A bit of a summer slump going on. This is totally normal. Liquidity becomes harder and so shares get more volatile.
I'm holding both FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 shorts as a hedge for the time being. Those of you at the seminar will know I'm already up £10,000 plus on those. But they are really a cover for any downside in the shares.
Usually at some point in the summer there is a sudden slump down. So you have to figure how to deal with it. I always think have some cash on the side and some shorts open and beware of anything volatile for hard to value.
The big news for me is a bid for Worldpay. I've held these and other shares in the payments sector for some time. So I also have Paysafe (PAYS) and Safecharge (SCH).
I bought all three because I assumed at some stage they would get bid for and the bidding wars might be underway.
The chances of LON:PAYS and LON:SCH getting bid for sooner than later are now much higher and have bought more of both Pays and SCH.
SCH in particular might go for a very decent price as it looks the cheapest of the three.
I wasn't sure whether to sell Worldpay as the price had leapt so decided it was sensible to sell half - I usually sell at least half on a bid - and got a decent price so that banks £2,966 for the website. I kept the rest, the bid looks likely to go through at 380.
Now to me it's more a question of when rather than if Pays and Sch are in the money. A Pays bid would see some spectacular gains for me. Let's see: these things tend to happen when you least expect them! I'll look to buy some further PAYS and SCH on any summer weakness.
I bought some Page Group (LON:PAGE). We discussed this at the seminar and bought some the next trading day because as we discussed it I realised I liked it!
It's an interesting share which reports on July 11th so it is always a little risky buying before the figures. After all they might be bad! So on consideration I bought a small amount (for me) of 1,000 shares.
The group had a record quarter, profits are up and net cash stands at a massive £86m. Downside is it is struggling in Singapore and Brazil and flat in the UK as Brexit worries persist. But there is enough there for me to take a chance with it and if results are bad I won't take too bad a hit. If results are better than expected I might pick up some more.
I've bought back into LON:ITV (after the break) which always seems a buy once it slumps into the 170s area. Bid rumours always comes round to lift the price unexpectedly and looking for a modest rise back to 200p - and who knows? If there really was a bid could be at 250-300!
Volex (LON:VLX) came up on a screen at the seminar. I had traded this many moons ago when it was going well but then the company slumped after a series of warnings. Could it be on the way back? If so there could be much upside.
The recovery seems to be on but one has to be careful! Weighing up the risk/reward for the moment I think the reward outweighs the risk so I bought a few after the seminar.
What attracts me is it has net cash now and also if forecasts floating around are right it does look cheap. A rerating could see a 30% gain.
You need a lot of patience if you buy shares in Photo Me! (LON:PHTM). It tends to sit in the same area for a while - but then when you least expect it - it suddenly rerates!
The market marked the shares down after latest results, possibly as there wasn't a special dividend. Still, profits were up 20% as was the dividend. I always like the fact it continues to evolve into new businesses and ideas - and its new laundry business could clean up. All in all I intend to tuckaway the shares and leave them for a couple of years barring of course any question marks appearing or a general market melt.
Purplebricks (LON:PURP) I bought some back after taking giant profits last time. Of course this disruptor is not something that agrees with my metrics or is something I would normally get so don't write to me asking me why. Just a hypocrite right! I don't mind having the odd higher risk potential disruptor in the portfolio. However I don't intend to hang about if it gets de-rated!
I picked up a little more Next Fifteen (LON:NFC) live at the seminar at the sell price using DMA (come to a seminar to learn that!) - it still looks cheap.
Finally on the buys Zytronic (LON:ZYT) is a small company that's doing rather well. It has some net cash too, a decent dividend yield and it seems to be growing nicely.
Because of that the share price has been rising - but gradually with one spike up. It's come back from that spike so I got in. Interesting to see how it goes.
I've taken some more profit off the table. Half of Worldpay went as above for profit of £2,966... Xaf results were ok but not enough to keep me in so went for a profit of £335. Tep last trading lot went for a profit of £124. Kept the rest long-term and big div - ex div today. Plp sold for a profit of £92.
LON:MGNS has proved a fab buy, results soon but after such strength sold half for a profit of £1,259.
Total profits banked for the site then are £4,776
Great statement from Microgen today - I've now nearly trebled on it since bought not that long ago - regrets? Why didn't I buy loads more?
Xeros (LON:XSG) the polymer bead laundry company has bought a US cleaning business as it looks to ramp up sales. This one could end up being huge. Quartix produced a decent statement. Another excellent isa tuckaway to hold for a long-term. Everyman Media has been going well.