow, return on assets, valuation, history of profit retention for funding future growth, the soundness of capital management for the maximization of shareholder earnings and returns—to name a few.
You sell the losers if and only if they have no hope of recovery. Losers are often the most promising future leaders. For example, oil stocks lost 55% from Feb. 19, 2020, through March 23, 2020, while the market lost almost 34%. Since then, they have recovered 54% while the S&P 500 has gained 41%. You need to know why the market price moves and be able to understand if a move is potentially short-term. If fundamentals remain intact, consider holding the losers.
There is more to portfolio construction than picking the best gainer. When the market falls, so might your best performer, assuming you looked at historic returns before buying it. This is why we place so much emphasis on diversification. Diversification means you consider companies in diverse industry sectors and diverse sub-industries within those sectors, then, you pick the company with good prospects for future growth.
There are two major components to portfolio management: allocation and selection. Allocation refers to the weights of each industry sector included within the portfolio. Selection refers to the individual stocks held within each of these sectors. Henssler Financial focuses on high-quality companies, meaning we look for companies with no debt or easily manageable debt, and predictable earnings. History shows us this step limits negative surprises. This screen for high quality leaves us with a list of investible companies that generally excludes approximately half of the companies within the S&P 500 Index. After these high-quality companies are identified, we look for companies with attractive prices relative to their historic price ratios and the ratios of their industry peers. We also look for companies with above-average profitability and earnings growth. This produces a list of companies we consider attractive for investment.
In the process of allocation, we consider economic and financial market conditions to guide our decision for industry sector weighting within the portfolio. Since we consider risk management a key concern, we generally will give up some return to protect assets during a downturn, as many of the events that trigger them are difficult to forecast.
Consider the latest iteration of downturns which was unmentioned until January 2020 and didn’t impact domestic financial markets until February. If we had been able to foresee the issue, we could have avoided the 33% downturn from February 19 until March 23, then reinvested to enjoy the rebound. However, not everything can be forecasted. Therefore, we prefer to include weights in stable sectors like Consumer Staples, Healthcare, and Utilities to soften portfolio losses. These sectors are not known for their earnings growth, but they are reliable.
In working to eliminate the risk of specific loss, we arguably mute the potential for overall gains. In managing this risk, we include portfolio exposure to all 11 sectors of the financial markets and several stocks within these sectors using the criteria laid out above. We miss opportunities at times, and we include companies with promise that never blossoms. However, the process was created and is adjusted with significant thought and is based on historically proven fundamentals.
We’re not denying that momentum in a sector or select stocks is great, but we know it can end abruptly. Historical performance is important, but your portfolio should mainly focus on the potential for future success. You will always have a few losers, but they may be tomorrow’s big winners.
If you have questions regarding the Henssler stock selection process, the experts at Henssler Financial will be glad to help:
- Experts Request Form
- Email: experts@henssler.com
- Phone: 770-429-9166
This article is for demonstrative and academic purposes and is meant to provide valuable background information on particular investments, NOT a recommendation to buy. The investments referenced within this article may currently be traded by Henssler Financial. All material presented is compiled from sources believed to be reliable and current, but accuracy cannot be guaranteed. The contents are intended for general information purposes only. Information provided should not be the sole basis in making any decisions and is not intended to replace the advice of a qualified professional, such as a tax consultant, insurance adviser or attorney. Although this material is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information with respect to the subject matter, it may not apply in all situations. Readers are urged to consult with their adviser concerning specific situations and questions. This is not to be construed as an offer to buy or sell any financial instruments. It is not our intention to state, indicate or imply in any manner that current or past results are indicative of future profitability or expectations. As with all investments, there are associated inherent risks. Please obtain and review all financial material carefully before investing. Henssler is not licensed to offer or sell insurance products, and this overview is not to be construed as an offer to purchase any insurance products.
