Two new buys

Carphone Warehouse - long £20 / point
Workspace Group - long £40 / point

Both seeing nice volume increases, coming up to results time. Will update further later on.

Ali

A nice new pharma I discovered - SPH (Sinclair Pharma)

What a great looking company I just came across by accident... its currently trading at 30.75p. . A great looking venture capital company specifically in the pharma space. They have just secured fresh funding of 10 million with expected revenues of 33.69 million (up 3.3 million on last year) despite this performance in a tough climate, the share price is half that of the high's from last June.

This is expected to be their second year of profitability and although volumes are currently low, I think that results out on 30th June will provide a nice upward movement.

I'm also happy to hold this one as it provides a nice safety being in a typically defensive sector that will still perform in bear markets.

I'll be looking to purchase at the 30p mark. Target 50p.

BAY is a lame duck; Intec Telecom looking good

I only just checked in on my spredbet account to find myself  a few quid up on the BA spreadbet.  I got my maths totally wrong so actually made 11 quid out of the 8pc fall in share price.  Ah well - its better than nothing I suppose! 

So while i was looking through the company diary on digital look I came across Intec Telecom - up 20% on the day trading at 63p, just below its 52wk high.  I thought it was announcing results next week so missed the ride as would have definetely bought them up (they actually announced them yesterday- doh!).  However I have decided to open a spreadbet on them for £10 a point as they really do look in fantastic shape and I seem to be having a lot of luck with the telecoms companies at the moment! 

Others that i will be looking into detail over the weekend are Blacks Leisure and Northern Foods.  Watch this space for my thoughts on them. 

Have a good weekend! 

British Airways to tumble & a medical technology tip

I still can't see anything positive coming out here so I am short BAY - £5 a point. only a small punt here as i am curious to see what happens and have not seen too many indicators that we are due for a fall but I can't see anything but this happening.

Other than that i had a punt based on a tip and a lot of grilling my mate on an interesting stock ULT. They basically sell software to the NHS for treating depression. Just moved into profitability and expanding internationally. Revenues up 82% for first half. I have concerns about dependencies solely on one client but i think there is scope for this to move and they have made some acquisitions too... let's see what happens here!

By the way Nick - if you are reading i just totally dropped you in it! :-0 I am sure that all will shortly become clear!

Bye Bye Medusa

I dumped Medusa Mining making a 2 quid profit after trading fees. I think I might come to regret this one but I don't know anything about mining companies and bought this based purely on the fact that commodities are a good long punt from here and this company looked undervalued.

I personally think that buying a small cap miner is like buying a lottery ticket and the whole point of this experience is to make money sensibly... not gamble it!

So you won't see anymore mining / oil producing etc stocks here from me

Colt Telecom flies, TEP a bit boring.

Colt Telecom - Been a bit of non mover for me but up 20% now since i bought this about a month or so ago...

This morning the have announced a multi-million pound contract for managed data centre services to a large financial institution! COLT will provide a purpose-built 1,000 square metre facility at its newest UK data centre, situated just outside the M25, which was opened in late 2007. The data centre is being built out in phases using the latest data centre technology to meet particular demand from the financial services sector for minimal latency connectivity to the City of London!
Great news..... I checked out the charts and am expecting a small retracement short term and I can't be arsed to hold this although i might pick up again around the 50 day MA mark of 110. Sold for a nice 165 quid profit.

The other bonus this morning is STAN paid out their dividend - so a nice 200 quid landed in my account...!

TEP - disappointment on results.. was expecting a more positive outlook for the year. 34% rise in pretax profit (49% revenue increase) is great news but their statement was cautious stating lower energy margins and interest rates hitting their profitability. I'm going to still hold out for 330p on this and take the healthy dividend of 17.5p / share

BA.... what's the story!

Honing my newfound L2 skills I thought i'd take another look at BAY this morning... why o why they are still moving upwards I can't figure out.....

