One Last Trade for Year 1

I couldn't resist one last trade before I do my first annual report at the weekend.

SSY:Scisys was one of the first shares I bought for my ISA. These were the days when I would buy any share that had dropped dramatically in the recent past, on the assumption this must mean it would go back up again.

What I failed to grasp in those early weeks was there is likely to be a good reason for the drop. Identifying that is rather important before deciding to invest.

The big drop for Scisys was due to a project that went bad and hit profits hard. Much restructuring later, and there was a possibility of re-rating back to the share price before the drop.

As I looked into the company with a more critical eye, I realised that they are incredibly niche. They supply the tech for a lot of space missions, so they are quite dependent on funding for those sort of things, and there's a high degree of bespoke design to much of what they are asked to do.

For me this is all too risky. They could have orders dry up if an economic downturn reduces space research, and the complex bespoke nature of the projects could easily produce another rogue event that hits profits.

I've been waiting months for them to break even so I could sell without a loss, and this morning they finally made it. I sold my 1,000 shares at 73.2p making a vast profit of £11.10 (1.1%). This was more than doubled if you add the £17.80 dividend, but it's more of a building society rate of return on investment.

The important thing was the £723.05 it freed up, to join the cash lying around from dividends to make £962.51. I jumped at the chance to increase my holdings in AMYT:Amryt Pharma while their price is ridiculously low. I bought 6,443 shares at 14.8p. This takes my total holding to 28,454 shares costing an average of 17.7p which adds up to £5,093.39. This is now 9.6% of my entire portfolio and joins OPTI:Optibiotix as my 2 shares of around 10%. Both are making a big loss, but both are oozing so much potential it makes me shudder.

If Amryt goes up to a relatively modest 200p a share, it will give me £51,000 profit. A more ambitious 500p a share would give £137,000 profit. It may take 10 years, but I'm happy to wait.

Meanwhile it's been a bit of a grotty week in the lead-up to my annual report. The main portfolio is up by about £100, but the SIPP is down by about £200. I guess it's only the main portfolio that I'm reporting for the year, so just hoping the interest rate announcement tomorrow will lift my house builders. At the moment my profits of 11.8% are being beaten by my paper loss of 11.9% and I desperately want that situation to reverse by Friday evening.