Hello again all, hope you are keeping well and that the markets haven’t treated you too badly this year so far! It is quite a torrid time for now with lots of global uncertainty every way you look. My thoughts are still with the millions of innocent people affected by the war in Ukraine, they will want to get on with their lives as before but circumstances mean that things are extremely unsettled for now to say the least!
Keeping one eye on the macro environment we can see a fresh wall of worry for the markets this year with war, inflation, interest rate hikes, cost of living crisis. Maybe traders are having a ball with all this volatility? I have been reminded lately why I am not a trader – still running a business (wholesale bakery) pretty much full time is sure to mean we have to be able to take our eye of the ball from time to time to meet the needs and demands of business. More so recently than ever with so many price increases on raw materials, labour and services we have been in a constant state of flux revising prices with our customers only to find that further increases come along and wreak havoc again.
We can draw parallels from this to the stock market… are we invested in companies with pricing power? Can they raise prices without loosing their customers? All good questions to be asking and considering as we look for new investments or consider our existing holdings.
My year to date performance is nothing to shout about for now, at the end of Q1 I am nursing almost -13% return on my stock market investments. It is hard to look at hard earned gains eroding away as the market falls but I have to remind myself that this is a long term game and keep plodding on.
Stockopedia Alerts
Stockopedia has been useful in these markets to keep track of prices and I have found great value in using their alerts system to help me spot buying opportunities for shares on my watchlist.
The alerts menu is at the top of the home page as you can see from my screenshot below.
It is really quick and easy to add alerts by clicking on the Create alert button, as you can see I currently have 13 alerts waiting in the background to be triggered. I bought more Ashtead last week when the alert told me the price had dropped below 4500 where I had set an alert…
You can set several useful types of alert as the picture below shows – you should give it a go! You can see useful alerts such as the price falling below a 200 day moving average or set your own stop loss alert and receive an email when the alert is triggered.
Trades
I have been quite active buying in quarter 1 this year trying to take advantage of lower prices. I know that the prices could of course fall further and bearing this in mind I have been buying smaller lots as time goes on in a sort of PCA/DCA Pound or Dollar Cost averaging method. You will see multiple buys of some stocks as a result. I invested smaller amounts than normal into shares that I already hold. I am aware that there is one winner from all this trading and that is the brokers – surely the likes of IG, Hargreaves Lansdown, etc will be doing well out of all this volatility. Looking down this list some of the buys and sells look like a good move and others look like another mistake, but time will tell, it reminds me of that quote…
He who lives by the crystal ball will eat shattered glass!
Ray Dalio
- 25/01/2022 BUY UPGS @ 170
- 28/02/2022 Buy UPGS @ 174
- 11/03/2022 Buy UPGS @ 143
- 31/01/2022 SELL SUMO (Takeover) @ 513
- 01/02/2022 BUY DBOX @ 15 (New Position)
- 16/03/2022 Buy DBOX @ 11
- 03/02/2022 Buy FUTR @ 3000
- 14/02/2022 Buy FUTR @ 2784
- 04/02/2022 Buy ECK @ 43
- 14/02/2022 Buy FNTL @ 227
- 14/02/2022 Buy WJG @ 245
- 14/02/2022 Buy MWE @ 63
- 28/02/2022 Buy MWE @ 49
- 22/02/2022 Buy BXP @ 101 (New Position)
- 11/03/2022 Buy BXP @ 92
- 24/02/2022 Sell ABDP @ 1050
- 28/02/2022 Buy IGG @ 773
- 01/03/2022 Buy RCH @ 177
- 11/03/2022 Buy JIM @ 227 (New Position)
- 11/03/2022 Buy AHT @ 4812
- 06/04/2022 Buy AHT @ 4533
- 11/03/2022 Buy KETL @ 249
- 25/03/2022 Buy HSV @ 836
- 05/04/2022 Sell ADVT @ 81
Portfolio at the end of Q1
This leaves my portfolio holdings at 30 stocks as follows (This includes another Buy of Ashtead and the sale of ADVT)
Going back to stockopedia I can look at the analysis of my portfolio. Stockopedia allows you to track and analyse up to 10 portfolios. You can look at your portfolio from many different angles the screen shot below shows the holdings sorted by Stock rank.
Looking at the allocation or diversification within the portfolio…
Mello physical event 2022
In other news a date for your diary is the in person Mello event in London on the 24th – 26th of May.
We have all been inundated with online Mello Monday events etc of which I have only ever been to 1! (Sorry David) However I must be first through the gate for this physical event in London as I have my tickets booked already including flights from Northern Ireland and accommodation so I am all set and ready to rock!
I went to the last physical Mello event in the same location and enjoyed meeting the various different companies and interacting with the other enthusiastic investors that attended.
Quoting from their email
Mello2022, our annual flagship two day smaller growth company event will be returning to the popular Clayton Conference Centre in Chiswick, London W4 on Wednesday 25th May and Thursday 26th May. The Mello team welcome back all investors to experience two jam packed days showcasing top quality speakers such as Mark Slater, Keith Ashworth-Lord, Lord Lee, Andy Brough and many more. You can also expect carefully selected growth and value orientated companies, not to mention the opportunity to learn from and enjoy the vibrant and enlightened Mello Investor Community.
Also note there is a 50% discount offer. Again to quote from their email…
As a regular Mello attendee, we are offering you the chance to get an Early Bird ticket which will give you a whopping 50% off ticket prices by entering code M22EB50. Click here to buy your tickets now, the Early Bird offer will expire at midnight on 30th April!
This is not an affiliate link or anything – just letting you know in case you missed it so far.
Thanks…
As usual I start these updates wanting to add loads of detail, but by the time I am half way I have ran out of steam! Thanks for your support in reading and commenting or responding to my posts, I hope that something in these updates serves to educate, entertain or reassure someone that they are not alone and others are navigating the same markets.
If there is anything you think I have overlooked or if you have a question please comment below or contact me on twitter @investorjohnuk
If you don’t use Stockopedia and want to try it out you can click the link below and both you and I will get a discount on our next subscription. Thanks again for your support and good luck in the markets.