Normally you would see the smart money coming in now setting a new level of support or resistance for after the results have emerged. I wanted to short these and looking at L2 they are still very much a buy! I'm going to keep watching but maybe these results will shock us all!

On the results front, TEP release first quarter results tomorrow - i am nicely into profit at the moment... about 200 quid up... I'm still targetting 330p for this trade so hopefully another few quid before i cover on this one!

Looking at some new trades in the pipeline, Northern Foods is looking very good and a couple of others on my watchlist... will update further tomorrow around this!

Cutting losses really does save you money

I had a bad feeling about Oxus (pre-dominantly because it was a rubbish trade without me backing this up with my selection criteria) and well that proved to be very true with results out today.

Net debt up, financing being sourced for developing their latest mine which has now been delayed until 2011... blah blah. A lot of positive spin on a lot of bad news litters the rest of the results... in short I saved myself another 200 odd quid loss by getting out while I was feeling concern. Defo made me more likely to go ahead and do this again in the future rather than hanging in there for a rally!

TyraTech (REGS) - another proactive investors stock. up 50% today on director's purchases and notification of first shipment of it's new SafeShield insecticide! I'm not even going to pretend I was looking at this one but I did have a quick scan when my invite to the session came through as well as when one of my mates dropped me a line saying how annoyed he was at missing the boat on this one! Better to miss a boat then hop aboard one that sinks! This could still be a buy though...

My trades for Monday

Spreadbet short on M&S... certain to announce dividend cut. I also expect a retracement to the 50 day MA which is under the 300p mark where I'll take my first cover depending on how L2 is looking.

Long ATD - I'm actually going to wait for a dip here as I expect there to be a lot of movement on Monday with a small sell off.. this will be a longer term hold for me so I am happy to buy my time and take a good entry again; There is nice support at the 25-26p mark (director buy) so i'd like to get as close to that as I can.

I'm still watching Inchcape - annoying it has moved up from 14p when I started following it to 19p today.... i still think this is a very risky play given the state of the economy (Inchcape is heavily involved in automobile manufacture and distribution and have been battered like crazy from their 52wk highs... just take a look at the charts!)

Exchanging Plc - one from the seminar but one that I am going to sit out on and watch (probably with dismay as I count the money I could have made...)

Another one I intend to watch with interest are BA again... they are due to release results this week and I don' think the picture is going to be all that rosey... a potential short but I will update my thoughts once i have looked into this one more as big willie is never one to underestimate and i have been impressed with the recent drive to hedge on expected oil increases as well as filling up 1st / business class seating!

The Naked Trader Wrap up

Wow - what an event...  Robbie was much like I expected, which was all good! He put himself out there answering any and all (including a few of my stupid ones like his prediction for the Apprentice winner!) The Level 2 section was the most insightful and it definetely helped me fill some gaps in my trading approach.

What I loved about him and I think is a breath of fresh air is that he was so open and honest.  From sharing his account details, open trades  + account balances to simply stating he did not know when asked a tricky question....  I know the temptation myself all too much to just bullsh*t my way ahead! 

Anyway - the day was great - I got smashed in the bar, met some great people (some of whom I believe are now reading this blog!) and will hopefully improve on the money making front too! Thanks to Dave for putting me up and keeping the drinking going to 4am and also to Robbie for allowing a slightly half cut ali to cross examine him and then ask for a photo! 

Anyone who has other pics, comments from the event, please feel free to post here! 

Good luck to all those that went on ATD as a result of the conversation I had with Robbie in the seminar (I'm chuffed that it was discussed  and even more so that Robbie bought into it....  ) - let's watch this one move nicely upwards now.  I'll be back in for the ride on Monday again! 

Anyway, my trades setup for tomorrow are some spreadbets (yes i am going to give it another go now) and take a longer term view - just because you spreadbet does not mean you need to suddenly turn from short term investor to daytrader! 

Separate post for these details to follow.. 

My first milestone... cutting a losing trade!

