How to cure a sickly, volatile investment portfolio

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If the stock market’s recent roller-coaster ride has you feeling a bit queasy about your investments, maybe it’s time you considered this question: How healthy is your portfolio?

That’s the question Richard Coppa poses to investors these days. Coppa is Managing Director of Wealth Health LLC, a Roseland, NJ financial advisory firm. His clients are typically in their 50s or 60s, with investable assets between $2 million and $10 million.

Maybe you don’t have millions of dollars sitting in your accounts (not yet, anyway). But if you have any money at all invested – via a 401(k) plan, your kids’ college funds or anyplace else – you’ve almost certainly noticed the crazy volatility on Wall Street lately.

On Thursday alone, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 376 points, or 3.6%, to close at 10,068.01. Meanwhile, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index on Thursday gave up 43.46 points, or 3.9%, to finish at 1,071.59.

It was only back on April 26 when the Dow and the S&P 500 both hit their 2010 highs. Now, less than a month later, both benchmarks are officially in “correction” territory, having lost more than 10% of their value.

Such wild market swings are nerve-wracking for Wall Street pros and individuals investors alike. It’s never any fun to watch your hard-earned money go down the tubes.

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