I’ve just been through the “middlers” in our “Mindless Momentum” portfolio experiment looking to see if any have paid dividends recently.
It turns out only two of the 10 stocks in the virtual portfolio have a dividend history, which might account for why the portfolio is not doing very well.
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Just to remind you, the stock screen looks for companies valued between £100mln and £1bn (hence “middlers”) whose share prices have risen the most, in percentage terms, over the last year.
The virtual portfolio gets refreshed every two months or so and seeing as it was last shaken up on August 2, it was time to get rid of the clunkers and bring in some new insurgents.
We had a lot of clunkers to get rid of, as well, with Zoo Digital PLC (LON:ZOO) and Seeing Machines Limited (LON:SEE) both coming off the boil in spectacular fashion.
Sub-titling specialist Zoo Digital was one of the few successes of our “tiddlers” momentum-based portfolio, to the extent it gained promotion to the middle rank, only to promptly run out of steam, exiting the portfolio having lost £369, or 39% of our original investment.
That’s disastrous over a two-month spell – or any spell, for that matter.
READ Tiddlers showing plenty of "mindless momentum" - shame it's in the wrong direction
Driver fatigue monitoring specialist Seeing Machines did almost as badly, shedding £320, or 34% of the original investment.
Also ejected from the portfolio were K3C (-21%), Impax (-3.6%), Gulf Keystone (-8.6%), Genel (-17%) and Eland (-17%).
Three of those were oil stocks and it clearly has not been a good couple of months for the smaller players in the sector.
Impax was only two places off retaining its place in the portfolio and its £34 loss was almost entirely accounted for by the assumed dealing costs of £15 per transaction that we factor into the portfolio’s comings and goings.
With seven stocks on the out, seven new ones come in and the lucky seven are AB Dynamics, Creo Medical, Craneware, Imimobile, Learning Technologies, Providence Resources and Regal Petroleum.
Two of those are oil companies – I’m humming Hunter & Ronson’s “Once bitten, twice shy” as I type this – but most of the rest are technology companies, about which I am a lot more comfortable.
The portfolio could certainly do with a bit of tech glamour; on August 2, it was worth £8,772, and now it is worth only £8,030.
The three stocks held over from August – Bushveld, Serica and Versarian – are doing well but could do with some help in the engine room.
Here’s the latest portfolio list.
Company
Shares owned
Cost of shares
Cost per share
Current bid price
Current value
Change
% change
AB Dynamics
48
£711
1,481.25p
1,385p
£665
-£46
-6.5%
Bushveld
3,500
£785
22.43p
27p
£945
£160
+20%
Creo Medical
338
£718
212.44p
200p
£676
-£42
-5.9%
Craneware
22
£730
3,318.18p
3,21p
£686
-£44
-6.0%
Imimobile
198
£720
363.58p
348p
£689
-£31
-4.3%
Learning Technologies
518
£719
138.9p
135.5p
£702
-£18
-2.4%
Providence Resources
3,950
£716
12.13p
17.45p
£689
-£27
-3.8%
1,724
£718
41.67p
38p
£655
-£63
-8.8%
Serica
1,347
£931
69.11p
82.2p
£1,107
£176
+19%
Versarian
735
£934
127.04p
165p
£1,213
+£279
+30%
- Cash: £3
- Value (including cash): £8,030
- Dividends received: £39
- Profit/loss: -£1,970