Agree mate, individual situation will ascertain what sort of position size you can allot to different portions of the market.
Personally as a generic example would never put more than 20% into spec stocks, and with that I would never put more than 1/8th into any 1 position, such that it had diversity to cope with the larger % losses/gains seen in the spec side.
that's a pretty risk-happy example too, I know many who would see 20% in specs as a large gamble and personally I use 10%.
I have 50% LT large caps, 40% mid-cap growth stocks (usually in safe industries or with some sort of market advantage/niche) and 10% to trade/spec play.
So any individual position would be a max of 1.25% of my total portfolio (at the start). I feel this is acceptable for my circumstance, I'm fairly young and have plenty of time for the majority of my capital to grow organically and as long as my mid-cap stocks follow some rules with debt/cash position, EPS and market segment, I find the LT position of my portfolio outruns the ASX200 by a decent margin.
Trading/spec plays is more of an interest/spending money hobby for me... Just the rants of someone who has seen many friends lose big and never touch stocks again...
