Week 23 Review

Without doubt the worst and most miserable week so far. It's almost too painful to write down the status of the portfolio, but here goes

			Weekly Change
Portfolio cost	£34,290.39		+£546.98
Portfolio value (share price)	£30,772.36	(-£3,294.20)	-£967.49
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£29,632.24	(-£4,658.15)	-£1,074.94
Dividends	£290.01		+£0
Profit from sales	£695.01		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£181.42		-£8.25
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)
Avg annual % of current portfolio cost	6.35%

The portfolio cost went up by just over £500 when I used spare cash left over before pay day to purchase 9439 shares of SHG:Shanta Gold for 5.7p each. This is continuing my gradual build-up of gold miners, as with gold reserves diminishing I'm convinced there's an upturn coming soon, and these shares all pay good dividends.

Losing £1,000 value in a week is pretty terrible though. The overall performance looks nightmarish on my spreadsheet, with practically everything in the red. Every time my house builders look like they're getting close to profit, another big drop comes along. Every time there's a big drop it seems to take forever to make up the losses, then drops yet again.

I guess I shouldn't be too miserable. It's only a loss if I sell the shares and I have no intention of doing so. It may take a few years to get back into profit, but it will happen for most, as the companies have very strong fundamentals.

There are still 8 shares in profit, and I would make £700 if I sold them now, which would be a stupid thing to do given that they've all tanked recently. It does remind me that I can choose when to sell, so as long as most are in the green when I sell them, the marginal gains will keep the return rate up. It's still over 6% so that's encouraging.

PUR:Pure Wafer announced that they were paying shareholders 163p a share around 11th January and up to another 25p later in the year, which will give me a small profit from them of about £40 which is 8% return. No sign of the cash yet, but it's destined for my pension fund. No doubt share prices will have gone back up again by the time it arrives so I'll miss out on some bargains.

Here's the devastation on the pension fund

			Weekly Change
Portfolio cost	£4,854.60		+£0
Portfolio value (share price)	£4,310.08	(-£544.52)	-£359.48
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£4,217.28	(-£637.32)	-£365.23
Dividends	£0		+£0
Profit from sales	£366.10		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£225.92		-£37.65
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)
Avg annual % of current portfolio cost	55.84%

 As a percentage of the portfolio cost it lost quite a lot, but psychologically it doesn't look as bad. It does mean that all 5 shares in the portfolio are making a loss, so I'm glad I don't plan retiring any time soon!

Average monthly profit will plunge over the short term as the first few months are notched up. We're only on 7 weeks for the SIPP so the one sale has skewed everything. UTW:Utilitywise has dropped 20p a share since I sold them - almost tempted to buy back in! There are lots of other tempting morsels out there though, so when the Pure Wafer money arrives I'm still undecided what to buy.

Let's hope this was a blip rather than the start of an extended crash. I don't really want to wait years for the prices to go back up, and I don't have enough capital to take advantage of the bargains right now.