DIY Investor Magazine
|
Oct 2017
49
‘FAGIN IS TRADING RIGHT AT THE TOP OF HIS GAME,
20% UP IN SIX MONTHS IS A BLINDING PERFORMANCE’
‘THE PLAIN RULE IS TO DO NOTHING IN
THE DARK, TO BE A PARTY TO NOTHING
UNDERHANDED OR MYSTERIOUS, AND
NEVER TO PUT HIS FOOT WHERE HE CANNOT
SEE THE GROUND’ - CHARLES DICKENS’
To be serious, whilst that’s a true story and the garage
did forget me, my confidence is just fine. But when
you’ve had a month like I’ve just had, you do need to
have your head in the right place otherwise it all gets on
top of you.
I wrote a few weeks ago about my intention to leverage
up the total value of the £100k portfolio that is the basis
of the competition, by using either CFDs or the Spreads.
To date the only leveraged trade I’ve taken was a £13k
position on
Spot Gold
via a CFD (a couple of hundred
down as I write, but still well within limits) but I’m
planning to take more towards the end of October when
the market should have settled down (September and
October are often volatile, difficult months).
Margin trades can generate monster returns on the
capital invested, but should come not just with a health
warning, but a warning of INSTANT DEATH if they go
badly wrong – and trust me they can.
So I’ve been wondering how to hedge them into the
overall risk profile with all the other stuff I’m holding and
was very interested to see this was a topic covered by a
guy called the
Wheelie Dealer
, who does just that with
his own portfolio.
If you’re interested in this idea and how to crank up
portfolio returns, his website is well worth a look
He was also interviewed here on DIY recently - take a
look
its good stuff, he knows what he’s doing.
I’m off sailing for a couple of weeks and have decided to
not even look at my portfolio whilst I’m away, am I being
sensible in giving myself a complete break, or taking a
stupid risk.............................as always, I’ll find out soon
enough won’t I.
Yours, aye. Humbug
Fagin is up £22,211 in just six months and has some
fond advice for his friend
There are so many reasons why I prefer to short term
swing trade (instant gratification for one!) but two key
political reasons for me at the moment are
Brexit and
North Korea.
Who knows what the implications will be for the UK
with Brexit soft or hard; I mainly trade the UK market
(sometimes I trade
TNA
a 3 x leveraged US ETF of the
Russell Index) and I am loathe to take my eye off any
purchased UK share for very long at the mo.
Hence I have found my solace in the short term market
and this with the added boost from trading faster
moving commodity stocks as I have said.
It may be that I miss out on the huge gains possible
from long term shareholding.....
To quote
Warren Buffet’s partner Charlie Munge
r:
‘you can argue that if you’re not willing to react with
equanimity to a market price decline of 50% two or
three times a century you’re not fit to be a common
shareholder, and you deserve the mediocre result you’re
going to get...’.
Personally I don’t have the patience or the stomach to
sit through large or even medium drawdowns; my trade
either triggers or it doesn’t.
