It’s usually good to pay attention to trading fees and make sure they are reasonable. Determining trading execution quality is the difficult part of the equation (and I do not have a way of measuring this), but the other side is trading commissions. Commissions are also a reasonable proxy for trading activity.
Let’s set 2019’s entire trading commission paid as 4X.
Thus, an average quarter’s commissions paid in 2019 was X.
Here is the series of commissions paid in 2020:
Q1-2020: 1.54X
Q2-2020: 1.48X
Q3-2020: 0.56X
Q4-2020 (year to date): 0.35X
I’ve been mostly sitting on my thumbs for the second half of the year and for the most part am happy I have done so.
Any of my readers out there would like to comment on your relative activity level for this wild 2020 year?
I was on vacation for much in the downturn, so didn’t do much, but luckily got back just as the market bottomed and was able to sell some things that held up relatively well and buy a bunch of beaten down things. But I am in agreement with you and sitting and holding the stocks I own and like and not finding anything super compellingly new.
But as we get to year end, quite a number of stocks have gotten to levels where I’ve started a bit of selling and raising a bit more cash. Stocks like HDI in Canada, which had a huge move, or Mexican Airport PAC which is already back to pretty close to its previous highs or Payment Processor EVTC at all-time highs.
I have a few stocks I am watching like Airplane Parts Maker, HRX, the Industrial Equipment guys WJX and CERV, and I would like to get a 3rd gold miner, but we certainly are due for a pullback with the Russell 2000 having a record quarter.