Macro economics, equity to hold and when to sell

Hi everyone

I recently attended Steve and Dave’s workshop in New Zealand. Fantastic workshop, so great to have a more thoughtful approach than the over simplified buy-and-hold. Also, great to have an educated presenter with integrity who relies on facts and quality information rather than ra-ra marketing hype.

As part of the course attendees were requested to ask (and answer) three questions on the forum. With this in mind my questions are as follows:

1. What rules do people apply on deciding how much equity to use and how much to hold back? I realise this is going to be dependant on variables such as risk profile etc. however I’m wondering whether people tend to try and stay fully invested or how much of their portfolio they leave as unused equity either as backstop for disasters or money to be used for that magic deal that may come up?
2. How much do people follow macro and micro economic trends in deciding their purchases? At the presentation I heard of the folly of focusing too heavily on these indicators, but I tend to follow indicators such as affordability indexes, debt levels in the country, etc. and are wondering if others give much attention to these economic indicators. If so what indicators do people follow?
3. When to sell? I tend to work off the following principles that the yield must drop to 4-5% gross yield (have sold at more but would follow this in future), AND I have added as much valuable to maximize cost/benefit return AND I can invest the money elsewhere. All three indicators need to be meet for a sale. What do others use?

Look forward to hearing from everyone.