Promising start ends in disappointment

Today started off full of excitement and promise, but ended in disappointment.

The premium bond money arrived in my account, so I was able to open a new shares account with Hargreaves Lansdown and transferred in £3100. I was all set to go with my purchases after research over the weekend.

RDW:Redrow. Purchased 225 shares at 436.1p plus £4.91 stamp duty costing £998.09. They had been on my radar for a while. Nearly everything was green and my target price was 1200p over time based on current growth rates. I was even more determined to buy today after the crazy drops in house builders yesterday caused by some dodgy broker talking rubbish. I figured people would see sense today and take advantage of the lower price. I was wrong. The price dropped another 6p. However, I believe I'm right long term so am happy albeit a tad bitter.

What's more concerning is Barratts down 13.5p and Taylor Wimpey down 7.4p. I don't understand - they can't build houses fast enough and interest rates still show no sign of going up. I'd understand if these companies were all trading at a high P/E ratio, but Redrow is 10.5, Barratt is 13.71 and Taylor Wimpey is 17.68 (but with 36% growth). I don't think that's excessive and a sign the shares are over-priced, so why the perception that there's a bubble that needs to burst?

Anyway, onto my second buy this morning...

BYG:Big Yellow Group 270 shares at 748.7p plus £10.01 stamp duty costing £2043.55. I love this business. It lit everything up green, my minimum expected price is 893p and my review target is 1500p. The chart is sailing through the roof and the business model of leasing cheap storage seems great - there's always demand and their brand looks brilliant. They pay good dividends and have excellent growth over the last three years. Needless to say, the shares dropped 18.5p today for no good reason!

That used up my last available capital. I still have £1000 in premium bonds, but that's staying where it is, as I hope to eventually start building that up again - and I have a monthly direct debit to top it up. It will be my safe money in case all this lot goes pop.

I did a few more trades this morning. Ever since I started using my new spreadsheet I've had a nagging doubt about TFW:Thorpe FW. The very, very best I could get their shares being worth was 227p. They reached this twice and then dropped back. My (completely unproven) formula rated their share price at 169p so I had been worrying they were over priced. This morning I took the plunge and sold them for 212.46p after buying them for 194.76p. This made me £64.60 profit and I have about £15 dividend coming in a few weeks. That's only a 6.4% profit after commission, but way better than interest rates. The price dropped 7.5p today so I may have timed it right - although selling at 227p would have been better, but that was before I developed my new spreadsheet.

That left me funds for trading. I've been watching a share for weeks and trying to decide whether to buy it. Today I bit the bullet. AFG:Aquatic Food. This is another sea of green on the spreadsheet, and they seem to be increasing their market and making huge profits. They've got rid of a director with a reputation for de-listing companies, which had been ringing some alarm bells, and they have started paying dividends. They seem to genuinely have shareholders interests at heart and at 35p a share I couldn't think of a reason not to buy, so I purchased 3000 at a cost of £1061.95. The one annoying aspect is the ridiculous 30% spread. If I sold them today I would lose £263 instantly. However, if 35p is insanely cheap and I don't intend selling until my review target of 191p then it doesn't really matter.

So a very mixed day. Some of my favourite shares did rubbish. Some of my more risky shares did brilliantly - especially GLEN:Glencore (5.4%), WRL:Wentworth (5.6%) and JLP:Jubilee Platinum (3.7%), but there were so many small losses on the majority of the portfolio, and coupled with the massive spread on Aquatic Food, the sale value of the portfolio dropped by about £350. It will be interesting to see where things lie at the end of the week compared to last week. It feels a little gloomy so far.