Why I Sold All Of My Stocks (I Only Invest In ETFs)

So at this point, since you’ve probably read the title, you know that Dennis and I have sold off all of our investments in individual stocks - well, maybe not all of them just yet, but we have started to sell them, and plan to get rid of all of them from our portfolios over the next couple of months.

If you’ve been watching our videos, then you probably aren’t surprised, because we’ve been talking about investing in passive ETFs for a while now - but, if you’re new, you might be wondering why we aren’t investing in any single stocks, especially when you think about all of the arguments out there, and stories from other people, about investing in single stocks and analyzing what the best ones are.

In this video, we'll break down why we started investing in single stocks in the first place, what we learned from the experience, and why we plan to sell all of our single stocks and only invest in passive ETFs moving forward.

Do you invest in single stocks? Let us know in the comments below!

0:00 We sold (almost) all of our single stocks
1:16 Here's why we started investing in stocks...
3:48 ...but we learned stock picking = active investing
6:58 Passive investments outperform active investments
9:56 Here's what our stock portfolio looks now

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Disclaimer - This content is for education and entertainment purposes only. Steph & Den do not provide tax or investment advice. The information is being presented without consideration of the investment objectives, risk tolerance, or financial circumstances of any specific investor and might not be suitable for all investors. Past performance is not indicative of future results. All investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal.

[vantrichardson]

“If you aren't thinking about owning a stock for ten years, don't even think about owning it for ten minutes.” That's typically been my approach for purchasing individual positions and the ones I've chose seem to have good business models and are predictable which are things I typically lean toward. Every individual stock I own has a specific task. Some are for growth while others could be for dividends to aid me in DCA'ing into positions if I have a hard financial month ( I'm a photographer ) Overall, Index funds are my largest position solely because they aren't as attractive and I dont need to look for anything large for the next 30+ years just stay consistent and let it run in the background.

[IOSAShorts]

Steph & Den, This is fantastic! I subscribed right away!

[latreasepurnell]

One of the best and most simplistic video explanations that made it easy to understand. Appreciate it guys!

[shayankhawaja]

Thanks to you guys for bringing me to this ETFs path: Currently, XQQ 20%, VFV 30% and XEQT 50%. For now, setup the auto deposit every 2 weeks, min 10 year investment goal with 15% of my income. Started with Tfsa.

[RainMan]

ETFs are the Canadian get out of jail card.

[PeterParker-wjcr]

Hey guys! Absolutely love your channel. You are helping guide millions of Canadians' out there! Keep up the great work!I just wanted to add my 2 cents to this video. I also sold off the majority of my individual stocks. The reality is, if you don't know how to value a company. You will be blindly buying the stock, just hoping it goes higher. Hope and luck isn't a prudent strategy. I think what most investors do, is put all their money into exciting individual stocks, blindly. So my advice. At least 50 to 70% of your hard earned money should be in an index/etf. Actually even as high as 90%. The remaining 10% you can try your luck with individual stocks. But the bulk of your money or net worth should be held in an quality low expense ratio ETF. I'm in VFV. And i'm here to tell you. My net worth has grown exponentially since 2020. I look at the individual stocks that i currently own as my bonuses. But i'm no reliant on the short term success of them. So that alone allows me to be patience with them. Plus if any of them went to zero. It would financially ruin me, because they are only a small percentage in my portfolio!

[tariqs]

While the market is up and you've got some high returns on individual stocks and they've hit new highs and may be getting overvalued it may be wise to take profits and convert that $$ into ets to limit the downside. It may be okay in tfsa, rsp and similar accounts but others you may want to consider taxes and see what makes more sense. If the market hits lows some individual stocks get cheaper than the market as they did 6+ months ago at that point the reverse might make sense also (selling etfs to buy some individual stocks) for higher returns. I like to see this done with a portion of the portfolio and not betting the farm on it just fyi.

[foodmens]

🎉 just what I was thinking. I also sold out of individual stocks. I lost 7k of my money Im bad at picking stocks and I dont have access to the information before hand like large institutional investors do

[davidbacani]

Are you guys part of the blossom community? :)

I invest my money to XEQT and VFV mainly tho I still have individual stocks will get rid of those once I get back my returns. :)

[HiepTran-pvzr]

I agree with you guys! I use most of my investment in etf or gic that slowly grow with capital gain and dividents. I think it is a peace of mind when you can spend your energy making more money and knowing that your investment is growing day by day.

[petermozuraitis]

I have the standard: SP 500, Canadian, and International/ emerging market ETF portfolio, also with a dividend etf (xdiv) because the idea of frequent compounding dividends is appealing, but I may sell that and allocate the value through the other etf’s. The only individual stocks I hold are enbridge and Telus; the annual dividend is nice and they are enduring Canadian companies that seem to be really safe over the medium to long term.

[TheDuke]

Good point.. the market has been crazy lately, a few surprises here and there.. with all the global happenings taking place I think it's safe to say that a severe global recession is looming..

[hge]

It's very interesting the psychology when you invest in the stock market, the most difficult part is having patience. Stick to the plan for the long term is the best thing, I am starting to invest more on ETFs as well.

[wccnptm]

I really enjoy individual stocks, especially if you are playing with house money or funds you are okay with losing. I love having faith in a position, knowing that one day it will thrive. I've had a few times when -40% turned into 100% returns. It's pretty cool, but again, I only play with what I'm willing to lose, like $30 a week, for example. Now I'm looking into ETFs and hoping they come down a bit (VFV) so I can try it again and maybe DCA? I don't know, but I'm looking forward to the journey.

[Vcmadhavi]

Need a financial planning advice for new comer in Canada... Would you please create a video series on that.... How to balance investments home and other expenses ( Car, etc...)

[HouseOfBurgz]

I believe passive investing is the most foolproof way to keep up with inflation and also making a return on your investments.

It really comes down to time in the market. The longer the better. Especially now with robo advisors it’s much easier to set aside a certain amount for the long term and ride the volatility decreasing your risk the closer you get to your goals

Great topic to cover and as always keep going! 🍊

[deetiligo]

Hi I just bought etfs nvidia 15 shares and tge rest of mag7 1 share for each, in the next 10 years for every 30days Imma put money in 200-500 split in all. Goal is to buy and hold. That’s my strategy, Imma a beginner at this and I hope I made the right decision. What do yall think? Any recommendations or suggestions?

[buyDFL]

My husband & I decided to do the same thing & have slowly been selling out of our single stocks too.

[richarddesir]

One of the biggest mistakes that I've made in my life and one that I regret everyday is not investing in individual stocks years ago because my skillset is perfectly suited for it. I agree that most people are better off investing in ETFs, indexes, and mutual funds because investing in individual stocks takes a particular skillset but as with everything else there's always a small % of the population that can succeed or thrive at something where most people might not. IMO it's worth at least trying it, even if it's initially in a paper account, to see if you're one of those people. Unfortunately for me it took years for me to take the leap because i was intimidated but once I did individual stock picking turned out to be much more lucrative for me over the long term. BTW, the way you handle your finances is the complete opposite of how I handle mine but you're both so engaging I can't help but watch 🙂

[johntryl]

Single stocks when buying in the Canadian markets. ETF's when buying in global markets. Single stocks are more risk more reward, etf's are less risk less reward. It's nice to have a mix. I also pick up a lottery ticket every couple of months...extremely high risk of losing, but extremely high rewards, and some day I swear my numbers will come up lol. It's al gambling no matter which path you choose eh. Another chill vid, love the work, keep it up.