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S,
Bought one as it was cheap, had supposedly good contracts coming up and I liked the name - UFO ( Alien Metals Ltd ) !! But very low volume trading so hardly moved .. is flat most days, so little chance to trade. Siting a little down but 200000 shares only a few hundred quid! Hold. "they say" it will hit 1p this year .. else take the loss and sell up.
Reading around I bought into 7Dig ( 7 digital ) a B2B music steaming service, just as they got a couple of new contracts. Of course price had risen on the news as I bought in, and price plummeted straight after! Now recovered, I sold at a slight loss aiming to buy back lower ( where they had been last week or two ) and of course they went up. Back to about what I sold them at so waiting to drop and buy, or just leave alone.
Being penny / sub penny shares it's a cheap dabble to learn, no stampy, with the number of shares for a few hundred quid a slight increase ( the price is quoted at 3 or 4 decimal places !!!! ) it should be OK to trade ... if there was volume. Maybe 2 - 20 trades a day!
It's AIM, never normal there it seems!
Thanks S,
Sounds about right. I have just assumed the range you and T mention is about right. Looking at OCDO today, after the first hour or so the range was minimal!!
HL has live prices and live chart data which I need to play with, but I am comfortable with these charts here.
V
Thanks T,
I watch the intraday chart, sometimes not easy to spot the inflection point and change of trend direction - how are the top / bottom levels for the scale set -statistics or some one clever on these charts?
Knowing the range is useful to see if a trade would be worthwhile.
Cheers
V
Hi S,
I assume the range of the share is that mentioned by T as the range of the Intraday graph?
I see it has a dynamic scale, what's it based on? LSE chart people's view, MMs, or statistics, e.g. so many std deviations from the previous few hours price?
Useful range from the graph, if the share behaves! Otherwise I look at the historical chart for the week and what I remember from the previous day or two intraday chart.
There's lots of techy analytical graphs on HL, need to work thru them!
Cheers
For practice:
At MCRO, shake just after 11 today, spike around 12:30, but range was only 10p. I would not have sold/bought at this range, but looked the right sort of pattern.
I'm actually 3% up on this ( not from trading just recovery of SP ).
Had a thought on the alerts - ON HL can't find a way to send to mobile phone. BUT if you have set up mail account on the mobile you'd have the alert in your hand - perhaps even have a different notification sound or filter for the mail so easy to spot alerts.
Obvious really but just came to me!
Hi S,
I'm still here, watching and waiting! My capital has fallen, since I bought into Ocado @ 1277 a couple of weeks ago, then topped up as they fell ... sounds familiar! SO not traded yet, and still a bit of resistance selling at over £1 less than what bought at ...
When the share price is flat I won't do anything.
When the share price falls .. I'll wait .... ( try not to buy any more as it would be new money in the pot )
When price rises, look to sell ( ideally above purchase price! but not necessarily ) and not be too greedy and miss the peak, or as it keeps rising I won't be able to buy back in with a profit/more shares.
When the price gets to a point I should take action, I dither in case the price moves the wrong way!
I need to get better at seeing the trend / when the trend is likely to change direction and actually go for it!
Last couple of days here I could have sold at close and bought back at open next day.... if i had confidence it would have fallen.
Back to the Rules of T ...
Yeah, not worrying about it, still hold the shares and will do something with them as time goes by, even if just sell at £42 !!!
Hi S,
HL does have a setting for alerts on a few parameters as well as price.
E-mail is there, I've not found a mobile alert option yet - my mobile number is in my account there... so may well be in another menu!
T will know ;-)
Would the £12 buy ( 1 million shares ish ) cause the continuing rise in SP since lunch?
Looked to me ( still just watching and holding! ) shake 08:00-09:00, and again around 11:00, and continual rise since... but is this a spike or just a normal re-adjustment to a new baseline Sp ?
For example assume I sold at £12 if it gets there, but SP carried on back to £12.50, I couldn't buy on a shake.
UNTIL I get to play the swings / high/low difference ( at whatever SP ) and increase my share holding.
I understand better now what's going on, what to do, just need to catch those spikes!
The SP moves quickly - I had 5% profit on MCRO this morning, I waited a couple of minutes and it fell to 1% ... so holding there too!
Yes, I am enjoying this, I've got red in my ledger and I wanna remove it ( as Black Widow ( Avengers) would say ... ) but I can wait and watch for market "normality!".
Happy trading
V
Thanks S,
I had only calculated the stamp duty for one of the tranches of Ocado shares I had bought, not all I now hold, Doh! So yes, your numbers look correct and as you do, I tried to work out the cost to sell / buy back as a pence per share, so I need say 10p swing to break even.
I use HL to trade and as I increase number of trades the cost drops to 5.95 so better! I do appreciate, once I realised, that the cost of a holding that HL shows on my portfolio includes the fees / stamp duty etc as applicable, so I can easily see when I can profit.
Need to watch more closely, currently I bob in and out, and to take profit when I see a spike / rise and not worry if it will go far higher!
Basically, practice!
Cheers
Happy trading
V
It is psychology and mindset, attitude and expectations, as I have been reading here the last few weeks, and I think I have worked my head out better now!
