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Investment Q&A

Not investment advice or solicitation to buy/sell securities. Do your own due diligence and/or consult an advisor.

Q: This is a general market question. I hold too many companies in my equity accounts and would like to reduce the number. On the other hand, my overall portfolio is up more than 11% over he past 3 months. I am overweight financials but I see them as benefitting from potential rate drop. Most of my holdings are growth oriented. I do hold approximately 15% fixed income, short and longer term bonds.

What would be your overall approach given potential rate drop and anticipated slow economic growth? 90% of my holdings are for long term. 10% are trades.

Take as many credits as required.

Thanks for all your help.

Mike
Asked by Michael on January 02, 2024
5i Research Answer:

We tend to side with the idea that portfolio construction needs to be a priority. What we mean by this is that if an investor is comfortable with a certain type of allocation or setup, the more the portfolio drifts away from that, the more it should be brought back in-line with that initial level. Not doing so, when times are good, is often how investors find themselves 'over their skis' when the market takes a turn. 

Of course, this does not mean that allocations need to be watched like a hawk and adjusted at the slightest deviation, we like to let winners run in general and if things are working, it can make sense to not get in ones' own way, but it just needs to be watched in this type of scenario.

The other caveat here is just because a portfolio is 'up' does not mean things need to be sold, especially if one has a long-term outlook. If everything went up a similar amount, there might not be an overexposure to any single stock or industry. The risks/issues tend to rise when a portfolio is doing well because of a single stock/sector/factor exposure doing well, that then becomes too large a part of the portfolio.