Failure!!

I don’t seem to be able to buy on the retrace!! After selling my TSTR, the price dropped a little so I tried to buy back in but was only able to buy on a negotiated trade. I thought I would be able to buy later in the day but not only did it stay on NT all day but the sp went up to 1.2p before ending at 1.12p!! So, good lick to all holders of TSTR, I hope it goes up soon. I made a profit and there is no such thing as a bad profit!!

At the end of the day I topped up my Orogen ORE shares at 0.809p and bought some Asia Digital ADH shares at 0.65p. The prices were good because the market was in a dreadful state after the Japanese earthquake and the situation in Libya, both human tragedies!

Tristar Resources TSTR

I have just sold my Tristar Resources TSTR shares for 1.1115p making a small profit. Following my rules that I am formulating, sell in the morning and buy in the afternoon. So I am resisting the temptation to buy some more shares now and I am going to wait for later on this afternoon. If I can buy TSTR back at a cheaper price then I will. Otherwise I will buy Asia Digital ADH, or top up my ORE or PTCM shares. More news later!!

Lots of excitement !!!

The second share I bought was Victoria Oil and Gas (VOG) and having held it since March, it finally showed I was in profit last Friday. I am not getting very excited as it is currently at 4,5p and I have a sell order in for 10p. The company has discovered gas onshore in Cameroon and when it receives a licence for exploitation everyone expects the share to rise. Currently there is a lot of excitement on the BB and it amuses me that the same thing can be found on other BBs where there has been some movement.One thing I have learned is not to get too excited. Everything that goes up, will come down. It may come down a little and then go back up but nothing moves in a dead straight line up!
There have also been some very sad sights with ROK, a building company going into administration. Reading the BB it was plain that many investors have lost money, some- a lot of money. Also, reading the YELL site there are a lot of worried investors there as the sp keeps falling and some keep raising the spectre of administration. What I find irritating is people who are not invested, rubbing the noses of people who are invested. Why??
Whilst I am waiting for funds to arrive from the sale of one of my shares I am looking for the next share to invest in. Looking at some of the technical analyses of variou shares, it amazes me that some companies are still in existence and some people want to invest in them. Before investing PLEASE READ THE FINANCIALS before buying.

Interesting lesson!

On Wednesday  tried to buy some Biome (BIOM) shares at 0.2p and had an order in just for the day. I wasn't successful so tried again yesterday morning but after a couple of hours the sp moved up and away from 0.2p so I cancelled my order. Today there was an RNS and the sp went up to 0.29p then returned to 0.23p by lunchtime. The quantity I was interested in wouldn't have made much profit so I lost nothing.
Instead I bought some Edenville (EDL) for 0.88p and in the afternoon someone bought 25M shares!! Today the sp has gone up 0.02p to 0.9p so perhaps I made the right decision. If I sell any shares soon then I will buy some Biome as I am interested in green energy.
I am also closely watching Bank of Ireland(BKIR) as not so long ago it was €1.40 and recently it has been in the 0.5 - 0.6 range. However, today it was down to €0.45 and I think it will fall further because of the situation in Ireland. However, when I get some more dosh then I will be buying these as they will recover and today's price is very good. Long term this will make money.

Today's RNS

Well today I received a Regulatory News Service(RNS) in my email from Investigate http://www.investegate.co.uk/index.aspx?sector=AIM  
giving good results on the barite mine in Ireland. I was looking forward to seeing the share price go up and shortly after the market opening it did indeed go up. I have my sell target as 2.6p and it got to 1.9p before going down again. This was mainly as lots of people were taking profit. The question is "Should I have sold at 1.9p and then bought back at 1.65p or was I right to hold for 2.6p?" If I had sold it might have continued to climb and I wouldn't have got back in but I would have had a profit. As it is I still have my shares and will possibly make more in the longer term. We will have to see if I was right or not.but as one of the posters said " With miners they can't find less mineral in the ground unlike trading companies who can have a bad quarter of half year"

In the beginning !!!!

I am starting this blog because I started trading shares just over a year ago and made some dreadful mistakes. Now I am making fewer mistakes but the Stock Exchange is still a mysterious place for amateurs.

I live in France and was cheesed off that my money in the UK was earning zip in the bank. After 6 months I had accumulated £2 in interest. I had traded shares when I was in college 30 years ago and thoiught I would re-start now that I was retired. However, living in France, I found it very difficult to be able to buy and sell shares in the UK. Most companies are happy to open a trading account if you are a UK resident. If you aren't then tough.

To try and improve my bank balance I decided to start trading Contracts For Difference(CFD's).I opened an account with GFT in the UK and deposited £5000. I started trading and made £1000 on the first day, I was chuffed to conkers. So chuffed that 3 days later I deposited another £5000, all my spare cash. After a week I was up to £12000 and feeling pretty pleased with myself. I wasn't using stops because I found that they were getting triggered all the time. I didn't have a clear idea of why I was picking certain shares or currencies but I found it quite exciting!! To cut a long story short, after 3 months I had lost the lot. That was the end of that.

My wife was very accepting as it was my money but she thought it was just gambling. To get the buzz I continued to trade using dummy practice accounts from the myriad who kept bombarding my inbox. The platforms were very mixed, some very bad and some dreadful but I found Fortuneo the best and I was able to learn about using and understanding charts with them and it didn't cost me a penny.

You start with €100000 as it gives you a big cushion and you can be very cavalier as it isn't real money. Sometimes I would be €30000 up and sometimes €45000 down. Gradually I started trading with small amounts as I would if I had any real money. This was more interesting as I had to be more careful. After a while they cancelled my practice account as I had been using it for 6 months but hadn't opened a real account. Fair enough but I had learned a small amount about trading.

 Then I had a spare £1000 that I wanted to trade but this time it was going to be shares not CFDs. I opened an account with my bank, HSBC, and made my first share purchase for over 30 years. I bought 1000 GKN shares at 105.1p each.  This time I was going to do it differently!! This time I was going to make some money!!