DIY Investor Magazine
/
2015 Issue
45
MONDAY 16TH FEBRUARY
Not a single valentine’s card at the weekend and
it just gets worse – I saw on the news wire that
takeover talks between William Hill and 888 had
failed and just knew that the price of 888 would
gap down as the market opened. Tried to get a
short on at the bell and failed; no free money there
as the price plummeted. Even worse – NG. Turned
out to be no fun at all; stopped out for a loss of
£24. DUH!
TUESDAY 17TH FEBRUARY
Hum, is this a stroke of genius or the wild gamble
of an idiot? Shorted the FTSE 100 - betting that
it will go down as it’s at the 6800/6900 level that
usually acts as a ceiling; the world is a dangerous
place so having a hedge in place is no bad idea.
Sold £1 a point, equivalent to a £6840 position
taken on the spreads at 6840. Stop 7040, no real
target I’ll simply tighten the stop and move it down
as and when.
WEDNESDAY 25TH FEBRUARY
The FTSE 100 hits an all time high thereby
answering the question I posed yesterday. It was
a tiny trade so no harm done by closing it at the
equivalent of £6957 for a loss of a £117. I could
whinge on about how irrational the market is but
accept the verdict and move on.
Painfully, have to do the same with Tungsten
Corporation (TUNG). I posted last month that it
had caught me out by breaking down through my
stop loss and how I’d decided to bend my own
rules and continue to hold it because I liked the
story............MONSTER MISTAKE.
A number of well informed professional investors
mounted a bear raid on the stock causing the
price to collapse. Their reading of TUNG may be
wrong, frankly I don’t know, but I’ve read their
reports in detail and sadly have decided that for
me there is no longer any reason to hang around in
hope.
To add to my woes not only do I think I got the
investment case wrong in the first place, I totally
and utterly cocked up my management of the
trade once it was running and for me this is the
more serious issue.
I broke my own rule that a stop is a stop is a stop. I
was glad to get out at 142.1p for a loss of £1427.82
- my biggest loss in well over ten years; not clever.
THURSDAY 5TH MARCH
Cussing as my e mail account is blocked because
I tried to access it from my new iPhone............Deep
joy. I doubled up on my holding in Avon Rubber
PLC (AVON) a great little company that makes
state of the art respiratory systems for the military
to use when all hell breaks loose and another
division that makes stuff for milking cows! It keeps
producing good numbers and is unlikely to disturb
my beauty sleep; the two thousand pounds worth I
bought for the portfolio at 629p almost a year ago
had gone as high as 800p but have fallen back in
recent weeks to the low 700’s.
Looking for value, I topped up with another £2,000
- 274 shares at 721p. This is one I’m going to tuck
away and hold until the first hint of trouble, banking
the twice yearly dividends and hopefully watching
it rise steadily as the earnings upgrades come
through.
THEIR READING OF TUNG MAY BE WRONG, FRANKLY
I DON’T KNOW, BUT I’VE READ THEIR REPORTS IN
DETAIL AND SADLY HAVE DECIDED THAT FOR ME
THERE IS NO LONGER ANY REASON TO HANG AROUND
IN HOPE.
