LM portfolio as at 01/05/2026:
| Code | Sector | Date Bought | Cost | Value | Gain/Loss |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LM099 LM099-2 |
Food Producers | 09/02/2026 23/04/2026 |
£3060 | £3260 | 6.82% |
| LM102 | Investment Banking and Brokerage Services |
21/04/2026 | £1530 | £1490 | (2.37%) |
| LM103 | Electronic and Electrical Equipment | 21/04/2026 | £1520 | £1500 | (1.45%) |
| LM104 | Industrial Transportation | 21/04/2026 | £1560 | £1530 | (1.81%) |
| LM105 | Industrial Support Services | 21/04/2026 | £1520 | £1420 | (6.43%) |
| LM106 | Telecommunications Service Providers | 21/04/2026 | £1520 | £1490 | (1.52%) |
| LM107 | Software and Computer Services | 22/04/2026 | £1540 | £1640 | 6.32% |
| LM108 | Industrial Metals and Mining | 22/04/2026 | £1540 | £1550 | 0.95% |
Some changes, again, to the portfolio.
Last time you read about how in a flurry of selling I cut the number of holdings down to one and, hindsight being a wonderful thing, it now appears that I managed to sell at the bottom of the brief slump we had in the markets.
OK, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration as we did see further ups and downs over the days after I cleared the fund.
The sun came out eventually and now I've re-filled my bag with a handful of new positions as can be verified by looking at the table up at the top of this update.
Indeed, two more shares were purchased this week to add to the above. In my excitement I managed to do the usual - buy a second share in the same sector as one I already held. Is excitement the right word? Not sure, maybe recklessness is better.
It turns out that in this case the 7%-10% manual stop loss I use may have taken me out of the market a little prematurely for the vast majority of the investments I sold. This week, especially, has been pretty good with the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 climbing steadily. Some of my new portfolio members have been making new ALL-TIME highs - something I'm always very happy to see.
But I won't be changing my stop loss rules. They may have been a little too keen this time but they saved me from a monumental loss just a couple of weeks ago.
The share was Goodwin PLC (GDWN, LM100) and I took a 12% loss in it after holding for just 18 days.
I bought in at £272.99 at roughly the top of its run then sold at £244.15. As you can see from the chart I got in after an impressive run-up in price and then got out just below the 10% trailing stop indicated by ShareScope.
So annoying.
But... just a couple of weeks later it dropped off a cliff. GDWN's price plummeted 48% IN ONE DAY to leave it at around £129 - less than half what I had originally bought it for.
I can't imagine what kind of shock that would've been if I still held it and then logged into my broker account on the morning of the 24th March to see a hideous red figure under P/L.
Truly the trailing stop loss saved me here and that's why I'm going to continue using it going forward. I can take the little 10%-15% losses and the short, losing trades as long as it saves me from the huge falls.
GDWN didn't just suddenly drop from nowhere, it had been showing weakness for a few weeks before the big fall. It went from £270 to £250 to £238, then back up a little, then back down. It's like the market knew it wasn't all rosey and this was reflected in a dropping price.
I have to remember this in the future. Rightly or wrongly I've always felt that the way to make money in the markets is to make sure I don't lose money.
You've got to be in it to win it but you can't bet if you have no chips.
The stop loss is my guard against going broke.
Examples are rife on share-trading forums - THG for example where one person said something along the lines of "I'm not taking a 50% loss" when the share price had fallen to £3.
Well, he'll be 95% PLUS down today if he didn't swallow the 50% loss back then. I couldn't imagine how demoralising it would be to see such a massive loss sat in your portfolio every time you logged in.
No, I'll take the short, sharp little loss pain everytime thank you very much.