During the summer while I had only occasional internet access I closed the Vectura position at 78.75p, for a profit of £96.
This was clearly “a good thing”, but again I failed to follow my initial policy where I had set a limit sell at 81.5p, which would have given me £125 profit as Vectura continues to rise and now sits at 83.44p. It’s reassuring to remember the saying that “there is no such thing as a small profit”, but the lesson again must be: Stick to your policy!

Incidently the GBP/EUR position that lost me £35 on hitting my reduced stop loss value, would have (just) hit the original stop a couple of days later, so it was just as well. With a slightly bigger stop loss figure the bet would have gone on to achieve to target profit easily within a week. Stop losses are hard to judge.

Currently I have no positions open, but one order to buy Melrose (MRO) at 230p at £5/point. I thought their recent report was encouraging and that the drop in SP recently seemed mainly due to particular elements in the last quarter that made it untypical. There is a XD date on September 19 wich will pay immediately £13. My target and limit price is 252p which would give a profit of £110 – plus the dividend. Stop loss to be set at -8pts (222p).

One of the reasons that encouraged me to keep my spread betting account open is the access that it gives you to market data. It’s not level 2, but you get a graph showing  tick prices – which is very useful when you are thnking of making a trade beit a spreadbet or actual pruchase. I often have the tick chart running and press the “Trade Now” button as the chart moves favourably.

Current Profit: £59.68p