Topic: How To Invest

What is Pat’s commentary for the week of May 28, 2024

Article Excerpt

Averaging down is the antiquated investment practice of buying more shares of a stock you own as the price falls. The goal is to cut your average cost per share. That way, you make more money (more per share, at least) when the stock turns around and goes up. Another way of looking at averaging down is that you’re betting you were right when you bought the stock in the first place. You assume your $20 stock pick is an even better buy at $15. You may be “right-but-early,” as the saying goes. Or you may be disregarding warning signs that will keep driving the stock down, 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 and try to “fix” your losers by cutting your average cost. You ignore the risk that stocks sometimes drop due to newly…