Stop Losses on Shares

Glen_Clark

cloud_dog wrote: »

EDIT: An example for me is RDSB, held them for many years, have never sold any, in fact I've added more when they fell below £15 a little while ago. Having said that...their ability to continue to pay their divi is in a precarious position and I am paying far closer attention to the shares at present.

I have taken advantage of the recent rise to sell mine. But I have put the money from that and other sales in the FTSE100 so I still have about the same investment in oil.
My feeling is we have seen the bottom of the oil price now. Opecs strategy of pumping flat out to bankrupt their competitors (US Shale) hasn't worked. Their competitors have just got leaner and fitter. Even Saudia Arabia has suffered from the low oil price and had to borrow money! So now they are getting serious about cuts in production to push the price back up again.

cloud_dog

The problem is going to be as soon as the PoO stabilises around the $55 / $60 the shale producers will recommence pumping which will then provide additional supplies with more downward pressure on the PoO.

ArmyDilllo

Another tack for you to think about.

The best investors don't panic (they also hold diversified portfolio's rather than holding everything in one place, which is crazy-risky).
They buy for long-term or with some other strategy in mind.

I hold BP shares currently valued at £4.90 (+/-).
I have so many BP shares that I can sell the lot and buy them back for a fee which amounts to about £0.01 per share (all in ISA wrappers so fees are only platform commission and the stamp).

The price is moving around about £0.10/day.
So, i f I sold up at £4.95 today and the value falls tomorrow to £4.85, I could buy the same stock back for a £0.09/share profit.
I could then re-invest that profit in more stock or stock in other businesses, or buy six tonnes of Swiss chocolate and see how long it takes me to consume it.
Whatever.

The point is what you're worrying about, if you think it's likely to happen, could be an opportunity to make money rather than lose it.
Investing is a gamble and I would say this strategy is a more aggressive one than letting the money sit on the stock for the dividend.
If you believe the value's going to drop anyway, that sounds just as risky to me.

Ex dividend is the date the owner of the stock is recorded and payment of the dividend will be directed to there.
If you don't own the stock on that date, you won't see the dividend.
It will go to the new owner.
If you sell after ex-div the dividend should still come to you.

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Glen_Clark

ArmyDilllo wrote: »

I hold BP shares currently valued at £4.90 (+/-).
I have so many BP shares that I can sell the lot and buy them back for a fee which amounts to about £0.01 per share (all in ISA wrappers so fees are only platform commission and the stamp).

£0.01 fee perhaps but the stamp would be more than twice that. Then there is the brokers spread.

Glen_Clark

cloud_dog wrote: »

The problem is going to be as soon as the PoO stabilises around the $55 / $60 the shale producers will recommence pumping which will then provide additional supplies with more downward pressure on the PoO.

Shale is still small. They just wanted to stop it becoming big through $100 oil.
Shell looks a solid company. But their overpaying for BG, BP's Macondo disaster, BHP Billiton's burst dam etc have made me wary of individual shares. So now I am all in funds (Mainly low fee ETF's)

Biggles

I wonder if the ex-div drop stopped him out this morning? Will we ever know?

lr1277

Many thanks for your replies.

To answer a couple of questions:

This not my only pot of money, however it is the pot I have allocated to share trading.
I currently own about 5 stocks, one of which is an investment trust.

The plan was to buy growth stocks, sell them at a profit and put half the profit in IT's or possibly OEIC's. That was to build up the overall pot.

Like I said in my OP, I normally don't buy for dividends, but view them as an added bonus. I could use this bonus to top up my investment trust holdings.

lr1277

Biggles wrote: »

I wonder if the ex-div drop stopped him out this morning? Will we ever know?

As of a few minutes ago, no it hadn't. And on the advice on here from a few people, I dropped the SL by slightly more than the dividend amount.

System

Don't try to time the market, buy and hold, reinvest dividends

ArmyDilllo

Glen_Clark wrote: »

£0.01 fee perhaps but the stamp would be more than twice that. Then there is the brokers spread.

Yes, you're quite right.
So to calculate it precisely it comes to £0.024295'/share, on current value.
The online trading fee (Hargreaves Lansdown) is £11.95 per trade, half that for regular traders.



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