Weekly Wins: Taking a Profit in the Pro Portfolio

One thing that I love about our Pro Portfolio product is that you, as a reader, can put Chris Versace's knowledge and experience to work in several ways.

Of course, you might choose to follow his trades exactly, placing orders to mimic the portfolio immediately upon receiving each alert.

Or, you may choose to take only those trades that fit within your own goals, using Chris to help generate ideas.

Or, you may not take any of Chris' trades, instead reading all of his great analyses to help you keep abreast of the market. That's one reason why I read his Weekly Roundup.

There's an educational reason, too. Following Chris' trades, you begin to see the application of strategies that we are frequently told about, but rarely get to see in action. Like rebalancing.

Portfolio holding American Express AXP currently makes up about 3% of the portfolio. Recently, as the stock hit new highs, it had become overweighted. So, Chris took the opportunity to sell 80 of the 580 shares that had been held in the portfolio. 

Although he didn't immediately redeploy the cash into a new stock, it was a great way to show how you can reduce risk by taking profits when a holding becomes overweighted. You don't have to sell the entire position. Just take some profits.

Read more here, in Locking In Nice Gains from This Overweighted Portfolio Position.

Why is this a win? Well, Chris took those profits at around $327 and shares have fallen by about 6% since then.