Highs and Lows

Sorry for the lack of posting I have had to take a break due to being really busy and dog tired not a good combination. It is a good job that other than keeping an eye on the stop loss position the shares look after themselves but I do need to finish some further research and buy some more.

So how have they done? I am currently £35.12 in profit but it has not been a level line the spread of profit and loss since I last posted has been about £100 veering from almost £30 loss to over £70 profit so it is good that I regard this as a medium term (at least) investment or else the pressure of when to sell/hold would have been difficult to manage.

This is one of the reasons I need to buy more shares to spread the risk so that overall profits are more consistent or at least that is the aim.

Just been and bought this week's copy of Investors Chronicle and I need to follow up some shares that I am watching and then decide which ones to buy.

Virtual Reality

Following the comments from Tempewytch it made me think about the psychology of what I am doing at the moment - the trial period. There is a terrible temptation to wish that whilst things are going well that I was using real money - but of course when fortune reverses as it is bound to do I will be relieved that it's just monopoly money (although I am very competitive when playing monopoly :) ) The roller coaster of emotions is very interesting - I am glad to say that the temptation to keep checking the share prices is lessening. With the first share doing well so far it has made it even harder to choose the next trade as I don't want to spoil what I have already achieved and of course my ongoing profit will immediately be reduced the moment I purchase another share due to the costs, spread etc. but hopefully I will be able to find the right share soon as I am not going to make profits on cash left in my account.

The profit to date is £59.28 very pleased with that well ahead of my target so far.

Patience Rewarded

Well I may have very little patience but today it has been rewarded in that my loss has been transformed into a profit of £31.92 the shares having gone up 16p today so very pleased with that hoping that this is the start of a nice little rise. Still researching  and watching other shares but no more purchase decisions made as yet.

Blue Monday

Today is supposed to be the worst Monday of the year not sure why (perhaps the arrival of the Christmas Credit Card bills) it has been OK as far as I am concerned.

I did not post over the weekend as I have not been well but I probably will not post at the weekends anyway as the markets are closed, unless something dramatic happens.

Much uncertainty about the Euro again with some very mixed messages depending on who you listen to, just reflecting the fact that nobody really knows how it is going to pan out I am sure 2012 will be a very volatile year.

As for my shares they have finished exactly the same as the close on Friday so the loss is still £29.52 patience will be required :)

Investors Chronicle

I have carried on researching today and actually managed to read the Investors Chronicle all the way through usually it takes me all week to find the time.

I have also started my trading journal which should be interesting to look back on.

As for the shares well things have not gone quite as well today it was never going too be a straight line going up so at the moment I have a loss of £29.52 the shares themselves have gone down a couple of pence but of course it is those dreaded trading costs - its a good job I am not planning to be a day trader - anyway we shall see what next week holds.

My First Trading Day

I am really glad that I have bought my first shares it feels like quite a big step even if it is only a paper transaction. The psychology of trading is really important and I can see that I am going to be doing a lot of self analysis as this process continues.

How did my first day go?

Did I compulsively check the price of my shares? - of course I did

And the result at the end of the day - I have lost 8p - I am pleased with that to cover my costs on the first day is more than enough for me 

I have added three more shares to my watch list none of them are immediate buys but I will be following them to see whether that alters

And tomorrow?

Well that is another day..................

I did it

I have bought my first shares 400 shares at 440.66 which makes a total of £1762.64 plus stamp duty £8.81 and Commission of £11.95 making a grand total of £1783.40.

For those that want to know how this is done all you have to do in real life (although this of course is my fantasy trading account) is open an online trading account with your company of your choice deposit the amount you have decided to invest using your debit card and in my case make sure that you open a stocks and shares ISA account so that you don't have to pay tax. You will probably be asked for ID to make sure you are who you say you are and once the account is open you are ready to go.

You then type in the code for your particular share if you don't know it (but you should if you have researched properly) then you can search for it and a buy/sell button comes up click the buy button it will give you a price put in the number of shares or the amount you want to spend and you then have 15 seconds to press the button to confirm that you want to buy at that price and that is it. Money gets deducted from your account plus commission and 0.5% stamp duty and correspondingly the shares will become part of your portfolio. It's all scaringly simple.

The only problem with the fantasy account it doesn't seem to give you an option to set a stop loss when you buy so I will have to set an alert should the share fall to my stop loss price but in real life you can ask for the shares to be sold as soon as they hit this price.

I have however set my stop loss price which is 394 which gives me a risk of 46p per share making a total of £184 plus my stamp duty of £8.81(only on purchase) and my buy/sell commission of £23.90 which makes £216.71 which is slightly over my 2% target of £200 but in real life I would not expect commission to be so high and I wanted to keep a round number of shares.

Of course because there is a difference between the price you can buy shares at and the price you can sell shares at (the spread) and you always have to buy at the higher price and sell at the lower price and because of the stamp duty and commission you are a loss making position as soon as you buy shares until hopefully they start to rise.

As I write the price has risen to 443 and my current loss is £11.24