Well I've been bullish on commodities firms as of late given I'm expecting cash to come out of the markets into oil, gold etc. Based on this theory i have probably pulled out of my Oxus Gold trade at the worst possible time ever!
However it has been dithering on the low side for a while and I am thinking this is a trade that is going to be like a millstone around my neck in coming weeks and oen that I jumped into too fast without really looking at it! So chop, my love affair with it is over.. dropped it after making a 25% loss! It felt painful at first but now I feel good about it.

Even with this loss I am still only 150 UKP off my target for the end of next month (although I do have a lot of open positions out of the money that could get worse!)

I'll send an updated post tomorrow letting you know how i get on at Robbie's trading seminar - I'm very excited about the whole day at the moment!

Alpesh Patel & Level 2!

So i just got back from a seminar on "how to make money in all markets" by Alpesh Patel.  Now excuse me for saying this but I personally think the guy is a bit of an arrogant tosser.  I think his view on the market is inaccurate and he is always very vague about the strategies that he teaches in his presentations.

I am i have to say bitter and looking from a very tainted perspective as he is the man responsible for the monstrosity that is Montague Pitman.  The broker that "recommended" and charged me 75 quid including "recommendation fees" and settlement costs for two trades that ended up netting me a loss of over 1.8k / 90pc - my first lesson to never ever listen to brokers who are placing your trades - at least not without thorough research by yourself!!! 

So it's just a week till I attend Robbie Burn's seminar / training workshop which I am really looking forward to.  The guy is very approachable and has been kindly answering my pestering qustions without so much as a grumble from his direction about my laziness.  I'm particularly interested in learning more about L2 .... which reminds me that I signed up for a free one month trial with ADVFN today just to find my feet before going along to this workshop. It all moves too fast for me but i am starting to spot areas of support and resistance and getting more of a feel for how prices move and how you can target entries and exits much better!  I think this could be a massive and very profitable tool for my trading going forwards...

Without further adue, my current watchlist / trade updates:- Mouchel Group (current market price of 260p - great entry price, possible upside of 100% plus, bad news last year and some missed contracts have battered the share price but i think gains to be made..); short BAY - (Swine death in America and after good gains today there is some selling going on so looking to close this out around the 150p mark but will be quick to cover if this rises); long Connaught - i already bought this one off of good reviews, strong resilience and defensive nature of this company... this might be more of a one month hold at present but has good upside of 25% +)

BA - sold at 162p

£93 profit.... I'm happy to take that considering this was a risk punt and only a short term trade - i still took just under my 10pc target (too scared to play for 15pc on this one)

Now just watch it skyrocket.... :-)

Why Selftrade piss me off..

Everyday we seem to have higher volumes back on the FTSE and I want to jump in for an exciting day's trading to find that Selftrade have some technical fault or other - the latest supposedly down to "third party data provider".  It's frustrating as hell and means to play it safe I have not been using limit orders and selling out when actually there has been a lot of upside on some of these stocks that i have dropped! 

I'm now looking at Barclays Stockbrokers.  They offer 6 quid per trade if you trade over 50 times a quarter (half the requirement for selftrade).  They also offer free level 2 at this point as well or charge 16 quid a month if you only make 25 trades (i easily do this at present)... be interested to know thoughts on them from any readers! 

My long on BA is doing nicely and with the sudden rally this AM I am tempted to sell out at 160p for 85 quid profit, although it would be nice to just put a stop at this level and see what happens i just don't trust my broker account at the moment! 

Sadly my Oxus Gold and Medusa mining stocks have not moved as of yet - was hoping for some form of traction on these.  Oxus despite making a loss of 42 million last year is on the road to becoming profitable and good results out at the end of June should hopefully get this stock moving in the rup up as the wise money starts coming in...

I've been told by a mining analyst mate that he thinks both companies are dead dogs but i'm still sticking to my guns on this one although will watch both stocks extremely carefully going forwards!