With the recent market volatility, I once again realised the value of ETFs over direct shares... One simply cannot outperform the market, all of the time. Especially when investing, rather than trading.
When one is up, another is down... and so it goes - I know, I'm a slow learner...
This was a major driver... 10-year performance of the STXIND vs some popular blue-chips:
https://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&chdd=1&chds=1&chdv=1&chvs=maximized&chdeh=0&chfdeh=0&chdet=1441292400000&chddm=1212120&chls=IntervalBasedLine&cmpto=JSE:STXIND;JSE:BTI;JSE:SAB;JSE:SOL&cmptdms=0;0;0;0&q=JSE:MTN&ntsp=0&ei=SC_oVcGQOYuFmAG--o6gCwTherefore, my focus forward is an ETF-only approach. Cherry picking only when I feel lucky... which is not often.
Right now, I own about 8 direct and 8 ETF counters - almost equally weighted (direct vs ETF) in current market value.
The bulk of the ETF component is the good ol' faithful STX40 dating back to the days when that was virtually the only ETF a layman such as myself knew about. It has done relatively well and I think I'll keep it, but no further money goes there.
Then there's a mixed bag of DBXUS, DBXWD, STXIND, BBET40, PTXTEN, STXDIV etc. A major irritation is the STXRAF (Satrix RAFI) which I bulk-purchased on the very same day as STXIND a couple of years ago - needless to say it has been shamed by most of the others especially INDI, bar STXDIV... I really thought that based on the selection of STXRAF constituents by underlying fundamentals bla bla bla, that it would be a stellar performer, but alas, it hasn't been (yet).
So the plan is to sell out on STXRAF ad STXDIV, move all to DIVTRX which I do not own yet.
Then going forward, invest in equal amounts into DIVTRX, STXIND and DBXWD (or DBXUS - not really sure, impending US rate hikes and other international economic woes coming to mind).
Any reason not to do this? Or different strategies you would follow?
