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Markets worldwide are on a slide due to subprime lending concerns in the US. Even the Philippine stock market is not spared. After experiencing a series of all-time highs during past months, Philippine equities are currently on a downtrend. 

So if you have stocks, mutual funds, or unit investment trust funds (UITF) holdings, is it time to dispose of them, hold on to them, or buy more?

Click "Read More" to see a few PMT members' opinions.

dwin shares:

As for me, my investments with Philequity will remain. Aside from the confidence I have in the fund managers, I think it's time we put into practice what we have learned so far. These include:

1. Mutual funds are meant for the long term (5 years and up)
2. Stocks will outperform all investment instruments over the long term (except maybe FOREX), come bull or bear markets
3. Low gain equals low risk, and high gain equals high risk

I've invested P500t with them, and so far I've lost 9% of the value of my shares. It's really testing my nerves right now, but I'm sticking with my plan.

the.oracle thinks:

If you're in for the long term and you don't need your money then I suggest you hold. But if this causes you sleepless nights and makes you very unproductive on your work then I guess cut loss is an option.  If you would ask for my personal opinion this is just a healthy correction. Remember we will not get to new record heights without market dips like these. Besides ganyan lang talaga sa equities.. high returns or high losses… no pain no gain.

a1roxy's thoughts:

Today i redeemed something like 50% of my investments in equity mf/uitf. I decided to cash in on the gains i made, some big, some small. The important thing is they made some gains already. As for the remaining 50%, I'll probably sell if I still see a lot of uncertainty on the markets, that is, the subprime losses not yet fully accounted for. I'll sell on the next upticks whether I make or lose money. It won't matter. I'll then try to reenter slowly (cost averaging) as I believe the equity mf/uitf navs will still go down.

I'm done with buy & hold. Investing is indeed for the long term but I'll try to buy, sell, buy & sell for the long term.

rael's opinion:

I have mixed feelings about this…

Although being in a pooled fund, I know the managers are already reallocating accordingly. I see potential in maximizing returns when you take profits at the correct time. And when equities start to come back up, then, no problem, just buy again.

I have a stop loss at -10%. I think the buy and hold strategy serves well to those who already earned huge profits (say 50% at least), such that short term market corrections are of no consequence anymore.

ekimonk thinks:

The Philippine stock market has been on a downward trend 3 weeks ago.. and with the US financial problem it just make it more obvious. The lack of liquidity meant that the market has reached a peak.. the mortgage problem just made it more obvious.

If i have enough money, I will park my money on real estate in Manila and its vicinity. This is the next target of foreign investors as our real estate prices are very much reasonable. Lots of upside…

How about you, what's your plan?

Share your thoughts in the following discussion threads in the PMT Forum:

• To redeem or not to redeem (mutual fund/UITF investments)… 
• When to get out of UITFs? 
• Stocks are down, should I hold or sell off and minimize losses? 

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 15th, 2007 at 3:20 am and is filed under Investing Guide, Investing in Mutual Funds, Investing in UITFs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.