Equity Management 101...

Rule Number 1: Stay current with the times.

My parents have just asked me (as a result of this blog) to manage the money in their retirement accounts. That money is untouchable until they're 59 1/2 anyway. However, they want me to update their portfolio to fit with today's market. I'm young, so I can afford to invest very aggressively and risky. For their portfolio, I have a different approach.

1. In a portfolio mainly bought during the tech boom of the late 90's, there's tons of remnants of that past: SUNW, CSCO, HPQ, UIS, LU, AGR... Sorry all, you're the first to go. (This follows my rule of "if you can't name a product that your company makes, you shouldn't own it." Anyone know what AGR or UIS makes? No clue..)
2. I probably won't buy index funds, but I'm planning on companies that'll continuously pay out dividends - more specifically Dow components, S&P components... Stable companies for the stable soon to be retiree.
3. Though stability is the way to go, I think I'll add a TINY bit of risk into their portfolio. For flavor. One or two (non-major) positions in a company with definitely room to grow: DNA for one.
4. Since my parents retirement accounts are in Roth IRAs, they don't need to worry about getting capital gains taxes. I should set a percentage gain and sell afterwards. You don't want to buy and hold for so long that your portfolio is stale and stuck in the tech boom days of the 90s.
5. 90/10. If you've reached your percentage gain, or a healthy gain regardless, and want to realize some of those gains, there's no need to sell all your shares. I read from Jim Cramer that you should save a small amount of shares (i.e. 10 shares) just in case. If you really believe in your company (like in many cases, I totally do), then you should have very little to worry about

I made a purchase earlier this morning of CQB for them. Even though shareholders dumped it after they reported earnings last week, I still think it's a good long term buy.