It’s been a hair-raising start to 2010 for Renseola – our manufacturer of solar wafers and solar power products – but no-one said investing in China-based alternative energy AIM shares was gonna be easy! January started with an optimistic bang sending SOLA.L skyrocketing from it’s Christmas break price of 145 pence up to 190 pence in the space of a week. That’s a 23.6...

It seems as though our portfolio has been hovering in a range just above or below 10K for months now. In reality, it’s probably been closer to a few weeks but after the meteoric rise of our – small caps dominated – portfolio in the preceding four months, expectations have been high. But sideways isn’t a bad thing, especially when you see dips as potential entry points. Rene...

So it seems an age since I’ve posted on Investor Trader but in reality its only been the best part of three weeks. Three weeks since we broke through the 10K figure. And whilst the FTSE powers on northward, heading back towards it’s old stomping grounds of ’07 and ’08 – beyond the 6K level – our portfolio has spent the past few weeks neither gaining or losing to...

Today the value of our portfolio banged and crashed its way through the four figure barrier and into the five figure bracket with a lovely £370 rise on the day, taking it to to £10,159 (see the juicy, big blue numbers to the right). So five figures down and only two to go before we hit the magical million mark – a walk in the park. Careful, don’t slip on the sarcasm! Looking back ove...

Sorry it’s been a while since I’ve posted, what can I say, it’s summer where I’m at and our little portfolio has being just dandy on its own without my meddling hand. There’s been some chunky news floating about, so let’s get down to the nitty gritty. Remember Cosalt – our provider of safety products and services to the marine, industrial and offshore oil ...

Last October I spent 30 days on a freighter ship as a passenger travelling from Melbourne, Australia to La Spezia in Italy. One whole month without Internet, with only the most fundamental of financial headlines via a copy of the ship’s faxed daily world news summary from its head office. Despite 48 hours of fearing for my life rounding the Gulf of Aden, that trip was one of the best financi...

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 ...