|
Once upon a time
Keith Collins had the idea of starting a Hullavington based Investment
club. The first tentative steps towards setting it up began in
September 2003 with a meeting at The Star, hence the name “Star
Investors”. Like most ideas, it took time to get things going and
it was Jun 2004 before we made our first investment. That may seem like
a long time, but an Investment Club is a legal entity closely
approximating that of a partnership. This meant formulating and agreeing
a constitution and working procedures. To assist us in all this, we
invited 2 elected officers form the Calne Investors Club along to a
meeting in March 2004 to give us the benefit of their experience. We
learnt a lot from them and will always be grateful for the advice they
gave us on things such as: the constitution, stock selection.
administration and some general insights into investment group dynamics.
Although not the most glamorous part of the investment club business, it
is essential to get the constitution and the rules right because
it protects us all and is a mandatory requirement before a bank
and a stock broker will even give you the time of day. By April 04 we
had signed the constitution, elected officers and, very soon after, had
organised the bank and share dealing accounts. In June 2004 we made our
first investments, these were: Topps Tiles, Centurian Electronics and
NHP, which got us off to a good start.
Membership
Membership numbers have fluctuated between 14 and 10 and include both
men and women from a wide range of backgrounds; such as: pilot, banking,
dairy products, pensions industry, armaments, armed forces, academia,
IT, manufacturing and more. At the outset, only one member had any
previous experience in direct share dealing, so we were on a learning
curve and an adventure.
Although the club rules are tedious and not worth reading unless, of
course, you wished to become a member, it is worth noting that the aims
of the group are to: make money, enjoy the adventure and have fun. |
| Current Portfolio
So, how have we been doing. Well We've
bought and sold a number of shares over the clubs trading history and as
of 31 May 2006 we are currently 29% up. Our current holdings are set out
below along with performance achieved
|
Stock |
Sector |
Profit/(loss)
% |
Ascent Resources
(AST) |
Oil & Gas prospecting in Europe
|
2 |
British Gas
(BG) |
Oil & Gas producer worldwide |
81 |
Debt Free Direct
(DFD) |
Specialist Finance . Personal debt
management |
110 |
Evolution Group
(EVG) |
Specialist Finance. Stock Broker,
Market Maker, Nomad |
2 |
Futura Medical
(FUM) |
Bio Pharmaceutical. Sexual
Health |
(22) |
| Goals Soccer Centres(GOAL) |
Leisure. 5 a side soccer centres
|
41 |
Helphire Group
(HHR) |
Insurance. No fault car replacement
|
78 |
Hunting Gibson
(HTG) |
Oil & Gas. Manufactures liners
for oil wells and provides other field services for the oil &
gas industry |
13 |
| Standard Chartered
(STAN) |
Banking. |
28 |
Terrace Hill
(THG) |
Real Estate |
(3) |
Tesco
(TSCO) |
Supermarket |
(6) |
|
