Nothing!
That is pretty much what we did with our virtual Income Portfolio since our last major update on August 13th. Of course we made some adjustments in Member Chat - taking advantage of the top and bottom of our range but, on the whole, we ignored the 1,300-point up and down moves in the Dow because this portfolio is well-hedged for a 20% drop - so there's nothing about a 10% drop that's going to make us panic.
We did have a 20% drop in late July to Aug but (and see our last update) again - as we were Cashy and Cautious - all that did was make it a fine time to buy MORE stocks that were on sale - picking up stocks like WFR, SONC, IMAX, VLO, OIH, TBT and HOLI at 20% discounts to their already low prices. The volatility was expected and as I said at the time:
We stuck to our guns this week and had a lot of fun playing the wild gyrations with our short-term betting but the Income Portfolio is an exercise in managing a "low-touch" portfolio – one that does not require us to make daily adjustments. I am aware that can be frustrating for people who stare at the markets every day but that is what our short-term trade ideas are for in Member Chat. That goes for people who are retired or semi-retired too. You don’t HAVE to play every day – or any day for that matter but you do need to work one week a month and that would be this week – the week of options expirations, when we do our update (this post) and then next week we make our adjustments (if any).
I know it's hard to take the long view of the markets, especially if you are also a short-term trader - as it can be very difficult to switch gears as you go back and forth between portfolios but you MUST learn to take that other view.
