" I also stopped listening to podcasts that seemed to give buy/hold/sell recommendations. Like not buying a tub of ice cream when you do the weekly shop. If it's in the freezer, I'll eat it." - Bahahahahahahahaa - I can relate to this.

I'm not sure to answer your question. I mean, if something has a 1/5 chance of 10xing, and a 4/5 chance of going to zero, then a 1% holding probably makes sense for that type of position.

Sometimes have a similar thought. I think sometimes some of those losers are there due to some corporate restructuring or other actions, so I've always been somewhat 'lazy' to clear them off even if they're worth a penny, as it means a heck of a lot of digging and paperwork. I still have a less than $1k in RMS (Ramelius) - good capital gains over the years since acquired, but the amount is so small it hardly moves the dial. For the psychology of it I've always wanted to wipe the slate clean, albeit I inherited the shares from a much larger $ position in from memory, via Aurex GOld? or something like that - forgot the name, became Bullabulling gold, vested some tenements into a private vehicle - AUzex resources or something, and somehow I ended up with a stake in Ramelius when they took over. Basically several reiterations, and frankly the headache of working out all the capital /corporate events at tax time fills me with fear and inaction haha.

Normally you could ignore consolidations and changes in share numbers if selling outright, as you just take your overall cost at inception (with whatever company you had), but in my case part assets had return of capital at the times, merges and demerges etc. all mean the original cost base doesn't hold true. I'm abit more savvy, but i can imagine some less clued up investors it would be off-putting.

When the amounts are so small too (your losers) it also feels harder to wipe the slate clean, as you kind of think what will you do with the pennies left? But i guess there's a psychological aspect, and also sticking to a written plan or strategy that holds merit in the long run, whereas if you leave every loser in there you start to stray from these.

I did it last year, in the worlds worst timing I think I sold just before and during the market shitting itself and by the time I got my cash and started buying businesses the market had done some recovery. (this was also due to me moving brokers manually instead of signing the paper form they asked). Ouch. It cost me a little, but I don't regret it.

I'm way more confidence about my holdings now - I realized I only have time to keep track of / research a small number of businesses and the rest is dumped into lower risk index based ETFs. I like the simplicity - so what Claude said totally makes sense to me.

As far as podcasts with buy/sell/hold recommendations go - I 100% agree, I've had to reduce how often I listen to any investing podcasts lately, and how many I do because it biases me to take actions that I probably shouldn't take.

Tried pivoting towards the winners and the ones which I felt were better ideas while cutting some miners, particularly Gold. This was to make things more manageable

Although I got some right. few of ones I cut Falcon Metals, Carnaby Resources (Copper/Gold) and Alkane Resources (Gold) have been up since.

So is Gold dead? Not always the case.

Ultimately, it depends on your circumstances.

Over time, I've become a big believer in concentration, and whilst diversification protects against the downside, it also limits the upside. Diversification is great for the new investor and may or may not work for the more experienced one depending on goals, capital base, time horizon or other issues.

Concentration is what builds seriously big wealth and I am actively looking to trim losers are every opportunity, hence conviction is huge.

Trimming is still bloody hard to do.

YMMV and DYOR etc.

@BigStrawbs70 that makes a lot of sense. Thinking I would have the same feelings once done.

Always a hard question re timing. i am generally of the belief that the market dictates timing to you, not you to it. having said that, now is probably not a bad time to readjust. i have just done it, forced due to external factors, so have slimmed down the portfolio. too many stocks become very difficult to keep on top off. i feel good with the new port.

as regards investment shows, i find it more "entertainment" than actually aiding decision making. one of the (only?) uses is to gauge where consensus is, or what the concerns are in the market on any stock i hold (or am interested in). i find that very useful, as opposed to a buy/sell call which is not useful, imo. the micro guys add some value. i am not a fan of Jun BL on ausbiz but she usually does a great summary of consensus, some others cant even do that.

@Solvetheriddle I think you're right. Especially with The Call, I thought I was listening in to extract that kind of consensus but found it was having a subconscious influence on my thinking. If not that, then I genuinely think it was leading to some over-trading and letting in the evil urge to "take action" even though the states show that this is a terrible idea.

I have a double it or sell it rule for holding that drop below 2% as it's not going to move the needle where it is.

Typically in my experience when you want 'blank slate' sell down to safe holdings is generally the exact wrong time to do this ha ha

Great post.

I went from having almost 50 stocks and ETFs to now only 13 stocks and 3 ETFs - and I feel I have a much better handle of "what I own and why I own it" now.

Why I had so many stocks is not worth going into in detail...

The only thing I'll add that has not been covered is it doesn't have to be an all or nothing thing... you can take your time to get the portfolio down to what you want (which is what I did).

What I found is the more I took stocks out and consolidated into the ones I had confidence in the more I was OK with the few I sold that then went on to rally (and as you pointed out most of them we small enough position s that even a 50% gain would not have had much effect on my whole portfolio anyway).

I still have a couple of stocks I am considering off loading and maybe getting rid of the 1 or 2 of the ETFs to streamline it further.

I don't mind this, as it creates the impetus to do what is most important - break any inertia and actually force yourself to reassess the position.