So far in 2013, we've seen themarket basically tread water.
After the huge fiscal cliff deal inspired buying in the first
trading day of the year, the markets have drifted lower, and we are
right about where we were when we started the year.
Now, if we step back a bit and look at what's happened tostocks
over the past six months, we see that stocks have enjoyed a very
nicebullish run.
The broad measure of the biggest stocks in the domestic market,
the S&P 500index , has delivered a total return of 9.5% over
the past half year (from July 11, 2012 through Jan. 11, 2013).
That's very strong performance for a major average, and if you've
been invested in the biggest winners in the index -- e.g.,
First Solar (Nasdaq: FSLR)
+125.5%,
Sprint Nextel (
S
)
+86.2%,
PulteGroup (
PHM
)
+79.9% -- then you're likely a very happy trader.
Unfortunately, most of us have at least a few S&P 500 dogs
in our portfolio, and by that Imean stocks that have woefully
underperformed the overall index. These are stocks that you can't
afford to sit around and wait for to make a comeback.
The table below shows the biggest losers in the S&P 500 over
the past six months.
The list here reads like a who's who of large-cap tech, with
Hewlett-Packard (
HPQ
)
and
Advanced Micro Devices (
AMD
)
both registering big losses over the past six months. AMD's drop of
47.49% represents the single biggest loss on the S&P 500 since
July 11, 2012.
One techstock that just barely missed being in the bottom 15 is
Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL)
. Once the must-own stock for traders and investors, Appleshares
have had a dismal latter half of 2012, down 13.15% versus the
S&P 500's gain of nearly 10%.
Other notable decliners on the list are discount retailers
Ross Stores (Nasdaq: ROST)
,
Family Dollar Stores (
FDO
)
,
Dollar General (DG)
,
Dollar Tree (Nasdaq: DLTR)
and
BigLots (BIG)
. The discount retail sector has not been where you want to shop
with your trading capital, and until things turn around, it's best
to avoid the sector.
Action to Take -->
If you own the stocks on this list, then they represent alot of
underbrush in your portfolio. In order for you to clear the fields
and move forward in 2013, you should probably sell now. Doing
sowill allow you to raisecash , and then reallocate that cash to
companies with a better chance of achieving your tradingprofit
goals.
This article originally appeared on ProfitableTrading.com:
15 Underperforming Stocks to Sell Today