In this "crappy" market -- which I have long warned all about WILL happen during your investing horizons.... and I've reminded many times to remember how easy it was to look "brilliant" during an up market. I wanted to just check the pulse on some names we've talked about. Remember that I'm just using these as examples and nothing more.
I pulled up a chart of the ONE YEAR price performance of Altria (MO) - Alibaba (BABA) - GoPro (GPRO) and AT&T (T) and Philip Morris (PM)... just to plot them in my mind. Remember that PM, T, and MO pay dividends - which is the MAIN REASON to own them long term... because they keep paying while the share price is poop....
MO - is UP 20.5%
PM - is DOWN 3.8%
T - is DOWN 8.6%
BABA - is DOWN 30.3%
GPRO - is DOWN 55%
So.... if you owned the three on the top of the list - your account would be positive overall... and you'd be collecting 5% (just rounding off here) dividend... If you owned the last two -- OUCH... and you get nothing while you're waiting for them to come back to even.
Staying in the game in the down market periods is about 99% of the battle... getting PAID while you play the game is even better. Yeah - you're buddy at the office was making a killing the first few weeks or months on his IPO buys... but I'll bet he hasn't mentioned them for awhile... LOL
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