Been investing for a couple years now. Started out pure buy and hold, mostly index funds with a few individual names I liked. Felt like the responsible thing to do: don't touch it, let it ride, tune out the noise.
But the more I watch the market, the harder that is. Something rips and I want to take profits. Something dips and I'm sitting there going, do I add or do I bail? So I started getting more hands-on, and yeah, results have been all over the place. Sometimes I nail the timing. Usually I just rack up taxable events and miss the bounce lol.
What I do now is kind of split it. Got a core stack I don't touch no matter what, and a smaller pile I let myself mess around with. Scratches the itch without nuking the long game.
I'm mainly a crypto guy so the volatility doesn't faze me. I run my stock side through тrading 212 and keep my crypto on nexo, and honestly the crypto side kinda spoils you on flexibility. Like on nexo I can just borrow against my bags without selling, so I've got cash to move and still keep my position. Over on the stock side I can't really do that. Keep wishing my broker let me borrow against my holdings the same way, and if one already does it I haven't found it.
Feels like everyone lands somewhere different on this though. Some people swear by never touching it, others are in there every week. I don't think there's one right answer, mostly just curious where other people draw the line between the part they leave alone and the part they actively play with.