I certainly have disciplines that I follow as an investor but I also allow for some flexibility. Perhaps it is a personality flaw but I have always had a distaste for inflexible and rigid investing disciplines. Markets are dynamic and I believe that to some degree our thinking has to be dynamic as well.livesoft wrote: ↑Thu Oct 05, 2017 9:50 pm Before the end of the year, I will start a thread titled
"Sell on Really Bad Days, Buy on Really Good Days?"
This could happen for folks who rebalance based on a calendar date. Or maybe one noticed over the weekend that they hit a trigger for too much equities, so they submit an order Sunday night to sell equities, but then on Monday the market goes down 5%.
One would think that John Bogle, the inspiration behind this forum, is inflexible and doctrinaire. He says things like "stay the course, no matter what"; "age in bonds"; and "buy the whole haystack and not the needle." When you actually listen to his interviews, you find someone who has a flexible mind with the willingness to think outside the box. Big picture, his philosophy is remarkably consistent over time but he does say rather surprising things from time to time.
So when someone says things like "you must rebalance when you hit your rebalancing band, no matter what"; something in me just winces. My belief is that you can't make decisions in isolation but to consider your personal situation, the economy, and market conditions at the time. Pretty much, I reserve the right to override my investing disciplines when the situation calls for it.
So if I am wanting to rebalance from stocks to bonds and the market tanks that day, I will just wait until later when the markets have recovered. If that seems a departure from discipline, so be it. I don't know, that will drive some here crazy but that is just me.