Page 53 - DIY Magazine March 2018

UK Smaller Companies: Janus Henderson UK Smaller Companies Fund sold for a loss of £25.63;
I am wary of the UK right now. We have some utterly brilliant small companies and but for the political uncertainty I’d have a lot more of my money riding on them, but there is no clear vision of where the economy and the country are heading.
Japan: Has been good to me; Legg Mason Japanese Equity Fund is up 10% so I topped up to £10k.
America: The ‘Trump Bump’ is real – his policies have made a big difference to US markets; I bought £5k of the Baillie Gifford American Fund - up 28% ytd.
BRIC: Brazil and India are growing strongly, but very volatile; Goldman Sachs BRIC’s Equity Portfolio Fund is up strongly on the year with a reasonably smooth line because of its spread over Russia and China as well, so I bought £5k.
That’s it for this month, much too much activity (more here), but I had to do what my system told me at what was a volatile and potentially dangerous time.
‘Computer say no’ I sell, ‘computer say yes’ I buy; let’s hope everything calms down now - calm is good.
Yours Aye
Humbug
‘A man must take the fat with the lean; that’s what he must make up his mind to, in this life‘- Charles Dickens
After a wonderful Santa Rally and an all-time portfolio high, I mismanaged the resulting sell-off and instead of taking my planned FTSE short in ETF UK3S in mid Jan, I took two long mining positions (KAZ and HGM) just before getting on a plane!
I took my two biggest losers of the competition so far!
Obvious lessons learned:
Don’t take impulsive trades and stick to the plan. Don’t trade when you’re supposed to be on holiday! Don’t be greedy, I had a good Santa run already and was at an all time high when I committed my act of sabotage!
Less obvious lesson learned:
Prior to taking the two losing trades, around Jan 16th, I had squeezed out two profitable trades for around £1000 profit each – but my target for them was nearer £2500. Because I didn’t get what I thought I deserved I became subtly and insidiously petulant - this path led me to take the two impulsive trades.
On the back of a good run lasting many months I had become ‘omnipotent’; the thing is, I hadn’t really noticed my smugness sneak up on me, but had now led to a fear of pulling the trigger!
Dr Alex Elder recommends going flat at these times and so that is what I did in February; I have entered back gingerly in March and I have made a little money with GLEN and STOB and lost money with PMO.
I am mostly flat again today until I get clear market direction; it’s also time to put the highs and lows of emotion aside.
Time for a dinner with Humbug methinks; it’s important to share your mistakes with another trader to help to not repeat them!
The net result of this experience is, the Fagin trading account position now stands at £131,848.70 - nearly £10k down since Christmas.
Yours Fagin!
I arrived back in the UK 15 hours later to find that both my ‘gambles’ had failed and I should’ve stuck to the original short position plan after all.
I’VE LOST A CHUNK OF MY RECENT PROFITS, BUT NOTHING TO KEEP ME AWAKE AT NIGHT
53 DIY Investor Magazine | Mar 2018