Not much change for FTSE and brief history of portfolio

FTSE 100 5743.96 -27.02 (-0.47%)

FTSE All-Share 2,961.63 -11.48 (-0.39%)

Gold $1,151.50 6 +$3.50 (+0.30%)

Silver $18.35 +$0.37 (+2.06%)

Brent Crude $85.84 +$1.23 (+1.45%)

Krugerrand $1,188.00 -$12.20 (-1.02%)

Palladium $532.00 +$29.00 (+5.77%)

Platinum $1,708.00 +$1.00 (+0.06%)

BARC 373.35p +16.85p (+4.73%)

CAU 51.25p +1.25p (+2.50%)

CRWN 30.00p 0.00p (0.00%)

FPER 5.00p +0.25p (+5.26%)

FCCN 42.50p +0.50p (+1.19%)

GAR 1.38p 0.00p (0.00%)

ICA 89.50p 0.00p (0.00%)

LLOY 64.70p +0.61p (+0.95%)

LLPE 59.25p +0.50p (+0.85%)

MAI 152.00p +2.00p (+1.33%)

QQ. 135.50p +1.20p (+0.89%)

RBS 48.30p +3.60p (+8.05%)

UNG 3.25p +0.13p (+4.00%)

The banks have done well due to US banks achieving excellent profits in general and brokers raising their ratings. Performance dampened a bit due to US issued a record fine to Goldman Sachs for mis-selling complex products. Others done well probably due to good performance of the stock market as a whole and improving economic conditions. However, an upcoming general election may produce a hung parliament which could potentially delay the recovery possibly for a year or two due to huge policy differences between the main parties. I made a quite impressive capital gain on paper of about 15% on my portfolio after two years of pouring substantial amount of money in relation to valuation in early 2007. 

The next potential bubble is probably in precious metals (see prices at the top). I am certainly not following the sheep on that one.

The companies I have invested in are listed on the London Stock Exchange. LLPE is the 6.475% preference share of LLOY. I first started investing when I was 18, I made some mistakes on the way. I speculated in GAR. I used CRWN, FPER and ICA to gain additional exposure to unlisted companies and other sectors respectively. I used the Contrarian Investment Strategy for CAU, FCCN and UNG. The latter two turned out a bit badly but still solvent. LLPE was given for free when LLOY bought HBOS, which the predecessor of LLPE was given when Halifax mutualised. CAU is doing quite well. Made small capital gain so far on paper. Used Zulu Principle for the first time for MAI, which is performing quite well. QQ. is not doing well at the moment but I know it will recover eventually. After a few years, I only invested a small amount of money in the stock market. 

When the credit crisis of 2007-08 first started, I brought forward my investment plans and invested a small sum in BARC. This turned out to be a small mistake as the stock markets tumbled as investors were running away from it like sheep. However, I did not follow them as I do not follow the herd. Into 2008 the markets got worse so I looked at the banks because they were out of favour for a good reason - they did not know who had toxic assets. After Lehman Brothers and some other banks went bankrupt and some got nationalised, I started to drip feed in BARC, LLOY and RBS. The average purchase prices for latter two are very near their lowest points within the last 3 years. For BARC, average is around 265.00p. I relaxed the Contrarian strategy a bit in terms of financial ratios. As the UK economy got a little better, I invested more money in CAU and FCCN.