The "8 rules" and the couple of extras - If in doubt do nowt & Don't panic! are very helpful!
Hi T,
I heeded your earlier warning on Ocado and refrained from buying more as the price dropped. Looking at the intraday chart I can see the high/low as you mention ... shame I can't see it an hour in advance ;-) and I have a resistance to selling at lower price than I paid, EVEN if I can buy back ( more ) a few hours / day later .... and make more shares/profit.
Probably why I am not a gambler .. I hate losing money .... but here at least there is a good chance to get your money back in a while as the shares still exist and I can wait... I DO need to watch more closely and take a punt now and again, as you say we won't hit the highest / lowest price every time !
Re MCRO - yes, at moment it's about break even, not traded as such, but with new chairman on 14th, divi on 9th April, looks a good risk, and looking at the daily range may be worth trading. History shows high price for long periods so maybe back to that in time... we'll see.
Aim shares - yes I see that well!! Small investment, was 50% up after 2 days but waited and now 25% down ..!!! But I am now trading the spikes and shakes on it, should be Ok as I get my head around charges, as I replied to S I think I had miscalculated!!!
Good trading
V
Hi S,
Thanks for the support and encouragement!
You are quite right re: the spike/shakes, there is profit in it ( on my paper trials ) - I was being greedy / careful as they were below my buying price and also as I have done few trades I am still at the 11.95 per trade fee plus any stampy ( so about £45 for sell and buy back? ).. so 4.5p change in 1000 shares' SP would cover that ..?? anything else profit! I think I had miscalculated or dropped an '0' as I had it in my head I needed 30p to cover fees ... Doh!
Or wondered if they would go higher or fall or buy back .. which causes hesitation as I see mentioned here quite a lot!
All part of learning. I do look at profit as £££ and also shareholding as per T's strategy, I think the share holding strategy is less emotive as I don't think of the losses / gains as cash and the one to work on.
I'll get there!
Good trading
V
Hi T,
Not really trading daily yet, still in my old mindset of hold and let SP rise... and as you are all saying, been flat or downward mainly last couple of weeks.
I am **trying** to watch for spikes and shakes, but as I am only holding 1000 OCDO while I am learning I need a bigger high/low spread to make it worth while after fees etc.
I actually looked at MCRO after your comments last week and bought in at 8:06 and 7:58, so can trade them or keep for divi! if they dont get back to £10 by then! Or the daily swings are not too big. Build up my holding...
Bought some sub penny shares to try real day trading ( 7dig ) bit low volumes so small changes, but since 300000 shares for just over 1k a 0.06 p changes is a couple of hundred £, so may play on those after the spreadsheet / paper trials.
As you and S say, with volume and swings, it can be profitable.
Happy trading,
V
Same here - all LSE tabs in Chrome became 404 - not available.
Finally after closing, opening, reset PC, came back with security check ( for DDOS attack! ) and eventually got back on here 10 mins ago.
Slow though....
Thanks for the supportive comments T, I hear what you are saying and plan to watch more carefully what's going on in the market / share price and try to spot the spikes/shakes ... I have shares and in my old style wait for them to return to a good price!
I had been doing dummy "trades" on a spreadsheet to see what sort of price range I need to cover costs and make a profit ( and what sort of number of shares need to be involved to make it viable! ).
I will watch and wait - no rush - for volume / new base price, daily movement etc.
I think i need to use more information sources as you mentioned, and understand the impact of their comments / findings / world events .... not just watch the intraday chart and this board! Thanks for the heads up and the links.
Virus, Brexit, and is it Ocado results day on 11 Feb? Interesting times...
V
Well, having looked around sites, and followed advice on here from some members, joined HL to trade, loaded a few quid there, and saw Ocado falling, bought in at 1277.
My existing shares in Ocado were from original floatation in 2010 at £1.88 ish? so free money now ( sold a bunch to buy the wife a new car last year! ). But they are in Link nominee account and need to move them to use them.
Forgot friday I had set a buy at 1260 ... by time I had thought to turn on PC I had bought them, and current price was 1245... as I said, newbie here!
My previous shares were mainly through company share save schemes or inheritance from parents until Ocado when we deliberately bought in.
Went to buy in Ocado at 1240 ... but forgot the 15 minute delay so paid 1246 .... now set HL prices to live. Won't get caught again!
So now down in cash / value but have a bunch of shares! Unlikely to be trying day trading for a bit until I get some capital free!!! Like, Ocado going over £13
I am enjoying the discussion, even if of other shares, on here as it's helping me to see what goes on / what to do, how to recognise trends, spikes and shakes, especially the banter between Treacle and SadAct.
Cheers guys
V
Thought H's post was a bit 28 weeks ... but a very quick google and ...
https://www.nature.com/news/inside-the-chinese-lab-poised-to-study-world-s-most-dangerous-pathogens-1.21487
Looks like I picked a bad week to stop sniffing glue ( Airplane! quote ) or think about trying trading!!!
Hi S,
Thanks for the welcome and info, it's useful!
I now have a few places to compare services and charges and see if I am comfortable to put a toe in the water!
I do have a couple of holdings in other companies ( historical - never traded! ) that I have paper certs, and Ocado are in Ocado nominee account.
Cheers, good trading!
V