{"id":7038338,"date":"2026-08-15T21:52:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T21:52:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/business\/investing\/how-often-should-you-check-your-portfolio\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T21:52:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T21:52:17","slug":"how-often-should-you-check-your-portfolio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7038338","title":{"rendered":"How Often Should You Check Your Portfolio?"},"content":{"rendered":"


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I wrote about new all-time highs<\/a> in the stock market recently. There have been nearly 1,400 new highs on the S&P 500 since 1950.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s 7% of all trading days in this time.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a long-term investor, you\u2019re going to be living through a ton of new all-time highs in your investing lifecycle.<\/p>\n

However, you\u2019ll also spend a lot of time in a state of drawdown. If 7% of all trading days have been new highs, that means 93% of the time the market would have down from all-time highs.<\/p>\n

If you take all trading days \u2014 from new highs to crashes and everything in-between \u2014 on average you would have been in an 11% drawdown over the past 75 years or so. On 56% of all trading days, you would be down 5% or more from all-time highs. More than 40% of the time the stock market has been in a double-digit drawdown since 1950.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the data:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Assuming the future plays out like the past (not a guarantee obviously) there are a few different takeaways from this data.<\/p>\n

One is what I\u2019ve been preaching here for well over a decade \u2014 the drawdowns will always sting but as long as you\u2019re patient the new highs will come eventually.<\/p>\n

But I also look at this data through a pain-minimization lens. Right now we are trading at or near all-time highs. Most of the time this will not be the case.<\/p>\n

Since losses hurt twice as bad as gains make you feel good, this means you should avoid looking at your portfolio value on a regular basis. The more you look the better chance of seeing a drawdown from a previously high level.<\/p>\n

That could induce mistakes in your investment process if volatility in markets causes volatility in your emotions.<\/p>\n

I wrote about this in\u00a0Risk & Reward<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>using Richard Thaler\u2019s idea of myopic loss aversion to show why the stock market makes you feel worse the more you look:<\/p>\n