MARKETS
Someone really likes me 'up there' if there is such a thing, which there probably isn't. And even if there was, why would 'up there' think about just me anyhow and my trades?
Anyway I made two monumentally idiotic mistakes this week that someone with 18 years trading experience should never make.
I should have been clobbered with massive losses to serve me right but in both cases the opposite happened.
Cock up one: As those of you who came to the seminar saw I made £10,000 from a trade I never knew I had made!
I noticed the FTSE was climbing every day from near the Dow opening so unusually for me I was buying it then closing it before the end of play.
So I did one last week for what I thought was £10 a point. It did well so I went to close it for £200 profit. However the trade wasn't there. I decided I was either going senile or hadn't pressed the button properly. One or the other never mind, forgot about it.
Two days later I happened to look at a CFD account I hardly use and noticed the balance looked rather larger than I expected. Would you believe it?
I had accidentally bought £10 in that account (it looks very like the spreadbet account) . But in cfds it is a contract and so £10 is the same as £100 !
So in effect I had done a £100 a point by Total mistake making me a quick (and massive) profit.
I promptly closed half and slapped a stop loss on the rest. That then closed out to bank the massive profit.
Cock Up 2: I saw Paysafe shares had dipped heavily after results I thought were pretty good so decided to buy £20 a point spreadbet. I opened up an account I don't use that much and lobbed on £20pp. What... the bet didn't appear.
So I jabbed at the button a few more times. Yes, you guessed it, I looked in the wrong place. I now realised I'd put on £100 a point and not the £20. I did laugh at myself, immediately stuck on a stop and hoped for the best. Lucky for me now sitting on a £3k profit!
I was lucky though both times; both could easily have gone the other way and the lesson is, pay attention when putting on a trade and make sure it is the right one in the right account!
Also be patient and don't keep jabbing at a buy button like a right plank. Actually I blame cock up two on caffeine. I had just had a double espresso!
The only other time this happened to me was at a seminar when I was demonstrating how to do a ftse upbet and did one for £5 a point. Except my finger slipped and I did 500! I made £1,500 in the ten seconds it took me to reverse it! Thinking about it all my mistakes are darn good. How can I engineer them? I would make a fortune.
A few nice looking trades came out of both seminars. A few for now and one or two trades worth waiting for in the future.
Actually it ended up being quite a few trades. One high risk detailed to those of you who get the email and I'll also put out half of them here. I'm not doing them all as I haven't got all day!
I bought some of recruiter Harvey Nash (LON:HVN). At the seminar we saw lots of recruiters on the rise and compared them all.
Harvey Nash easily came out the cheapest rating and so I bought those, though Staffline and RWA looked good too.
I don't see why HVN shouldn't have at least another ten percent in it and indeed if it was rated anywhere near its peers it would be 20% higher.
Motor Point (LON:MOTR) has caught my eye and I bought some at one of the seminars on direct access. It has some risk as it listed near the 200p mark and has slumped.
But unlike other companies in the motor sales area it hasn't risen. So I have taken a bit of a gamble with it - it does look cheap and everything hinges on what it says next.
It hasn't said anything for ages so it won't be long. I bought it with the view I might have to take a loss if the statement shows they still have problems. So it might motor - or crash and burn!
Morgan Sindall (LON:MGNS) has looked cheap for some time and I have bought in here, we discussed this one a bit at the seminar.
The future looks good here and fundamentally its looks sound indeed. It has a massive pile of cash and is on a lovely uptrend.
I added some more Xeros (LON:XSG). Its polymer bead cleaning processes could be a disruptive technology and could be worth an awful lot more in the future. It has announced a new firefighter product and has a leather product too.
Contracts with all the major hotel groups and it indeed even helps the environment with lots less water and energy needed to clean. A long-term hold which may pay off.
I bought a few more Hollywood Bowl (LON:BOWL). Got some live at the seminar at the sell price using direct market access. Looks a lovely long-term tuckaway. As a bowling fan these places are bursting at the weekend.
As detailed above I added some PAYS as a spreadbet after its report, I thought it was just fine and felt happy to add some more. Of course as mentioned above it was way more than I intended!
The short in Domino's paid off as today shares tanked as results weren't quite as good as expected.
That's quite enough of a fall by me and I have banked a nice spreadbet short profit of £1,060.
I think the fall was overdone and have now bought the stock!! I am in for a slice of the action on another spreadbet! Looking for a return back up to the 360-70p level.
Same with DTY! It's usually worth selling some of a share that has gone way higher before a statement and I did that with DTY which rose strongly for two days and sold half for profits of £795.
That proved wise as shares got cremated after a statement suggesting growth slowing I held onto the rest as eventually it should head higher as it is hardly going to go out of business!
And indeed like Dom, the sell off seemed well overcooked and I rebought some DTY. It should rise from the dead so watch out for a few zombies. Texting furiously on their phones.
Another bid didn't seem to be happening at 32 Red so I sold for a very nice profit of £9,387.
The end of the road forever for that one but made lovely profits on it over the years.
I also waved farewell to the other bid target Netplay. Banked a profit of £920. To bank profits now rather than wait a bit for the full bid price seems sensible and I'll use the cash elsewhere. KBT just won't budge so sold for a tiny loss.
I feel a little wary of NCC and given a nice quick profit I banked for a profit of £745. Total profit then banked for the site today is £12,907.
Elsewhere an excellent statement from off-the-radar Quartix which looks like a long-term winner. Indeed one of the directors also thought results were good and snapped up a big pile of shares.
One of my long-term holdings NMC produced another good statement and I've trebled on these now. I did buy some the other week but it didn't make it to the site. Expect to hold for another 2 years barring unexpected question marks.
The portfolio continues to shine and FTSE ups and downs don't seem to affect much.
BUT! Obviously markets have had a good run so I don't think I am far off having a good topslice of everything and have a large cash balance going into the summer months.