Topic: How To Invest

Hi Pat: My question is about re-balancing my portfolio. I have a specific case, but if you can make suggestions overall, I would appreciate that. In the case of Torstar, my percent gain is 134%, compared to an 18.6% gain in my overall portfolio over the past year or so. As a result, Torstar now makes up 7.9% of my invested equity portfolio. Even though you still have Torstar as a Best Buy, should I sell part of this? Thanks.

Article Excerpt

When investing for our portfolio-management clients, we rarely put much more than 5% of a portfolio in any one stock. If a stock does so well that it comes to represent more than 10% of a client’s portfolio, we at least consider selling part of it to cut the risk. In addition to the weight that the stock carries in your portfolio, however, we also consider how much of your portfolio is invested in the stock’s economic sector. Suppose you start out with 5% of your portfolio in a particular stock, and that stock does so well that it now makes up 10% of your portfolio. Now, suppose the sector the stock is in has come to make up, say, 28% of your portfolio. In that case, we wouldn’t feel any great compulsion to sell just to reduce your exposure to the stock or sector. On the other hand, if you now have, say, 38% or more of your portfolio in that…