Trading the Budget 2009: Update

See this post from last week. I havebeen a bit slow to update as I have been travelling since Thursday afternoon (when I closed all my positions). Somehow the sun of the continent seems better than that of England, certainly there is not the air of despair that I sense on landing at Gatwick. Perhaps not having such incompetents in charge helps the atmosphere.

Anyhow, trading the budget, despite making the right calls the pesky markets did not react as planned, funny that. i guess that is why we are not all millionaires:

PDG - This car company benefited from the scrappage scheme. A full week before I bought it no doubt! I was in at 16.75 and out at 15.75 - so a 6% loss. Just as well I did not leave this until Friday, it ended the week at 14.50

LBUL - Long on gold to fight the fiscal collapse of the Government, in at 33 and out at 35.8. Would have been better if I had stayed in, it ended the week at nearer 37. -(8% up)

XUKS - Short the FTSE in a week of dire news, surely a gimme? Initially, this rocketed and I should have closed the position earlier, ended up only 1% above break even as the index started rallying for some unknownable reason later in the week.

PFC - The idea was that PFC would gain from the oil tax giveaway. Did not really work out, as the share bounced around in the week, I closed at 585 which was just under 1% up on the week.

Overall my conclusion is that after G20 and The Budget, trading the news is a good idea. I am quite up, more so after the G20 but not so much after the budget. Only one call has lost out and that was on a dodgy car dealer so I should not perhaps be so surprised.

What is the next political/financial event that I should look at?