Month 1 Summary – Portfolio Value £5,924

I must apologise, I really am a fair-weather blogger. Looking over my daily updates during the first month of our little quest to net a million, it must appear that Investor Trader has been a resounding success. Of the seven updates I’ve written, six have claimed capital gains on the day – unrealised, though they are. But if you take a careful look at the reality of things, it’s a little closer to 60-40 in favour of the good days.

Overall though, some of the good days have been very good, which has seen total capital appeciate, by in the region of £900. Now I’m no mathematician but if I’ve made £900 in one month and we’re to travel 60 months on this little project, then we’re looking in the region of a £54,000 portfolio come 2014 (our end date). Now that’s no mean feat, but I’ve still got to up my game by a factor of 18.5 if I want hit the magical million. It’s a big ask!

All things being equal, over time our portfolio should grow as income starts to kick in and I can invest more heavily but a lot of it will come down to market conditions.

If – as I hope – that market has bottomed out and we’ve got some good times ahead, then I’m confident we can make some big gains in the months to come. If there’s more downside in the offing, then it’ll be a real test of my investing abilities (hard swallow).

Whatever happens, I hope you’ll join me as I try to make Investor Trader a success for me personally and Kiva, the charity I’ll be supporting.