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Subscribe in a reader Game Group hasn’t had the Xmas price run up as wished, so I have sold it. I sold it around a month ago at around 170. There are two main pressures on it as I can see. Firstly, the supermarkets have been undercutting the selling prices e.g. Modern Warfare 2 is £47 in HMV or GMG and only £27 in Tesco or Sainsbury. Secondly, digital downloads are on the horizon and this will destroy the business model of GMG. Time to get out and never look back.
SIPP is now up to around £17,300 – so going well.
Today IG Group (IG:LSE) reported that their UK market has reached saturation. I find this disturbing news considering the market expected growth. I am surprised the stock price has only fallen 4% in early trading. Therefore, I have sold out today at £3.57.
Although I gained around 20% on this trade, it saddens me as I thought it was a long term hold that would provide great gains.
It seems IG Group’s revenue is hampered when investors favour stocks, especially long over short positions. This coupled with lower market volatility makes these spreadbetting firms uncompetitive, when compared to ISA accounts in the UK where investors can fund up to £7200 per year. All my stock holdings are now in either a SIPP or ISA wrapper.
However, GMG is doing well at £1.85 after buying at £1.52 and with the blockbuster games pipeline, including Call of Duty, Modern Warfare 2, I expect this stock to be a great performer. I’m currently up around 20% on it but hope for more. Incidentally, my SIPP is now £16,200. A decent recovery, but only around the same level I started with 3 years ago. However, my ISA has more than made up for it, but that’s not the focus of this site and listing it’s details feels like cheating as this is a SIPP site dairy site for my Pension investments.
I’m very pleased that I bought Lloyds shares around a month ago and seemed to have timed the purchase nicely. But now I’m selling. I don’t want to ride on the back of a slow drift price slide. This may be a mistake, but as confidence is coming back to the market, smaller cap stocks are set to provide good opportunities. This brings me neatly to the next stock I’m adding to my SIPP.
Game group is a bit of a seasonal stock performer and it has shown some recent price appreciation. The price is at a low point after a rundown from earlier in the year. So, I’m buying some of these to hopefully catch a price run up to Xmas.
Earnings will be driven by the new games in the Sales pipeline, like Call of Duty and Guitar Hero V, providing focus to the gaming sector in the coming months when these market bursting games arrive.
Suddenly, there’s weakness on the FTSE front with warnings of ‘W’ shaped recoveries and the expectation of a bumpy ride throughout the coming months.
Elsewhere, BA are spreading fear in their attempt to feed from the tax payer begging bowl.
I couldn’t care if BA survive or not. They are a private enterprise and shouldn’t get government funding. They have always had the worst attitude, with their cabin staff being old and jaded. Try Singapore Airlines, or Cathay. You’ll see the difference.
But all is not gloom.
Interestingly, the Council of Mortgage Lenders advise that less mortgages are in arrears. This will surely help to limit losses in Lloyds’ mortgage portfolio a.k.a. the HBOS self certification mortgage portfolio. There was also talk of Lloyds selling assets of over 100 billion, possibly the very same mortgages. If these things happen, and the HBOS mortgage portfolio is improving not deteriorating, the future will be a whole lot brighter for the black horse.
Personally, I have set my mortgage capital repayments to the highest I have ever repayed, and I am sure many others are doing the same in these tough times. If others are like minded, the deposit side of the balance sheet should be recovering.
Downside risks are defaults on credit cards and unsecured personal loans.
So, I’m going to load up on Lloyds again in the weakness. Bought some more at 67.
Surely Jim Cramer will have to resign or face the sack after being exposed in his own moronic video as an alleged market manipulator, a serious securities crime. His next week will be bumpy. Fellow presenters will shy away from him incase they are associated with his tricks and pulled into his credibility black hole. I feel that the US public may demand a public hanging.
However, surely the whole CNBC network is to blame. CNBC Executives should be first in the villification cue, but they will push Cramer’s neck out there first.
I’ve made a couple of new purchases for my SIPP that I thought I’d mention. I’ve bought RBS and Lloyds quite aggressively. My reasoning is that the government has insured their toxic assets. Also, Lloyds may find that it quickly starts to get cashflow from Joe Public as they are such a big mortgage player and that the public are repaying their mortgages as fast as they can. Therefore, I don’t see Lloyds going out of business.
RBS on the other hand is a more risky prospect as so much of past revenues were made from investment banking. However, as long as they are not nationalised, there could be great upside. I got in RBS around 20p and Lloyds around 50p. I put the biggest proportion into Lloyds.
P.S. my SIPP is now around £11,000 – I’m now nearly immune to the losses.
Terrible, terrible. Thats all I can say. Please don’t mock though.
Small Cap stocks really took a hammering.
Just a quick update.
There’s some notable wrong calls I have made and my Merrill’s call to buy, below, now seems embarrasing. I’m glad I’ve got it written down, cause I might have forgotten about it. I hope I learn from it. MEL is now at $44.
As you can see, I’m no Warren Buffet and my target of 50% year on year is no where close. I am now sitting around £24,900 – so well down from the highs. Well my current year on year since I started in August two years will be 16% year on year if it remains the same in August.
I am now predominantly invested in Mining and Oil incl Tullow (TLW), Cairn (CNE), Medusa MML, BG Group, Jubille Platinum (JLP).
Been very busy with work, but will update soon.
I have made many mistakes in investing and I want to record my mistakes so that I will have to ensure I do not repeat mistakes twice.
Therefore, though shall not,
I will be keeping this list up to date and I will commit to refering and following it everytime I buy a stock!