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You Can’t Kiss All the Girls…

by Lobo Tiggre
Wednesday, December 18, 04:01pm, UTC, 2019

My friend Doug Casey warns investors about getting carried away buying stocks, saying, “You can’t kiss all the girls.”

This is a great way of summing up important advice; one must focus so one can develop expertise and execute well. And you can't fret about the ones you don't kiss—because no one can kiss them all. It’s particularly apt because trying to kiss all the girls may actually be the fastest way to collect the greatest number of black eyes known to man. In my experience, the same thing is true in buying stocks.

This is on my mind because a longtime reader of my work just told me how much she appreciated the idea of our new My Take service. She knows she has way too many stocks bought over the years, and she needs help pruning her portfolio.

I can’t advise her individually on what to buy or sell, of course, but the takes in My Take (currently 112, but soon to be many more) do give readers a summary of the story, the pros, the cons, and my general take—thumbs up or down.

Well, maybe a bit more than that, since I recognize that one size doesn’t fit all. If I think a company is a great but just not for me due to my own investment priorities, I’ll say so. And I will go further than just saying it’s not for me if I think a company is a serious menace to any investor’s capital.

It’s like Consumer Reports for resource investors.

But I didn’t sit down to write a My Take sales pitch. I really think the idea that you can’t kiss all the girls is very important. But it’s just a general idea, so let me be more specific…

 

How Many Are Too Many?

There is no single correct size for anyone’s portfolio. It’s clearly important not to put all of one’s eggs in a single basket. But it’s just as important not to spread yourself so thin you make avoidable mistakes. Worse yet, if you spread your investable funds across too many positions, they’ll be so small that even a 10x winner won’t amount to much.

Fine. But how many is too many?

Well, I do have a rule of thumb that may help you out:

One should only invest in as many stocks as one has the time to come to understand well.

In this context, “understand well” doesn’t mean “know everything about.” Not even the CEO of a company knows everything about it. And I don’t mean that you need to study geology so you understand all the technical aspects of drill results or other important news in press releases. Sometimes even I have to take time to think about what some company news means—and I’m not too proud to consult with experts who know more than I do if I don’t understand something.

But if you see company news and have no idea what it’s about, you probably have too many stocks.

 

What If I Already Overdid It?

If you know you’ve let your portfolio get too bloated, it’s time to start pruning.

Pick your favorites—stocks you’re keen on and about which you can promise yourself you’ll take the time to study—and drop the ax on the rest as favorable exit opportunities present themselves.

Tax Loss Season, by the way, is not a good time to do this.

Selling when others are selling usually means lower exit prices than you have to realize. It’s too late to sell before Tax Loss Season now, but unless a stock is hit with bad news specifically for the company, next month should see better exit prices for many beat-up shares.

For more free help picking which companies to prune, please see my article on why and when to sell.

For specific guidance on the 112 companies I’ve covered so far in my “Consumer Reports for resource investors” service (see list below), please subscribe to My Take.

Regardless of how you do it, cleaning up a bloated portfolio would make an excellent New Year’s resolution.

I highly recommend it.

Sincerely,

 

P.S. Please note that there are a couple dozen fresh takes in the current Tax Loss Season edition of My Take. The rest of those below are from takes given over the last four months. A few have been updated (or will be updated in January), but most remain largely unchanged and are still relevant to decisions being made now.

  1. Alamos Gold
  2. Alexco Resource Corp.
  3. Allegiant Gold
  4. Almaden
  5. Anaconda Mining
  6. Ascot Resources
  7. Aurania Resources
  8. Aurion Resources
  9. Azarga Uranium
  10. Azucar Minerals
  11. B2Gold
  12. Bannerman Resources
  13. Bear Creek Mining
  14. Blackrock Gold
  15. Blue Sky Uranium
  16. Bluestone Resources
  17. Brixton Metals
  18. Cameco
  19. CanAlaska Uranium
  20. Centerra Gold
  21. Coeur Mining
  22. Columbus Gold
  23. Commerce Resources
  24. Continental Gold
  25. Deep Yellow
  26. Defiance Silver
  27. Denison Mines
  28. Detour Gold
  29. Discovery Metals
  30. Eastmain Resources
  31. Eldorado Gold
  32. EMX Royalty Corp.
  33. Endeavour Mining
  34. Endeavour Silver
  35. Energy Fuels
  36. EnviroLeach Technologies
  37. Equinox Gold
  38. Falco Resources
  39. Fiore Gold
  40. Fission Uranium
  41. Fission 3.0
  42. First Majestic
  43. First Mining
  44. Fortuna Silver Mines
  45. Gold Standard Ventures
  46. GoldMining
  47. Goldplay Exploration
  48. GoldSpot Discoveries
  49. Goliath Resources
  50. GoviEx Uranium
  51. Great Bear Resources
  52. Group Ten Metals
  53. Ivanhoe Mines
  54. K92 Mining
  55. Kirkland Lake Gold
  56. Klondike Gold
  57. Leagold Mining
  58. Liberty Gold
  59. Lion One Metals
  60. Lucara Diamond
  61. Lumina Gold
  62. Luminex Resources
  63. MAG Silver
  64. Maple Gold Mines
  65. Marathon Gold
  66. McEwen Mining
  67. Metalla Royalty
  68. Midas Gold
  69. Midland Exploration
  70. Millrock Resources
  71. Minco Silver
  72. Minera Alamos
  73. Mineworx Technologies
  74. Mirasol Resources
  75. Nevada Exploration
  76. New Pacific Metals
  77. NexGen Energy
  78. Northern Dynasty
  79. Northern Vertex Mining
  80. Novo Resources
  81. Osisko Royalty
  82. Pan American Silver
  83. Premier Gold
  84. Pretium Resources
  85. Prophecy Development
  86. Pure Gold
  87. Quebec Precious Metals
  88. Regulus Resources
  89. Renaissance Gold
  90. Riverside Resources
  91. Sabina Gold and Silver
  92. Sandfire Resources America
  93. Sandspring Resources
  94. Sandstorm Gold
  95. Seabridge Gold
  96. Silver One Resources
  97. Silvercorp
  98. SilverCrest Metals
  99. Sprott, Inc.
  100. Thunderstruck Resources
  101. Triumph Gold
  102. Ur-Energy
  103. Uranium Energy Corp.
  104. Uranium Royalty Corp
  105. Velocity Minerals
  106. Victoria Gold
  107. Wallbridge Mining
  108. Weaton Precious Metals
  109. Westhaven Ventures
  110. White Gold
  111. Xtierra
  112. Yamana Gold

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