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Ok then, onto some buys and sells, starting with the buys...

Published: 15:32 15 Jun 2017 BST

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Ok then, onto some buys and sells, starting with the buys.  Given the summer lull on the way buying is limited for the moment and only buying things I really think have good potential.

Everyman Cinema (LON:EMAN) came up at the last seminar and is an interesting one.

"Posh" cinema going is on the up and this company specialises in lovely cinemas with great seats and service.

This is what people now want and so are prepared to pay more for their seats. My reason for buying is first of all decent fundmentals with rising profits, good director buying and also I wonder about this chain getting bid for?

I think I would try and pick this up if say, I owned Cineworld.

Anyway I have picked up some shares in EMAN, bought a few late yesterday and a few this morning    They have come back a bit so I've bought while the shares seem a touch weak which looks like profit taking. In a downturn, strangely, people still treat themselves to the movies.

One of my faves, Iomart (IOM) went up through a previous 300p barrier so I bought in more. Then results came out this week which were excellent. A rare profit maker in its sector I really am in for a possible bid. It has been bid for before and no reason why this shouldn't happen again, this time hopeful of a more realistic 400-450. 

I bought some Oxford Metrics (LON:OMG). Interesting company that produces software for government, life sciences, entertainment... a wide range. Interim results recently were decent and it has a very decent cash pile which I always like.

Sales pipeline looks strong so I think these shares could rise nicely. If not, at least I can jump up and down shouting "OMG!"

I picked up a few more APH (Alliance Pharma) – it said its key brands are going well   and it expects commercial sales of a promising drug to combat sickness in pregnancy to take off soon,


I've shorted a few shares in the retail/hospitalility area as with the minimum wage up, less spending going on they are all vulnerable. Also data looks pretty poor in that area.

So as well as shorting retailers as a whole on a spreadbet, I shorted (for newcomers this means trying to make money from betting on a share price to go down) Conviviality (LON:CVR) and Patisserie (LON:CAKE). 

Both are decent companies but their share prices have soared - but too much given likely headwinds. Others in similar areas have started to warn on profits. CVR's retail outlets could suffer and it also has quite a big debt.

Cake could suffer from minimum wage rises, less consumer spend and soaring costs of ingredients - the butter price is currently skyrocketing. And frankly I have gone off cake. I am eating more twixes instead.

As I said above I topsliced (sold part of some holdings). Frankly too lazy/difficult to go through all, but here are the lowlights.

I took part profits on Cnc bagging £1,316 while keeping the rest. Profit of £1,125 on sag - that one stormed up.

Banked a little bit of Yu, that's a profit of £860.   ITV kept sinking so sold for a profit of £1,196 – and a 10p dividend per share during the holding period.

I topsliced a bit of SFE as I had a lot, banking a profit of £693, and a topslice at upsg banking £1301.. I lobbed out one or two that were just stuck in a rut:  Euro, alu and Lpa so banked small gains of £178 and £136 and £125. About to buy lpa back I think. The other two could become buybacks perhaps later this summer.

Bur was sliced for a profit of £3,375. Purp doubled and so automatically topsliced for profit of £3,555. Then it began to tank so sold sadly 40 points lower for a profit of £3,996. Although could have banked a lot more pleased as it was high risk.  Total profits banked for the website are   £17,856  .

Overall though I lost some bits of profits here and there on paper but they have been very strong and one never expects to exit at a top

That’s a lot of cash raised  and expect to sit on that – it’s firepower should the market have a major selloff over the summer. Together with some shorts I’m almost ready for the beach….

Summertime can be a hard time in the market with lots of volatility so always worth banking some profits and keeping a wad of cash free. Then come back in September all refreshed. Also if you have some cash you can relax a bit more – that is a lot harder if you are “all in”.


I bought some Sophos (Soph)– I struggled to buy it in the past as found it hard to work out the fundamentals. But.. it is in the hot sector of security and the recent statement was very bullish indeed – so it seemed a good fit for a high risk portfolio.

It is volatile so I tried to buy on weakness – I’ll try and hang onto it if I can and ignore any gyrations which can be massive.

I was quite impressed with the bullishness of the recent statement too, so going to give it a shot.

ULS Tech (LON:ULS)   has absolutely stormed up and there hasn’t even been that much profit taking so still looks nice. (It provides B to B transactions in the conveyancing markets and this looks like a growth area.)

Recent buy Applied Graphene Materials (LON:AGM)  is doing fine for the moment let's hope the first orders for fishing rods grow! Need a bit of news here to get it going,
 
Big money possibly could come from collaboration with Airbus Space and Defence . There are a load of other areas where contracts could be made and materials used. One decent win could see the share price way higher.

Cambridge Cognition  holds well and has been climbing rapidly this week – can be volatile though. 
Fevertree of course is volatile but still worth holding and sold half purp for the higher risk fund banking a decent profit.

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