No harm, no foul, but no money either
Oct. 31st, 2007 08:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captpackratThe Fed went with a 25 point cut, which was pretty much what the market was expecting. What they weren't expecting was that it wasn't a unanimous decision, one board member voted against the rate cut. This, along with news of possible renewed inflation, sent the market into a tailspin for a half hour or so.
Unfortunately, I had an appointment at 2:00, 45 minutes after the Fed announcement, so I couldn't sit there all afternoon and monitor my stocks. I'd purchased my shares of UYG at $54.50 a couple days ago and just before the announcement it had reached $55.46, a tidy little 1.8% increase. Alas, after the Fed announcement, it crashed down to $53.46, a loss of about 1.9%. I didn't want to sell at a loss, and I knew I wouldn't get home before the market closed, so I placed a limit sell order with a target of $54.55, which would basically pay for the commission fees, then got in my car and drove off.
As I pulled into town, I remembered Sirius offers the audio portion of CNBC, so I tuned to it. The market had gone from being in the hole to being up 170 points! I started kicking myself because I knew that it was too late to cancel my sell order; it would have gone through long before I could reach a place with a computer. I was certain I'd missed out on thousands of dollars that I could have made had I issued a market-on-close sell order instead.
First thing I did when I got home was check the stock prices. I was soooo relieved when I saw that the closing price was only $55.01, only 46 cents more than I'd sold it for. It turned out I had been beating myself up all afternoon over just a few hundred dollars.
At least my other ETFs and mutual funds (mostly foreign) did exceptionally well.
Unfortunately, I had an appointment at 2:00, 45 minutes after the Fed announcement, so I couldn't sit there all afternoon and monitor my stocks. I'd purchased my shares of UYG at $54.50 a couple days ago and just before the announcement it had reached $55.46, a tidy little 1.8% increase. Alas, after the Fed announcement, it crashed down to $53.46, a loss of about 1.9%. I didn't want to sell at a loss, and I knew I wouldn't get home before the market closed, so I placed a limit sell order with a target of $54.55, which would basically pay for the commission fees, then got in my car and drove off.
As I pulled into town, I remembered Sirius offers the audio portion of CNBC, so I tuned to it. The market had gone from being in the hole to being up 170 points! I started kicking myself because I knew that it was too late to cancel my sell order; it would have gone through long before I could reach a place with a computer. I was certain I'd missed out on thousands of dollars that I could have made had I issued a market-on-close sell order instead.
First thing I did when I got home was check the stock prices. I was soooo relieved when I saw that the closing price was only $55.01, only 46 cents more than I'd sold it for. It turned out I had been beating myself up all afternoon over just a few hundred dollars.
At least my other ETFs and mutual funds (mostly foreign) did exceptionally well.
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no subject
Date: 2007-11-04 08:48 pm (UTC)Did you go through a broker to get those funds? I think I'd probably have to, but I've never purchased a mutual fund. Might be best to get a broker's guidance, at least...
no subject
Date: 2007-11-05 03:46 am (UTC)You should avoid getting into a mutual fund near the end of the year, because that's when they usually issue dividends, which are taxable. No point in buying into a fund and having to immediately pay taxes on it before it even makes any money.
ETFs are traded like stocks, so you can hop in and out without any penalties, but you do have to pay commission ($9.99 through TD Ameritrade) every time you buy or sell.