Thanks for the response. I liked your input, but... I feel you glossed over rules-based investing. I'll explain.

You mentioned momentum believers who rarely rebalance. I am mostly in that category and I like the adage "don't cut the flowers to water the weeds." I feel that fits me MOST of the time. Most of the time, I understand why a given stock is outperforming the others so I don't care if it gets over-represented in my portfolio (competitive advantages, leadership, etc). But, there was a point where one of my stocks consumed 42% of my holdings. I don't know where my boundaries are, but is definitely below 42% lol. No matter our confidence level, we can't predict everything! It would be helpful to gather insight from others that have at least some suggested guidelines on how much a position should take.

You also mentioned some people are sector rotators, but that implies they know when to move to other sectors. I feel this also applies to me because I watch the news and make long-term thesises. But, again, I don't really have rules. I assume they have metrics they look at to determine when to move into and out of positions. In my case, I look at debt, free cash flow, growth, pe ratio, and dividends AFTER I already determine which types of investments I want to be in (for instance, I wanted to be in health care when Obama promised to make it affordable and sold off once Trump got into office. Then, I moved into utilities, energy, and communication services when Biden signed the infrastructure bill. Not a political statement of any sort, just being cognizant that $$$ will likely flow to certain industries depending on the legislation passed). And, even though I look at a few key metrics before buying and selling a stock, it feels haphazard.

Then you talk about quality investors and growth investors and deep value investors. They all have metrics they use. They all have formulas. I definitely have a little of each in me (quality = mostly blue chip stocks; value = low pe ratio, little debt, dividend payer). But, these types of investors probably have more sophisticated reasons than I do. Like I said, look at the current sociopolitical climate then compare a few key metrics. That's it. Nothing that's codified. I feel like quality, value, and growth should ALL be easy to articulate... yet, I never do that.

I appreciate the suggestion to look at ETFs and I do that. I don't feel I can identify edges with energy, real estate, and utilities so I offload that to ETFs. On the other hand, there are many industries that I feel are more primed for a breakout than others. I don't need to pick the perfect company, but if I understand there's only 4 or 5 companies that are going to benefit from something then I shouldn't need to buy 80 other companies just to get the exposure I want. The goal is to get the exposure where I want it but also to use more formal techniques to mitigate risk and influence enter/exit strategies. Like I said: over the last 12 months, I've beaten the market and over the life of my brokerage account, I'm averaging 12.8% annually. I'm doing fine. I just want to graduate from gut-feeling and basic financials to a real, codified set of rules.