About six months since I've put anything here. Well, it's been quite eventful: just under 27% up for the year so far - that is about double what the FTSE All-Share has managed. Very close to a tax-free £100,000.
Tuesday is a big day as my second largest holding, SCS Upholstery, reports its full-year results. Fingers crossed. This company (unusually with its HQ in Sunderland in the north-east of England) has been a most profitable investment.
21 November 2006
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.
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.
30 March 2006
Two interesting landmarks
.. were passed today. The first: my portfolio passed the 700% increase mark since 1 January 1999 (FTSEAllShare up 16.71% for this period). The second: my portfolio has increased by more than £50,000 this year.* Thus far, things are going well this year - up by 13.7% whilst the FTSE has barely made 8%. Of course, this year's gains could largely disappear in a few weeks if the market turns nasty. I'm about 6% cash, and have quite a bit more oils than at the start of the year. Strongest performers this year have been Blue Planet World Wide Financials (BPW) ... sold out on 82% increase .... Daniel Stewart (DAN) ... up 52% ... Soco Oil (SIA) .. up 38.7% ... European Motors (EMH) ... up 40%.**
* Not much by a Wall Street whizz-kid's standards, but a lot, lot, more than I used to make ... and now I no longer have to mix with any more dull puritan, and tax-addicted, socialists in academe.
** If only I didn't have to hold "shares" in the bloody awful British government led by the actor, Blair, and that dour Scottish tax-and-spend monster (and bungler) Gordon Brown.***
*** He is to economics what Doctor Quack is to medicine. Like a greedy baby, he regularly vomits up - in his case, some incredible scheme involving lots of bureaucracy and a stunningly naive objective: his latest, to distribute "free" computers to home employees (earlier it was rural area!) has just bitten the dust. He can't, as the law stands, touch my £50,000 gains, but this greedy tax-guzzler has started to introduce retrospective taxation (such contempt for the rule of law is a sure way to start flushing a country down the toilet).
* Not much by a Wall Street whizz-kid's standards, but a lot, lot, more than I used to make ... and now I no longer have to mix with any more dull puritan, and tax-addicted, socialists in academe.
** If only I didn't have to hold "shares" in the bloody awful British government led by the actor, Blair, and that dour Scottish tax-and-spend monster (and bungler) Gordon Brown.***
*** He is to economics what Doctor Quack is to medicine. Like a greedy baby, he regularly vomits up - in his case, some incredible scheme involving lots of bureaucracy and a stunningly naive objective: his latest, to distribute "free" computers to home employees (earlier it was rural area!) has just bitten the dust. He can't, as the law stands, touch my £50,000 gains, but this greedy tax-guzzler has started to introduce retrospective taxation (such contempt for the rule of law is a sure way to start flushing a country down the toilet).
1 March 2006
First eight weeks
Getting better - outperformed the FTSE AllShare by nearly 3%, and have edged above £30,000 total gains for the year so far. This despite a massive fall in one of my largest holdings - Northern Recruitment Group - to which I've responded (typically) by buying more.* However, I've been much assisted by the steady and strong rises experienced by my largest and 3rd largest holdings, Highway Insurance and SCS Upholstery. The latter was an interesting example of where a significant purchase of shares by SCS's Finance Director at a low-point of about 305p in late-July 2005** has been followed by an above 55% rise in price to 475p within 7 months.
* Investment tip - if some investment professional tells you never to average down .. then, they're rubbish ... the type who'll always advise to buy high and sell low (it's better the other way round!).
** I, of course, topped up substantially upon this news (that was the buy low part! ... I haven't sold any, yet).
* Investment tip - if some investment professional tells you never to average down .. then, they're rubbish ... the type who'll always advise to buy high and sell low (it's better the other way round!).
** I, of course, topped up substantially upon this news (that was the buy low part! ... I haven't sold any, yet).
11 February 2006
The first six weeks of 2006
Not bad. The main portfolio is up approximately £20,000 ($35,600?) - that's 5.4% compared to a rise in the FTSEAllShare of 3.2%. In addition, my spread bet/trading A/c is £1,487 up.
For the first time since the summer of 2001 I've been going significantly into cash. It's not so much that I feel the market is too optimistic about the economy, but rather that I think there will be problems with Iran. Given the pronouncements of Iran's president, I plan to keep out of missile range. Events may make my plans to spend a chunk of the money mentioned in the previous paragraph seem rather unimportant.
For the first time since the summer of 2001 I've been going significantly into cash. It's not so much that I feel the market is too optimistic about the economy, but rather that I think there will be problems with Iran. Given the pronouncements of Iran's president, I plan to keep out of missile range. Events may make my plans to spend a chunk of the money mentioned in the previous paragraph seem rather unimportant.
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