Day 6 - Volatility Chart

Day 6 - Trade log - up £898

Below are the results of today's spread bets today. Great recovery in the last few days.

Will post an update on 'Week 1' this weekend.

Hope you all have a fantastic Friday night and an awesome weekend.

stock	Entry Price	Latest Price	Profit/loss	% on prev day
Paypoint	842.6	893.5001	1029.76	193.03
BSkyB	762.3	761.5	-18.7	-120.21
TalkTalk	220.15	221.8	127.37	-47.8
Ryanair	478.2	482.1	138.51	-62.65
Aveva	2053	2045.0001	-66.9	49.66
Headlam	320.3	304.41	-819.42 (SOLD)	-46.76
Halma	438.89	450.5	451.85	548.56
Intertek	3097.1	3130	180.03	3.15
Ladbrokes	196.99	194.4	-226.23	0
Bodycote	405.61	432.1	1118.23	53.28
VP	350.62	341.0475	-467.55	5.4
SOCO	366.41	359	-347.31	-1.36
Anite	139.15	141.9	337.32	104.28
Lookers	75.69	75.5	-43.9	-163.42
Sepura	96.24	94.75	-266.12	-141.09
Petrofac	1655.7	1686	310.56	127.82
Daily total			710.5
Running total			-717.44
Diff from previous day			898.99

Day 5 - Trade log & more profits

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha - laughing all the way to the bank !!!!!

Well, not quite in truth.

But my portfolio is looking much better. Up £752.91 / 32% today on yesterday’s end-of-day running total.

I am still down £, but considering that I was £2700 down on Tuesday, this has been a great two days recovery. 

Let’s hope it continues.

I also closed my last AIM listed bet today; Nichols. As suggested yesterday, I thought I might get rid of it as it was not performing well.  I have closed my other two AIM listed stock bets in the last few days and like I said yesterday, maybe it is wise to stay away from AIM listed stocks.

I am still not wholly convinced. I need to do some more research into the topic and maybe try a few more bets. 

To add to my ever decreasing portfolio, I bought Petrofac (PFC) @1655.70 for £10.25 a point. Petrofac is a very solid company and to be honest I should have bought it yesterday. Just before closing yesterday, I was watching the price like a hawk, waiting for it to dip below 1650 but it never did. I thought I would see what happened today but it continued its gains early on, touching 1671 at one stage so I feel that at 1655.70 I got an ok deal. And it showed at the close of play with Petrofac showing a profit of £136.

I also looked at Costain but am uncertain about them. I need to do a more thorough investigation into their finances before I think about placing a bet.

So in theory, I am still short two bets if I want to have 18 positions. Once my running total moves into the black, I will start looking for new bets in earnest.

Bright and very shining stars for today – TalkTalk, Halma, Intertek, BodyCote, Anite, Sepura & Petrofac.

Hope you all have a good night, until tomorrow...

stock	Entry Price	Latest Price	Profit/loss	% on prev day
Paypoint	842.6	860.0001	351.42	-43.75
BSkyB	762.3	766.5	92.54	-67.14
TalkTalk	220.15	223.3	243.99	53.97
Ryanair	478.2	488.6	370.87	-34.23
Nichols	852.1	837	-284.89 (SOLD)	-352.85
Aveva	2053	2037.0001	-132.9	42.69
Headlam	320.3	309.88	-558.35	-87.48
Halma	438.89	440.7	69.67	193.37
Intertek	3097.1	3129	174.53	442.48
Ladbrokes	196.99	194.4	-226.23	40.9
Bodycote	405.61	422.9	729.55	158.96
VP	350.62	340.5	-494.24	-3.92
SOCO	366.41	359.1	-342.64	-8.92
Anite	139.15	140.5	165.13	133.05
Lookers	75.69	76	69.22	0
Sepura	96.24	95.625	-110.38	-25.25
Petrofac	1655.7	1669	136.32 (BOUGHT)
Daily total			253.62
Running total			-1616.08
Diff from previous day			752.91

Day 4 - Trade log, profits & musings

Some profits eventually !!

I am very excited - although it is a small victory considering I am still down 11% but it is a move in the right direction.

I closed another bet; iomart (IOM) before it hit my stop loss but I just felt this stock was going nowhere so I cut it.

Funnily enough both bets I have now closed have been for AIM listed stocks. I had three AIM listed stocks initially; iomart, Smart Metering Systems and Nichols and I have already sold two of them!

And, by the looks of it, if Nichols continues its slide I am going to cut it as well – it is down over 2000% on yesterday (although to be fair in Pound terms it is only £62 in the red) – but still, maybe all you read about not investing in AIM listed stocks due to their inherent risk is correct – I have been burnt !

Let’s see what happens with Nichols.

But back to my profits – I made £374.58 today – so that leaves me with £2368.99 in losses compared to £2347.57 from yesterday. Let’s see if I can continue this trend tomorrow.

Now that I have closed two bets, maybe I should open two more. 

I have two on my watchlist; Petrofac and Costain. They operate in gas & oil and engineering & construction respectively.

Any suggestions, comments, feedback on either of these two stocks most welcome.

