Friday 17 September 2010

Trading Update September 2010

Bit later publishing this month, have been quite busy, click on the chart to make it bigger:


Overall a pretty good month and approaching 30% up on the year again. Albeit some winners feel very toppy like GKP and XEL. Will I get to 50% for the yar year or a big bust push it back down to 10%?

Had a good month getting in and out of NPE, selling KMR at a great profit after a couple of months. Did not get any joy out of shorting wheat. Sole FTE at a huge loss, but was keen to put more into XEL which proved the right move.

Overall I have less positions than I used to but greater weight in each one. New buys in HAIKE which is a short-term bet until end of September, upping position in XEL and IAE, looking to dump CDN shortly after breakeven and get back into FUM.

Any questions please ask in the comments.

17 comments:

Obsidian said...

Bought BP at 366, sold at 415
Bought GKP at 75, sold at 125
Bought SXX at 7.5, sold at 8 (missed the boat on that one! Was going to buy in at 2 but didn't have the funds)
Bought XTR at 1, holding at 1.15
Bought BII at 276, holding at 320
Bought KMR at 21.8, holding at 20.75
Bought SPH at 28.2, holding at 28.35

Made a minor loss on SXX, but that was my own silly fault buying in too high.

XTR is the only one causing me concern on a loss, but given I only spent just over £100 on it, it's no biggie.

Jhon smith said...

really a new kinof information...
truely appretiated..

Budgie said...

Minerva did well for me, and so is GKP doing. But Max, Regal, PPA, XTR, Heritage, and Empyrean doing badly. Should I cut my losses on those, or see if they improve in the future? I have no immediate need for the cash.

CityUnslicker said...

Of the dead ducks, PPA, RPT, EME I have sold out of and have no faith really. HOIL will come good and very soon with Miran, XTR will be fine next year and MAX too has a good story, albeit long term. PPA may evenutally come good given they are now a producing company.

Obviously i can't and don't give financial advice.

CityUnslicker said...

Of the dead ducks, PPA, RPT, EME I have sold out of and have no faith really. HOIL will come good and very soon with Miran, XTR will be fine next year and MAX too has a good story, albeit long term. PPA may evenutally come good given they are now a producing company.

Obviously i can't and don't give financial advice.

Anonymous said...

I don't trade in the UK, I prefer Canada, but the resource sector is a wild ride. Having said that I've made 30% with the fall in the pound over the last year.
Here's one for you, V.RIO, gold and copper going into production in December, I'm up 30% since I bought in, target price of $3 by end of 2011. Another cheapie is T.DMM, but it's in Ecuador. Not sure if people's fear of Ecuador is justified, haven't bought it yet, doing some more DD.

Anonymous said...

Do you mind if I ask what kind of figures you are dealing with?
I thought many of you were operating with tens of thousands on each transation.
But Obsidian mentions buying in for only £100, is that really worth the bother? wouldn't such a small amount be difficult to overcome the trade fee?

Budgie said...

Anon, I have a few 'speculatives' in the £400-£600 range, but more money in a few staid long term shares which I do not juggle with. Tens of thousands? - you must be joking!

Yes, the dealing costs are a big deterrent but it's a bit of fun (well, adrenaline really) and you win some (MNR, GKP) and you lose some (PPA, RPT, EME).

Steven_L said...

Ten's of thousands? LOL. I took a notional £18.8k position on a coffee spread bet last night and nearly had a heart attack! It was like FLASH £30 down FLASH even FLASH FLASH FLASH £100 up FLASH FLASH £40 up and so on.

The only CU tip I went with was Minerva, and that was for £250, I sold at about £500 and paid £20 in dealing fees, so well worth it, paid for a nice suit in the sales.

I'd imagine Nick's gold trades are a bit bigger though.

Anonymous said...

It's important to understand what kind of investing you want to do. I have realised trading is not for me, I invest based on fundamentals, with trading you've got to watch your positions all the time, it's real heart attack stuff.

CityUnslicker said...

My portofilio is up to just under £100k, it was down as low as £8k after the crash. I hadded £25k in Spring 09 and the timing for that really worked out.

I tend to go for a mixture of long term investing - I.e. buying oil explorers who will take years to get going; and momentum investing buying things that are temporarily undervalued, HAIKE was one of those this month. I tend to take 20% - 100% out of these and leave it, if they don't work out I cut my losses at 20% now too.

Obsidian said...

@Anon,

Depends - place I uses charges £6 a trade, so I need a change by £12 to break even.

Using multiples of 10, that's a change 12 of £12 for 1 share, but only 1.2p for a 1000.

So look at shares you can buy in bulk with what you can afford, or shares that have a lot of flux (BP was recently an example, and still could be) that will negate trade fees, and remember to be wary of the really cheap shares. Keep an eye on trade volumes too, as you want there to be a buyer for your shares.

I'm also building up a seed pot, I start off with £500 which is now worth £600 so thats a 20% increase in a few months (better than the bank can manage on savings)

If I'm happy with my trading, I'll stick maybe 10 grand in the new year and ramp it up, but for now I'm playing fairly safe.

Timbo614 said...

Thanks Anon,

I wanted to ask the same question :)

I started (again) in march with a starter pot of £1000 and an investment budget of £250/month and thought it an embarrassingly small amount.

By manipulating a www.iii.co.uk "regular investment" account you can achieve buying fees of £1.50 per purchase(£10.00 sell). But you have to choose your actions a couple of days in advance - just adds a bit of extra excitement!

So far up 3.3% so 6.6% year on year.

Still better than 2.5% for a fixed year B.S. or bank.

Timbo

Anonymous said...

Obsidian...where do you trade for £6? Also I used to like it when you didn't have to have a trading a/c. I haven't traded for ages as I don't like them. Is there anywhere left where you can just do the transaction and then send the money?
PS I had my fingers badly burnt with Marconi!

Obsidian said...

@Anon

x-o.co.uk

It's a subsidiary of Jarvis, and is very much a no-frills execution-only service.

Each completed trade costs 5.95.

You do need to set up an account and send some cash over before you can trade though.

Timbo614 said...

@obsidian

woo - that first page is garish!

Thanks for the tip

Anonymous said...

May I ask another question.
I know I could read up on it but its easier to ask people who've done it and are in the know.

How does it work buying these shares online?
Do you actually fully own the shares yourself or does the trading company effectively hold them on your behalf?
and if that company went bust (with all the financial difficulties we're having!) how safe would my investment be?