Investment "Logic"

As 2017 wraps up, I want to take a brief moment to review my performance on the year and then talk about what I'm looking for in 2018. While my intent is to keep things short, it's important that I set a common base.   First, all gain/loss percentages discussed are based upon either feedback from my portfolio tracking software or by pulling up tickers on the  Morningstar  web site's performance tabs for YTD or 2017 numbers on performance.  Numbers I state have the chance of being off a few percentage points compared to reality.  I will be doing various comparisons of my stocks against the performance of the S&P 500, excluding dividends.  Additionally, I'll be comparing the performance against the sectors which the stocks are a part of.  To do this, I'm using Spider (SPDR) ETF index funds, as these ETFs are known to track extremely close to each of their respective sectors.  These sector performances likely include the benefit of dividend yields whereas my s

Once again, I've been failing to keep up on my portfolio.  We're now entering into the end of the year and this will likely be the last summary I put out as we head into the Holiday season and I prepare my end of year documents that I've been doing.  Despite my inability to keep up with documenting things along the way, I have been staying on my stock research for the most part.  I did miss listening to an earnings call or two, but those that I missed were great quarters and need less attention, for the most part.  I do recognize I need to change these behaviors if I'm to keep doing this, though, as the homework and documentation is important to having a successful portfolio. I would like to take a little time to note some key events that has happened since last I reported out.  First has been jobs reports.  We've had multiple positive jobs results or better than expected results despite things like the hurricanes and California fires impacting them.  Despit

Today I decided trim a small portion off of my Citigroup position in order to build up some cash reserves as well as take advantage of the sudden and dramatic price moves we've recently seen.  This sale is a matter of both discipline and fear.  The stock has moved about 8% in the last week on news that a Tax Bill has been formed and approved in the senate.  The bill is exceptionally favorable for businesses and high income earniners and therefore you're seeing quite the surge in the banks.  At the same time, you're also seeing a rotation out of technology - particularly the semiconductors.  This move doesn't feel normal or natural - despite the fact that Citigroup is cheaper than its peers and I was feeling I was taking on too much risk of a downturn.  Combine that with the size of the position in the portfolio (approximately 15.6% of my portfolio), I felt it was time to protect some gains to rebalance my portfolio some and have some cash for the next downturn. I