EssDeeAitch wrote:Well, with regard to the original question, "should I just sell and move to funds", for me the answer is yes. I developed an entry level HYP portfolio at the end of Q3 last year with eight stocks and the intention of growing this through time (this HYP did not constitute a great part of my whole pf). Before I did buy into new sectors, the markets and my picks in particular dropped significantly wand so I just delayed any new buys.
End of Q3 last year means at the end of September 2018, if you are referring to the calendar year. That is 8 months ago give or take a few days. That is in most investor's opinion I would think, much too short a time to judge anything. Certainly I would be looking at about five years before judging a strategy. Furthermore, your choices of HYP shares were not what I would have chosen at that time; in fact I hold none of them. Bear in mind also that the last few years have been very poor for capital values of many HYP shares, partly because of dividend cuts and sometimes no increases and of course the tobaccos have been particularly badly hit despite continued increases in dividends.
I guess that is what TJH was referring to. The mantra with a HYP is of course that capital values are of secondary importance and should usually be ignored. I do not go along with that which is why I am very careful about what I buy and what I hold, although like many others I have been caught out by the tobacco shares. OTOH I have held them for over 20 years and so am still well in the money. Like others, I am finding some ITs are giving me a decent yield and more geographical spread, although of course many/most of the FTSE100 shares have very international businesses behind them.
It is a very personal decision of course and we must all do as we feel is right, but please, whatever strategy you adopt you will need to judge it over a rather longer period than 8 months.
Dod