Until tomorrow dear readers...

stock	Entry Price	Latest Price	Profit/loss	% on prev day
Paypoint	842.6	873.4999	624.78	77.67
BSkyB	762.3	775	281.66	65.06
TalkTalk	220.15	222.2	158.47	222.87
Ryanair	478.2	494	563.91	159.41
Nichols	852.1	849	-62.91	-2247.39
Aveva	2053	2025	-231.89	-811.88
Headlam	320.3	314.75	-297.82	37.96
Halma	438.89	437	-74.62	9.21
Intertek	3097.1	3088	-50.96	-236.77
Ladbrokes	196.99	192.6	-382.82	-22.3
Bodycote	405.61	412.3	281.72	17.53
VP	350.62	340.8825	-475.59	-27.8
SOCO	366.41	359.7	-314.59	-372.36
iomart	202	192.1	-839.89 (SOLD)	-10.02
Anite	139.15	135.0945	-499.71	-15.41
Lookers	75.69	76	69.22	-0.33
Sepura	96.24	95.75	-88.13	33.44
Daily total			-1339.18
Running total			-2368.99
Diff from previous day			374.58

Day 3 - Stats

Day 3 - Trade log

Down, down, down....

My losses are accumulating rapidly.

Today I am again down on yesterday by £244.45 / -9.78%. In total, I am now down 12.74% of money-at-risk.

The markets are very jittery at the moment due to many factors I reckon but a biggy is the US Fiscal Cliff approaching.

I am now down to 17 open bets. I could do some research and find another stock to take up my 18^th position (if there is one that matches my criteria) but I think due to my losses adding up, it is wise to ride out the next few days / weeks before I go feeding any more money into Mr Markets pocket. Greedy bastard!

Check out the screenshot below for some interesting stats. You can clearly see how gearing works, the share price moves by a bit and results on my spread bet are very drastic. Look at Ryanair for example, one of my gainers so will use that as an example (sneaky I know).

The share price rose by 0.48% but my spread bet increased by 60.83% !

It obviously works the other way as well, TalkTalk fell by 0.68% and my bet fell by 944.29% - not cool.

Anyway, until tomorrow fellow readers and aspiring traders...

stock	Entry Price	Latest Price	Profit/loss	% on prev day
Paypoint	842.6	860.0001	351.65	327.49
BSkyB	762.3	770	170.64	-20.68
TalkTalk	220.15	218.5	-128.97	-944.29
Ryanair	478.2	484.3	217.38	60.83
Nichols	852.1	852.0001	-2.68	-136.66
Aveva	2053	2050	-25.43	-144.56
Headlam	320.3	311.34	-480.03	3.65
Halma	438.89	436.8	-82.19	38.15
Intertek	3097.1	3104	37.26	-61.89
Ladbrokes	196.99	193.4	-313.01	-80.09
Bodycote	405.61	411.3	239.7	149.53
VP	350.62	343	-372.15	-64.74
SOCO	366.41	365	-66.6	83.29
iomart	202	193	-763.41	-199.46
Anite	139.15	135.6354	-432.97	-112.63
Lookers	75.69	76	69.45	-70.96
Sepura	96.24	95.5	-132.4	50.21
Daily total			-1713.76
Running total			-2743.57
Diff from previous day			-240.65

Day 2 - chart showing volatility

This is a chart showing the volatility of the running balance from today...big swings !

Day 2 - Trade log & musings

Day 2 musings

So, Pnl is down another £237.52. That means in total I am now down £2499.12 which is almost 12% down of money at risk !!

You think this would stress me out but I am an eternal optimist and I think my trades will bounce back. Well, I certainly hope so;otherwise my £30k could disappear very fast at this rate.

One stock was sold, triggered by my stop loss. Was watching this stock as it was the one that took a huge hit on Friday too, and maybe I should have sold earlier but this is exactly the thing with trading -when do you take your losses !?

Some musings though. I monitored the volatility of the running total throughout the day (every 10 – 15 minutes) and the results are very interesting – well to me anyway.

The stats:

•

Min profit - £909.78

•

Max profit - £694.24

•

Average - £173.86

That works out to a quite staggering £1604.02 swing from highest to lowest during the day!

That’s 7.5% swing of my money at risk!

Maybe I should swing trade rather...

Anyway fine readers, hope you all have a super Monday night. Until tomorrow...

stock	Entry Price	Latest Price	Profit/loss
Paypoint	842.6	835.0001	-154.36
BSkyB	762.3	772	215.36
TalkTalk	220.15	220	-12.13
Ryanair	478.2	482	135.38
Nichols	852.1	852.4999	7.54
Aveva	2053	2060	57.29
Headlam	320.3	311	-498
Halma	438.89	435.5	-132.67
Intertek	3097.1	3115	97.99
Ladbrokes	196.99	195	-173.59
Bodycote	405.61	407.9	96.29
VP	350.62	346	-225.68
SOCO	366.41	357.9	-398.3
iomart	202	199	-254.71
Anite	139.15	137.5	-203.41
Lookers	75.69	76.75	239.36
Smart Metering	253.63	238.38	-1029.81 (SOLD)
Sepura	96.24	94.75	-265.68
Daily total			-2499.12
Running total			-2499.12
Diff from previous day			-237.52

Day 1 - Trade log

Stock	Entry price	Latest price	Profit/loss
Paypoint	842.60	839.50	-62.77
BSkyB	762.30	759.00	-73.42
TalkTalk	220.15	219.40	-58.31
Ryanair	478.20	473.80	-157.30
Nichols	852.10	860.00	158.00
Aveva	2,053.00	2,047.00	-49.50
Headlam	320.30	310.75	-510.93
Halma	438.89	436.60	-89.31
Intertek	3,097.10	3,090.00	-39.05
Ladbrokes	196.99	194.80	-190.53
Bodycote	405.61	412.60	295.33
VP	350.62	340.50	-493.35
SOCO Intl	366.41	363.10	-154.74
iomart	202.00	197.00	-423.75
Anite	139.15	139.60	55.35
Lookers	75.69	77.00	296.39
Smart Metering	253.63	244.27	-631.80
Sepura	96.24	95.50	-131.90
TOTAL			-2,261.60