No-look November 2018
Posted: September 30th, 2018, 8:56 am
Yep, it's nearly that time of year again folks....
Just over 12 months ago, some of us here had a try at going through the whole month of November 2017 without looking at our investment portfolios.
Now it's true that those of a more Doris-like nature will shrug their shoulders at that suggestion, and ask what the fuss would be about, but I know there's many other posters and readers, like me, who find it difficult not to keep a watchful-eye on things, especially when online portfolios and Excel spreadsheets make it so easy to do so....
This is why 'No-Look November' is such an interesting experiment. We're not only testing our ability to stay away from the hourly or daily investment-related figures, but I can say without a doubt that simply going through last year's test has helped me tremendously in both lowering the frequency that I now need to see how my investment are doing, and also in allowing me to generally just keep an eye on my overall portfolio status when I do so now, and avoid the need to delve into any real detail about individual holdings, unless it's really warranted by external events.
Hand on heart, I went into last year's experiment as someone who habitually pored over their investments on an almost daily basis, even when I can count the number of actual market-activities that I carried out over the whole of 2017 as a really very small number of actual interventions.
I couldn't really justify that position, and I really wanted to do something about that, as I simply didn't see the need for me worrying too much about my portfolio either so often, or at such a level of detail, and I can honestly say that my attitude to both of those aspects is very much improved as I sit here now, compared to how I was before last year's experiment. It really did do me the power of good in trying to overcome what was a constant 'itch' to constantly check things out...
So, if anyone would be interested in joining me in the 2018 'No-Look November' Challenge, here's your chance to do so....
Here's the 2017 thread to see the really quite arbitrary rules we came up with, and how people got on -
https://www.lemonfool.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=7999
Having just re-read the above thread, it was really interesting to see how others taking part saw the benefit of it too, especially at the end where we were comparing portfolio-performance against market-performance over the self-imposed 'closed period'.
It was that single set of figures that gave me the real confidence to act on the experiment and lower both the frequency that I felt I needed to check on things, and also on the level of those checks, and I urge anyone who feels any affinity with the type of 'constant-checking' issue that we're trying to manage here to have a read of the above thread, especially the latter sections, and see how the portfolio performances over that 'closed period' can really help us see that all we're really doing by constantly checking all the time is following the market noise, and nothing more...
Nowadays, I might take a quick look at my overall portfolio and portfolio value a couple of times a week, and I habitually take some figures at the close of play every Friday night, just for record purposes really. That's a huge improvement on my previous habits, and is something I don't have any problem maintaining nowadays....
I should add here that when we carried out the experiment last year, it was acknowledged that there may always be valid reasons for having to check things out, and things like corporate-actions and purchase/sale-events that need to be processed will always be unavoidable no matter what we're trying to do with things like this, but what I think we all agreed on when this was discussed, was that we were just trying to test ourselves on those really quite frivolous checks that we carry out almost habitually - it's those that we're wanting to try to get ourselves weaned off, so it's fully acknowledged that the test should only be against those types of 'Looks', rather than anything more serious that we all may quite rightly still need to carry out.
If the above rings any bells for anyone, and you'd like to test yourself against the 'No-Look November' challenge this year, then it would be great to hear from you.
We've got the month of October to steel ourselves to the task - do you think you'd be able to do it?
Cheers,
Itsallaguess
Just over 12 months ago, some of us here had a try at going through the whole month of November 2017 without looking at our investment portfolios.
Now it's true that those of a more Doris-like nature will shrug their shoulders at that suggestion, and ask what the fuss would be about, but I know there's many other posters and readers, like me, who find it difficult not to keep a watchful-eye on things, especially when online portfolios and Excel spreadsheets make it so easy to do so....
This is why 'No-Look November' is such an interesting experiment. We're not only testing our ability to stay away from the hourly or daily investment-related figures, but I can say without a doubt that simply going through last year's test has helped me tremendously in both lowering the frequency that I now need to see how my investment are doing, and also in allowing me to generally just keep an eye on my overall portfolio status when I do so now, and avoid the need to delve into any real detail about individual holdings, unless it's really warranted by external events.
Hand on heart, I went into last year's experiment as someone who habitually pored over their investments on an almost daily basis, even when I can count the number of actual market-activities that I carried out over the whole of 2017 as a really very small number of actual interventions.
I couldn't really justify that position, and I really wanted to do something about that, as I simply didn't see the need for me worrying too much about my portfolio either so often, or at such a level of detail, and I can honestly say that my attitude to both of those aspects is very much improved as I sit here now, compared to how I was before last year's experiment. It really did do me the power of good in trying to overcome what was a constant 'itch' to constantly check things out...
So, if anyone would be interested in joining me in the 2018 'No-Look November' Challenge, here's your chance to do so....
Here's the 2017 thread to see the really quite arbitrary rules we came up with, and how people got on -
https://www.lemonfool.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=7999
Having just re-read the above thread, it was really interesting to see how others taking part saw the benefit of it too, especially at the end where we were comparing portfolio-performance against market-performance over the self-imposed 'closed period'.
It was that single set of figures that gave me the real confidence to act on the experiment and lower both the frequency that I felt I needed to check on things, and also on the level of those checks, and I urge anyone who feels any affinity with the type of 'constant-checking' issue that we're trying to manage here to have a read of the above thread, especially the latter sections, and see how the portfolio performances over that 'closed period' can really help us see that all we're really doing by constantly checking all the time is following the market noise, and nothing more...
Nowadays, I might take a quick look at my overall portfolio and portfolio value a couple of times a week, and I habitually take some figures at the close of play every Friday night, just for record purposes really. That's a huge improvement on my previous habits, and is something I don't have any problem maintaining nowadays....
I should add here that when we carried out the experiment last year, it was acknowledged that there may always be valid reasons for having to check things out, and things like corporate-actions and purchase/sale-events that need to be processed will always be unavoidable no matter what we're trying to do with things like this, but what I think we all agreed on when this was discussed, was that we were just trying to test ourselves on those really quite frivolous checks that we carry out almost habitually - it's those that we're wanting to try to get ourselves weaned off, so it's fully acknowledged that the test should only be against those types of 'Looks', rather than anything more serious that we all may quite rightly still need to carry out.
If the above rings any bells for anyone, and you'd like to test yourself against the 'No-Look November' challenge this year, then it would be great to hear from you.
We've got the month of October to steel ourselves to the task - do you think you'd be able to do it?
Cheers,
Itsallaguess