Thanksgiving Portfolio

Earlier: Thanksgiving 2006 portfolio

The Stable
Diamond Trust
Express
ICDCI
KCB
Scangroup
Sameer
Stanbic (UG)
Total
* Uchumi (suspended)

What’s changed?
In: ICDCI
Out: None
Increase: Diamond Trust (rights), Scangroup
Lightened: KCB
Dividends expected: no interims
Unexpected gains/losses:
New listings not taken on: Kenya Re
Best performer: Stanbic (Ug)
Worst Performer: Total (though the dividend is assured)

Looking forward to: none really. I sat out of the Kenya Re IPO, and then didn’t really want it after the shares listed – maybe next year. Same with the Safaricom IPO which is getting dangerously close to the election, but which I expect to sit out again and instead give the money I have to some candidates (2 parliamentary, 1 civic) toward election expenses.

Lessons learnt: (i) you should not try and time trades e.g. company books for dividend close on Thursday, so you try and buy shares on Tuesday – just won’t work; think and trade long term (ii) attempts to buy low and sell high by setting a price based on yesterday’s high/low also won’t work; so think long term and don’t worry about intra-day prices

Performance Summary: The Motley Fool advises that investors should beat the share index to consider their returns a success. The NSE 20 share index is up 1% in the last six months while my portfolio is down 0.7% from May 2007. The actual share holdings are up about 13% but with the cash taken out from when KCB shares sold, the net position is down.

4 thoughts on “Thanksgiving Portfolio”

  2. Anonymous

    For Me, the price is gonna be a big factor. I’ll wait till the last day to weigh on the interest. The timing is pretty bad and I hope they can pull it off.

  3. bankelele

    JohnofScribbleSheet: Will buy after listing.

    Reatil investors will tie up cash for 3 months to get a miniscule allocation and refund in February next year. Better to sit out IPO window – same as with Kenya Re

  4. MainaT

    Hiya, you actually own shares that I wouldn’t buy if they were offered at a big discount. Are you able to give some insights as to why you’ve bought the shares you have?

    I guess this what makes the NSE such an interesting market.

    I think IPOs are gettting more effecient. Its a good way to get some shares very cheaply.

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