How many stocks should you own to be diversified?
Those numbers weren't pulled out of a hat – there have been a few academic studies that suggest as few as 20-30 stocks achieve most of the benefit of portfolio diversification when investing in the stock market.
How many different stocks should you own? The average diversified portfolio holds between 20 and 30 stocks. The Motley Fool's position is that investors should own at least 25 different stocks.
A portfolio of 10 or more stocks, particularly those across various sectors or industries, is much less risky than a portfolio of only two stocks.
$10,000 is an excellent amount to start investing in individual companies. For example, you could buy $1,000 of stock in 10 companies or $500 of stock in 20 companies. However, self-directed investing requires you to do your research to make informed decisions.
The common rule of asset allocation by age is that you should hold a percentage of stocks that is equal to 100 minus your age. So if you're 40, you should hold 60% of your portfolio in stocks. Since life expectancy is growing, changing that rule to 110 minus your age or 120 minus your age may be more appropriate.
As the number of stocks in a portfolio reach 20-25, the volatility reducing benefits of diversification reach near zero. This is the sweet spot for portfolio size for an investor seeking to beat the market. At 20-25 stocks, you've captured all the potential benefits of diversification with even the right stocks.
A diversified portfolio should have a broad mix of investments. For years, many financial advisors recommended building a 60/40 portfolio, allocating 60% of capital to stocks and 40% to fixed-income investments such as bonds. Meanwhile, others have argued for more stock exposure, especially for younger investors.
It's the one rough adage investors who survive bear markets know about. The rule is very simple. If you own an individual stock that falls 10% or more from what you paid, you sell.
Even if you have a huge stock portfolio, say more than Rs 1 crore, the number of shares you own should not exceed 20-25; you need to know that your time commands a value. Having too many stocks is fine only if you're an active investor or if investing is your business or career.
Here's the number of stocks you should own in portfolios, according to professional money managers. Portfolio concentration is risky. Targeting 20 to 30 stocks is common advice, but many pros own more. Pros tend to own lots of stocks, but they weigh them unequally.
What will $10 000 be worth in 30 years?
If you invest $10,000 and make an 8% annual return, you'll have $100,627 after 30 years. By also investing $500 per month over that timeframe, your ending balance would be $780,326. Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and mutual funds are both excellent investment options.
If the average dividend yield of your portfolio is 4%, you'd need a substantial investment to generate $3,000 per month. To be precise, you'd need an investment of $900,000. This is calculated as follows: $3,000 X 12 months = $36,000 per year.
The truth is that most investors won't have the money to generate $1,000 per month in dividends; not at first, anyway. Even if you find a market-beating series of investments that average 3% annual yield, you would still need $400,000 in up-front capital to hit your targets. And that's okay.
For example, if you're 30, you should keep 70% of your portfolio in stocks. If you're 70, you should keep 30% of your portfolio in stocks. However, with Americans living longer and longer, many financial planners are now recommending that the rule should be closer to 110 or 120 minus your age.
Experts with the Motley Fool suggest allocating an even higher percentage to stocks until at least age 50 since 50-year-olds still have more than a decade until retirement to ride out any market volatility.
The Rule of 90 is a grim statistic that serves as a sobering reminder of the difficulty of trading. According to this rule, 90% of novice traders will experience significant losses within their first 90 days of trading, ultimately wiping out 90% of their initial capital.
Having a mixture of equities (stocks), fixed income investments (bonds), cash and cash equivalents, and real assets including property can help you maintain a well-balanced portfolio. Generally, it's wise to include at least two different asset classes if you want a diversified portfolio.
Most experts tell beginners that if you're going to invest in individual stocks, you should ultimately try to have at least 10 to 15 different stocks in your portfolio to properly diversify your holdings.
Most studies use the fully diversified portfolio as a benchmark and then derive that a portfolio of 20-30 stocks achieves a 'similar' risk profile as the target portfolio.
All in all, these results demonstrate that effective diversification depends on portfolio style. For large-cap portfolios, there's little to be gained by diversifying beyond 15 stock or so. For small-cap portfolios, peak diversification is achieved with around 26 stocks.
How much portfolio diversification is enough?
As a general rule of thumb, most investors would peg a sufficiently diversified portfolio as one that holds 20 to 30 investments across various stock market sectors. However, others favor keeping a larger number of stocks, especially if they're riskier growth stocks.
Top stocks Warren Buffett owns by size
Berkshire Hathaway owns positions in more than 40 stocks. Here are the holding company's top 10 stocks ranked by value: Data source: Berkshire Hathaway regulatory filings. Valuations current as of the time of writing.
Diversification is key
Diversification is the process of spreading your investments across asset classes. In doing so, you're attempting to offset any potential losses by investing in assets ranging from low to high risk.
2.1 First Golden Rule: 'Buy what's worth owning forever'
This rule tells you that when you are selecting which stock to buy, you should think as if you will co-own the company forever.
Spend Less and Save More
However, it is the key to your financial success. Though it is boring, only by spending less and saving will help you through your wealth management process. To create wealth, you need to have surplus funds to invest. Simply exhausting your income and not saving is not going to make you rich.
