Selectivity is the word

PUBLISHED: 27 Oct 2011 @ 21:31 | Comments (0) | More info about Clem Chambers

My Lloyds position would have made a nice return overnight but I don’t feel to sorry. Over the previous few months it has become clear to me that government measures in Europe and the UK are leaked into the market days before we get to hear the results and that the market has the bulk of news priced in well ahead of announcements. This is no real surprise as politicians and bureaucrats are a gossipy lot and the news would be impossible to keep secret.

Well finally the leaders of Europe manage to do the blooming obvious.

Yet I have no strong desire to buy back now the worst is apparently over. Maybe I’ll pick up some next week. The money is in investing not trading.

RM continues to tick up.

Rather than the normal 50 stocks I hold, I am sat on a measly 4. One of them is Pace. It has fallen by 2/3rds without much reason, or at least without much in the way to justify such a huge drop on fundamentals. This is the kind of contrarian play I love, but a tough game to play in a bear market.

When a share looks tasty it can still drop a long way, so I move into one in 3 or 4 pieces. It can also be hard to get in on falling shares and the market makers often don’t have the stock to sell or want stupid spreads I’m not going to pay. Getting out quickly can also be tough too.

My other two conviction stocks are Trinity Mirror and Promeathean. Right now unless they are this contrarian I don’t have the stomach to play.

It remains a time where selectivity is the word. I will hold only things I find irresistible.

Clem

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