5% down

As you can see from my little graph, I'm currently just over 5% down across my entire portfolio. Given that I made my first purchase only two months ago, that's pretty steep! In terms of total return I'm actually doing better than that - about 4% down - due to the impending RBS dividend payment.

The question is: should I be happy or unhappy about this? The answer depends on whether I am fully invested, and whether I plan to sell out soon. I'm not, and I don't, so falling share prices are good. It means my future purchases will cost me less. That's assuming, of course, that the drop is based on rumour or short-termism rather than the prospect that future earnings will be less.

I've recently updated my python script to give me a snapshot of my portfolio breakdown. The numbers I posted the other day were based on purchase price - here they are by current value:

Emerging ETF: 19.7% (IEER, IFFF, LTAM)

Chemicals: 6.0% (ZRX)

Finance: 34.4% (RBS)

High yield ETF: 26.8% (IAPD, IDVY)

Software: 13.1% (EDD, BDI)

In terms of future purchases, I'm debating:

TW: Taylor Wimpey. The share price is low for various reasons: the current US housing market, the prospects for the UK housing market, its relatively high level of debt and an inferior operating margin to its peers. However, I think things have been overdone. I only haven't bought so far because I think it could go lower - I think a UK housing crash is in the offing, and that might give me a better opportunity in the future. I think anything below £2 is pretty good value. They were at £1.51 the other day. I should probably stop dithering and just buy. I've satisfied myself on the financial side. Might be my first purchase in the new tax year.

RDSB: Royal Dutch Shell. They are making huge piles of cash and giving them straight back to the shareholder via dividends and buybacks. I think a long-term high oil price will do them a lot of favours. My concerns are that they are heavily involved in Russia, and the government can cause a lot of trouble for them. I don't understand their business well enough yet, but I think they look good at the current price of £16.

GSK: GlaxoSmithKline. Another one making oodles of cash and giving it all back. Their R&D prospects also look good. Two problems: I haven't yet researched them enough, and I don't think they're quite cheap enough. I'd like to buy at about £9.50. That may or may not materialize - I suspect it would take some seriously bad news to drive them below £10.

MKS: Marks and Spencer. I think they have a very strong brand, and the prospects of decent earnings. They briefly looked attractive at about £3.50 a share, but have since gone up again. I think anything below £3.70 looks pretty good. I need to look in more detail at their financial reports before I would buy though.

YELL: Yell Group. I don't really want to touch this one with a ten foot bargepole due to its mountain of debt, but it's getting cheaper and cheaper. I think the plummeting share price might have been overdone. I certainly won't be buying without a lot of research, and only in the full knowledge that a complete wipeout is possible. Superficially I think £1.40 is reasonable, but that's only based on a cursory glance at the numbers.