Company EPIC Sector Paid Percent P/E Yield Cap
Petrofac PFC Oil Serv 24075 24.26% 6.27 6.23 1.52
Dignity DTY Funeral 11042 11.13% 6.78 1.92 0.41
IDOX IDOX IT 9335 9.41% 11.28 2.85 0.15
OPHIR OPHR Oil & Gas 13700 13.81% N/A N/A 0.37
Provident PFG Financial 13690 13.80% 5.52 13.8 1.45
Inmarsat ISAT Comms 13697 13.80% 10.12 8.72 2.17
Mitie MTO Support 13699 3.80% N/A 2.51 0.58
Oil and Gas makes up a whopping 38% of this eight share portfolio. These companies are all quite small, and their share prices have recently fallen steeply. This is clearly a very high risk portfolio. If this £100K investment is part of a £1 million equity portfolio, with as much in bonds, fair enough, but I will still be shaking my head.
The top ten shareholders of IDOX (the smallest company) are institutions holding 59% of the shares. The broker finnCap has recently reported on this company. Clearly, any private investor is in competition with professionals here, to say nothing of people who are close to the company. Even if the OP was only in competition with other private investors, he still has to ask himself what is his edge? Is he a qualified accountant? Does he have an MBA? Has he worked as private client broker? Why does he believe that he will be a winner here?
The most important lesson that we can all learn about investment is that we are investment idiots, and plan accordingly. Inefficient markets increase the chances that smart investors will benefit from our stupidity. Spreading our risk limits the impact of our stupid mistakes. Every time we trade, we risk making a blunder. The less we trade, the fewer mistakes we will make, and the smaller their impact will be over time.