Disastrous Start to Trading and Week 51 Review

First of all the elephant in the room. My catastrophic start to a trading account. Such a brilliant idea to buy SLP:Sylvania Platinum a few days before their results, with platinum prices soaring. There was even talk of re-instating the dividend.

What a load of old tosh that was!

Results weren't that bad, but after paying a load of taxes and some debt, the company ended up with less cash than they had at the last update. That hit the shares horribly, and they tumbled 24% when you factor in spread and commission.

So my new trading account is down by £122 after just a few days, and my £500 is now trapped in a company that's likely to stay at this share price for at least 3 months until the next results, which hopefully will reflect the current price of platinum and not have a load of tax and debt payments.

Where's the fun in that?!

Oh well, I guess it serves me right. I'm sticking to my guns though - this account will never have any more cash added to it, so it lives or dies on the performance of SLP:Sylvania Platinum over the next few months.

Over the week in general I thought things were going up, but sometimes perceptions can be false.

There were some double digit losers this week. Worst was SLP:Sylvania Platinum in my trading account. The losses were less severe in my other accounts as there was a rise early in the week, so the drop was just 10% for them. Next worst performer was BLUR:Blur Group, which continues to be utterly rubbish and dropped another 17%. So glad I hardly bought any, as this company has no hope whatsoever. TRX:Tissue Regenix is one of my top favourites, but that dropped 12% this week for no reason.

Very few double digit climbers to celebrate. KIBO:Kibo Mining has been doing well, climbing 12% and now making £352 profit. However, Share of the Week goes to SXX:Sirrius Minerals, which climbed 16% and is making £67 profit. Why oh why didn't I buy a load more when they were cheap? A share that climbs 36% and I only have £67 profit to show for it because I only spent £185 in the first place! It was however one of my first ever purchases, so I didn't have a clue what I was doing.

Here's the performance of the main portfolio with just one week to go until my first annual report

			Weekly Change
Portfolio cost	£38,064.66		-£1,028.77
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£33,668.18	(-11.6%)	+£352.81
Potential profits	£2,503.17		+£75.15
Dividends	£667.93		+£0
Profit from sales	£3,829.16		+£34.57
Average monthly cash profit	£377.30		-£4.55
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)
Avg annual % of current portfolio cost	11.9%

The huge decrease in portfolio cost is down to me selling AVM:Avocet Mining and returning £1,000 to my current account (minus the £500 nicked to start the trading account). With existing savings, that gives me £1,100 towards my holiday, tucked up nice and safe until September. Slight problem is that I still have to find another £1,000 to add to that - in about 6 weeks!

After taking into account the £1,000 removed, the rest of the portfolio went up by £352, which is quite satisfactory. Potential profits also rose slightly and helped make up for the lack of dividends or sale income. Average monthly profit dropped a tiny amount despite the small profit from AVM:Avocet Mining, but as a percentage of portfolio cost increased by 0.2% thanks to the cost coming down.

The graph shows a little dink where I extracted the £1,000 but the drop in value is shallower than the drop in cost

The SIPP now looks like this after week 35

			Weekly Change
Portfolio cost	£14,382.18		+£1,103.00
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£14,534.60	(+1.1%)	-£134.29
Potential profits	£854.89		-£68.71
Dividends	£262.15		+£0
Profit from sales	£2,345.25		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£319.64		-£9.40
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)
Avg annual % of current portfolio cost	26.7%

The LGEN:Legal & General purchase took the cost up by £1,103, but the value of the portfolio dropped £134 after that had been taken into account. Potential profits also dropped by £68 as the shares drifted a little. No dividends or sales, so the average projected monthly profit drops by £9.40 but is still over 25%.

OK - it has to be done - here's the first update from my new trading account after week 1

			Weekly Change
Portfolio cost	£499.95		+£499.95
Cash	£0.05		+£0.05
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£377.52	(-24.5%)	-£122.43
Potential profits	£0		+£0
Dividends	£0		+£0
Profit from sales	£0		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£0		+£0
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)
Avg annual % of current portfolio cost	0%

So, we seeded the fund with £500, of which £499.95 was used to buy SLP:Sylvania Platinum shares, and is now doomed to fester for months. This also has a cash row, as cash will be an important element - if I ever make any profit!

I'll do a graph when there are a few weeks of data, as it doesn't show very much at the moment

That's it for Week 51. Next week it's the big one - my first annual report. Haven't a clue how to approach it or what to do next year. I guess there should be a snapshot of the year and then start a new annual performance figure for 2016/17 in addition to the overall performance. Can't wait!