LM portfolio as at 02/10/2020:
| Code | Sector | Date Bought | Cost | Value | Gain/Loss |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LM012 LM012-2 |
Real Estate Investment Trusts | 20/05/2019 28/11/2019 |
£2030 | £2320 | 14.11% |
Down to only one position now after closing my ETF/ETC trade in Platinum (LM023) for a small (£40) loss.
Once more this was a 40 day high / 20 day low trade which worked so well last year in Palladium (LM014). Though this Platinum trade didn't close strictly on a 20 day low it was hovering around that point and the ETF price had dropped below the 200 day simple moving average.
That was all the prompting I needed to sell.
The LM portfolio is down slightly over its lifetime i.e. since it began in April 2017. The one remaining position is doing OK but closed positions so far have lost a total of £1,111.
Obviously this is far from ideal but as a percentage of the total amount paid in (my money plus the 25% government bonus) it is less than 7%.
In addition there has been some dividend income of around £400 so taking it altogether, with fees taken into account also, the portfolio is down around 4% over its lifetime.
Frankly I'm happy to have only lost that little.
February and March 2020 were a mess. Let's not forget that the FTSE 100 dropped 11% in just one day. It was difficult not to panic a little at that point!
I stuck by the rules and sold out of a lot of shares, taking a battering in the process. I lost almost 50% of my investment in Taylor Wimpey by pulling the trigger when I did. Of course, shortly after I sold they began to rise - Sod's Law - but now I see their shares are dropping once more and are in danger of going sub-£1
Opportunity...
It's been very difficult sitting on the sidelines doing nothing, especially when my LISA has a decent amount of cash in it. Although I've no way of predicting the future I can't help but feel that I may be missing out. I won't get this time back, that's for sure.
However I remind myself over and over that if I jump in now on a whim - and it would be a whim as I have no buy signals - then I could lose money.
One thing I know for sure is that there will always be further opportunity to make money.
Markets will rise at some point, no doubt about that. And when they do, I want to have the funds available to take full advantage.
As Larry Hile is quoted as saying in the excellent "Market Wizards" book - "If you don’t bet, you can’t win. If you lose all your chips, you can’t bet".