How Much Have You Lost Since The Last High? (commission, investment, loan)

[49erfan916]

4 percent.

[san11]

14K these last few days.

[k374]

I have not "lost" anything technically since I have not sold anything. My portfolio is down $26,000 since Oct. 3.

Originally Posted by bmw335xi

There is no saying it will ever go up again. One of my older friends who worked his whole life in the oil industry and then retired put a huge amount

There is a huge difference between investing in a single stock which can easily go to zero and diversifying into the entire market. 100 years of history says that markets always rebound with an upward trend. That statistical backing is good enough for me.

Yes, a catastrophic event could make the markets never rebound, say for example Yellowstone erupts or a comet hits the earth, but then we will all be dead so it wouldn't matter anyway

[bmw335xi]

You still lost $26,000.

That argument of I havent sold, so I havent lost is false. Yes, you can make it back, but it’s no different then if you sold it and then bought it back a second later. You can’t purchase something for $50k and say, here takeover my holding, if it weren’t down $26k it’d be $50k. You cant get a loan saying my net worth is actually $26k more than what my account shows because I havent sold. If you need that money, you only have what your balance says. You lost that money in reality, but you can make it back that doesn’t change the fact as of today you lost that money.

[Lovehound]

I'm with the dude/dudette whose name is all caps and hard to remember...

All my money in the market is in unrealized gains/losses. It's imaginary money. It's like Schrodinger's cat. It's in an alive/dead state until I look (until sell my stock).

Anybody is a fool if they look at today's value of their portfolio. It ain't worth nothin' until you sell it and realize your profits or losses.

I'm up $10K in real money due to profits I took earlier this year. I could tell you what I could get for it next time the market is open. But I wouldn't. A man's net worth is nobody's business but his own.

[mathjak107]

about 80k

[mathjak107]

Originally Posted by Lovehound

I'm with the dude/dudette whose name is all caps and hard to remember...

All my money in the market is in unrealized gains/losses. It's imaginary money. It's like Schrodinger's cat. It's in an alive/dead state until I look (until sell my stock).

Anybody is a fool if they look at today's value of their portfolio. It ain't worth nothin' until you sell it and realize your profits or losses.

I'm up $10K in real money due to profits I took earlier this year. I could tell you what I could get for it next time the market is open. But I wouldn't. A man's net worth is nobody's business but his own.

far from the case of being a fool . .


realized or unrealized is irrelevant . it is all your money and represents your net worth at anytime . the fact you may not care is a different story .

there is zero difference between closing out a position each night and rebuying the same or a different investment each morning , vs leaving the money in play over night .

anyone who thinks there is a difference is just fooling themselves .

what you have is just a variable balance like a job on commission .

the amount you have today may go higher or lower but it is still all your own money for the taking at any point . you just choose to keep the money in play and let it vary .

there may be a good chance in the future it will be worth more but no guarantee .

in fact the older you get the lass the chance , as time becomes more of a factor . 2000 took a total market fund 13 years just to get back adjusted for inflation .

could you back test and find combo's of investments that did better ? sure . but personal choices in allocations are never used as benchmarks .

so there ain't no such thing as only a loss on paper . in fact your retirement draw is based on total portfolio value , not just what you sell .

never forget all compounding is on your opening balance .

if markets go up 10% next year , going up 10% on 500k is a lot less than 10% on 300k if that is all you have after a fall .

so get this it is only a paper loss out of your head .

people do the same thing when they call their investment "principal " and house money .

noooooo , it is all your own money 100% of the time . your cost basis may vary but that money in your brokerage account in unrealized gains is just as much all yours at any point in time as your bank account balance on any day . doesn't your checking account vary daily as you pay bills or get interest ?

never confuse the fact you may not care what your balance or net worth is daily with the fact it is exactly what it is .

[DaveinMtAiry]

I think I've lost $15,000 this week, I haven't really added it up. It's not fun but I see no reason to be upset, we knew this was coming and as I'm 6 years from retirement I have this "let's just get this over with already" feeling. I also believe that if you are not yet drawing from the principal and have not sold it IS a paper loss in my case, a loss that is easily made up for in time. And I have time.

[mathjak107]

no i, as i said above that is your balance -period . you just may not care at this point . but if we stay flat for a decade you will realize all to quickly how what you call a paper loss matters .

it is as real a balance as your bank account . that changes too over time , as you write checks and pay bills and add money . you just choose to keep the money in play but that balance is just as real .

there is no such thing as "principal " it is all your principal .

if i buy a stock for 100k and it goes up to 150k and it falls back to 100k that 150k was all yours for the taking .

if 1 bought the same stock at 100k sold it at 150k , rebought it the next morning and it fell to 100k you can see what you call your principal would not make sense .

the only difference in the above is instead of selling and rebuying you held and let it be over night .

calling the two costs different amounts of " principal "would make little sense .

after all if someone put a 100k in the insight growth model in 1987 today it is 4 million dollars with lots of fund switches over decades of time . if you lost 2 million of it you wouldn't say " but i did not touch my principal" that would be ridiculous logic

[zach_33]

I've had my entire nest egg in an employer sponsored 401k (equity index fund) for the last few years. I thought very seriously about transferring 100% of it to something lower risk just before this recent decline, but you know the old saying.... you can't time the market. So I must be down 6-8% in the last week or so. Trying not to dwell on it. Will ride the NYSE back down to 10,000 if I must. With politicians being more beholden to corporations than human beings, I can't see stocks drying up permanently any time soon.