Year 1 Review

I can't believe a whole year has passed since I started investing. Who'd have thought a few weeks on jury service could have such a profound effect? A whole new interest (some might say obsession) has taken hold. It's exciting, depressing, exhilarating and fascinating. A wild roller coaster ride of emotions, but underpinned by research and analysis.

There have been massive schoolboy errors, the first of which was failing to spend a few months with a virtual portfolio before diving headlong into real investments. Buying shares at the top of a spike has been another recurring failure. However, as I come to the end of year 1 I seem to have a lot more savings than when I started, and this is despite the China slowdown, uncertainty over the Fed raising interest rates and of course the dreaded Brexit.

First off, lets round up week 52 and identify the big losers and gainers.

There were no double digit losers this week, which is a huge relief. The worst performing shares all dropped 9%. NTBR:Northern Bear were starting to head upwards approaching dividend ex-date but ended up 9% down. The recovery of my nemesis share AFG:Aquatic Food didn't last long as it dropped 9% too. The surprise dropper was TLOU:Tlou Energy which dropped 9% for no apparent reason. If I had spare cash I'd top up!

Meanwhile on the nice side of the fence, IOG:Independent Oil & Gas rose 14% despite not having reported on its drilling progress yet. GVC:GVC Holdings continued with its relentless climb, rising another 14% and taking my potential profits to £1,490 (64%). Next stop FTSE250 listing in September when the tracker funds buy in!

Share of the Week just beat those two, with a rise of 15%. SXX:Sirrius Minerals is flying as investors gain confidence that the project will actually happen. A 51% rise overall is giving me potential profits of £94 on a £185 investment. Why didn't I top up at 17p??

So here's the performance of the main portfolio after the first 52 weeks.

			Weekly Change
Portfolio cost	£38,315.23		+£250.57
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£34,145.68	(-10.9%)	+£226.93
Potential profits	£2,842.67		+£339.50
Dividends	£667.93		+£0
Profit from sales	£3,840.26		+£11.10
Average monthly cash profit	£370.65		-£6.65
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)
Avg annual % of current portfolio cost	11.6%

 The cost went up after re-investing the proceeds from selling SSY:Scisys and a few dividends in more AMYT:Amryt Pharma. That also explains the increase in total profits from sales by £11.10. The potential profits went up nicely by £339, but the deepening losses mean that the sale value is only up by £226.

The key headline is that I managed a return of 11.6% in profits and dividends, which is absolutely brilliant. The paper value of the portfolio is down by 10.9% but this is less than the percentage profit and the deep post-Brexit losses should turn round over the next few months. The key thing is I managed to make £4,508 actual profit in my first year despite multiple stock market crashes. I'm very happy with that.

Next week I'll add some more rows to the table. A Year 2 profits row and a Year 2 Dividends row, along with a projected average monthly cash profit for year 2. The existing rows will be for the overall performance since day 1.

Hmm - the lines are heading in the right direction, but the value trend line doesn't look nice! There's a big gap to close in Year 2.

The SIPP now looks like this after week 36

			Weekly Change
Portfolio cost	£14,382.18		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£14,641.16	(+1.8%)	+£106.56
Potential profits	£999.62		+£144.73
Dividends	£262.15		+£0
Profit from sales	£2,345.25		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£310.07		-£9.57
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)
Avg annual % of current portfolio cost	25.9%

 No purchases this week. Next week the monthly LGEN:Legal & General purchase goes through. They are still well below the pre-Brexit level so I'll keep adding. Not a bad performance, but as with the main portfolio the potential profits were dented by some deepening losses. No sales or dividends, so projected monthly performance slips a bit but is still over 25%.

In the annual review for the main portfolio I mentioned being chuffed with the profits, but I forgot that there are another £2,607 profits in the SIPP, so altogether they add up to £7,115. That's gob-smackingly brilliant.

 A little gap between cost and value opening up. Hope it can keep getting wider.

 I suppose I must subject myself to the humiliation of reviewing my new trading account

			Weekly Change
Portfolio cost	£499.95		+£0
Cash	£0.05		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£390.95	(-21.8%)	+£13.43
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%

 Yippee!! The sell value climbs £13. Maybe it's not such a catastrophe after all. I may even get to trade on another share in 6 months time...

It's not a thrilling graph at the moment - but give it a few months and it will be riveting.

So the first year is over on the main portfolio. I feel a portfolio review coming on, and some stats about best and worst performers. That's going to take some time to compile, but will be a useful reminder of why I'm invested in particular shares. Last time I made a few big decisions based on the results, so maybe this time I'll find enlightenment too.