I've been re-reading The Naked Trader by Robbie Burns. It was such a valuable book when I first read it, and it's even more valuable the second time through, as I'm no longer phased by everything being new and can focus on learning. I decided to check out the website and there were loads of invitations to contact Robbie about his seminars and books. In a moment of enthusiasm I decided to send him an email and thank him for the help the book had been, both when starting out and again now. I decided to send him a link to this blog, as it was kind of inspired by his book.
He very generously replied to my email - but devastation - after the platitudes he went straight for the jugular, commenting that he thinks I'm more of a gambler than an investor due to the high risk nature of my portfolio. I was gob-smacked - nay shell-shocked. My beautiful portfolio that I love so much - how could he say that?
Then the devastating realisation hit me - he's absolutely right. I mean, I've just this week sold two FTSE250 companies to buy two AIM companies, one of which has never made a profit. Looking down my portfolio it's high risk company after high risk company. Oh cripes!
I've been pondering how this came about - and I think it's the excitement of the stories. I look at all my junior shares and they are intrepid explorers of new technology, or producing gold, platinum, and other shiny things.
It's a tricky one though, as I think my attitude has been soured towards the safer blue-chips by the devastation of Brexit. I've been holding some solid FTSE companies for over a year and how are they doing? BDEV:Barratt Developments down 25%, TW.:Taylor Wimpey down 14%, LOOK:Lookers down 30%, MSHL:Marshalls down 20%, VEC:Vectura down 15%. It's not a shining example of successful investment. However, had I bought these same shares on the post-Brexit dip, or topped these up, then maybe my attitude would be very different.
Anyway, the upshot is my risk profile is off the scale and I need to reign it in, so I need to start identifying some safer shares and gradually move out of the smaller AIM companies once the profits are good and get more of the profile into something defensive. A valuable, if rather humbling correspondence!
Back to this week's performance, and I'm overjoyed to say there were no double digit losers - huzzah!
TLOU:Tlou Energy had a second week's double digit climb, going up 14% and making £520 potential profit. This is where I'm really going to struggle putting all the things I just wrote into practice. In theory I should take the 50% profit on this share and put it into something safer - but I just can't - it's such an exciting project - dammit!! I guess I could compromise - keep some shares just so I can watch what happens, but bank my original investment and use it for something sensible - hmm - interesting notion!
Share of the Week was SLP:Sylvania Platinum which climbed 29% and is making potential profit of £274. How glad am I that I sold the holding from my trading account for £65 profit when 2 weeks later it would have made £250 - grr!!
Here's the share and ISA portfolios
| Weekly Change | |||
| Portfolio cost | £42,118.09 | +£0 | |
| Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission) | £38,439.37 | (-8.7%) | +£185.47 |
| Potential profits | £2,646.27 | +£323.96 | |
| Yr 2 Dividends | £357.10 | +£69.75 | |
| Yr 2 Profit from sales | £2,917.65 | +£0 | |
| Yr 2 Average monthly cash profit | £503.32 | -£7.45 | |
| Yr 2 Avg annual % of current portfolio cost | 14.3% | ||
| Total Dividends | £1,025.03 | +£69.75 | |
| Total Profit from sales | £6,757.91 | +£0 | |
| Average monthly cash profit | £417.09 | -£1.45 | |
| (Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months) | |||
| Avg annual % of current portfolio cost | 11.9% |
Not too bad, with the value up £185 and paper profits up £323. The £69.75 dividend was from GVC:GVC Holdings and is hopefully the first of many. There - that's one good FTSE250 company in my portfolio! Average monthly performance stayed pretty flat thanks to the dividend.
The SIPP looks like this after week 64
| Weekly Change | |||
| Portfolio cost | £15,997.53 | +£77.62 | |
| Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission) | £19,278.81 | (+20.5%) | -£147.37 |
| Potential profits | £3,867.30 | +£108.82 | |
| Yr 2 Dividends | £0 | +£0 | |
| Yr 2 Profit from sales | £72.90 | +£72.90 | |
| Yr 2 Average monthly cash profit | £10.66 | +£10.66 | |
| Yr 2 Avg annual % of current portfolio cost | 0.1% | ||
| Total Dividends | £413.19 | +£0 | |
| Total Profit from sales | £2,422.76 | +£72.90 | |
| Average monthly cash profit | £187.15 | +£2.05 | |
| (Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months) | |||
| Avg annual % of current portfolio cost | 14.0% |
A small rise in cost thanks to the sale of JLG:John Laing Group and ALM:Allied Minds and re-investment in OPTI:Optibiotix and IQE:IQE. Although potential profits are up, the portfolio is down thanks to deepening losses in OPTI:Optibiotix, TRX:Tissue Regenix and ARL:Atlantis Resources. The first sales of year 2 means we have some stats, but they're not very impressive! Average monthly profits overall sneak up a little.
That's not too dramatic a fall - I can live with that gap.
The trading portfolio looks like this after week 30
| Weekly Change | |||
| Portfolio cost | £986.03 | +£0 | |
| Cash | £75.59 | +£0 | |
| Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission) | £867.40 | (-12%) | +£0 |
| Potential profits | £0 | +£0 | |
| Dividends | £0 | +£0 | |
| Profit from sales | £61.57 | +£0 | |
| Average monthly cash profit | £8.89 | -£0.31 | |
| (Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months) | |||
| Avg annual % of current portfolio cost | 10.8% |
Absolutely no change in either share. Dull, dull, dull, dull, dull.
Dull.
That's it for week 80. Next week may see JLP:Jubilee Platinum announce production of platinum for the first time. A momentous day that I've been awaiting for so long. Not sure if any other news is expected, but we shall see...
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