Topic: How To Invest

What is Pat’s commentary for the week of April 7, 2015

Article Excerpt

“Averaging down” and “averaging in” sound similar, but a wide gap separates the two. Mixing them up can cost you money. Averaging down is the well-known trader’s tactic of buying more shares of a stock you own as the price falls. The idea is that this will cut your average cost per share. That way, you make more money (per share, at least) when the stock turns around and goes up. One problem with averaging down is you are betting you were right when you bought the stock the first time. You assume the $20 stock you bought is an even better buy at $15. You may be right. You may be ignoring warning signs, because you don’t want to admit you were wrong. If you routinely average down, you introduce a negative filter into your investment process. Rather than regularly reassessing your holdings, you zero in on your losers. You ignore the risk that stocks sometimes drop due to newly…