21 May 2006

Two weeks of turbulence

Two weeks ago I was more than 20% up for the year: a nice tax-free £75,000. But, my portfolio is down slightly more than the market over the last two weeks - over £45,000 gone. That leaves me 9% up for the year-so-far, as against 1.5% for the FTSE AllShare. Well, I'd have settled for that, if offered it, on Jan 1st!

I've reacted to the turbulence by being a net buyer of: Aminex (AEX), GUS, Highway Insurance (HWY), Lloyds Bank (LLOY), Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), SCS Upholstery (SUY) and Soco Petroleum (SIA). Some of this has been rotation from other stocks - such turbulent periods usually throw up some strong changes in relative prices, and this creates profit opportunities. We'll see! This week I may buy more GUS and RBS.