Thursday, August 1, 2013

Hedge the Risk of Loss


Investopedia presents a thorough examination of hedging an investment, starting with this definition:
A position undertaken by an investor that would eliminate the risk of an existing position, or a position that eliminates all market risk from a portfolio. In order to be a perfect hedge, a position would need to have a 100% inverse correlation to the initial position. As such, the perfect hedge is rarely found. See the full article:

Like many other do-it-yourself portfolio managers, I hedge by diversifying my capital first among the following:
• Well-researched individual stocks. For examples, see:

• The no-load inverse mutual fund GRZZX. See:

• An MLP yielding double digits. See:

• Also, I own an ETF invested in stocks paying dividends. And:
• An ETF invested in U.S. Treasury bonds. And:
• An ETF invested in a portfolio of real-estate investment trusts. And:
• A gold-miner ETF.
For ETF screens, you can go to:

Finally:
• I don’t own stock options, though perhaps I should—but I don’t know much about them. I do know Investopedia has an excellent explanation of stock options:  
“The advantage of options is that you aren't limited to making a profit only when the market goes up. Because of the versatility of options, you can also make money when the market goes down or even sideways.” Continuing what Investopedia says:
Another function of options “is hedging. Think of this as an insurance policy. Just as you insure your house or car, options can be used to insure your investments against a downturn.”
For the full rundown on stock options, go to:

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