New money: Some of you (investors in the slow trader fund) have asked about adding to your fund.

A good time if you wish to do so, and before the end of next month. I’m away for a week soon so anticipate that it will be the end of February before our trades are again proportional to the fund amount.

Additional funds will not affect the investments of those not adding in. Our amount risked per trade is a simple (moving) percentage of the total fund. Therefore your percentage gain on trade is much the same regardless of the size of the fund. Moreover, combining our funds allows us to trade more thoroughly than we would otherwise be able to do with the amounts we have invested individually in the fund.

Costs: The only measurable price to us is a small interest charge by the broker for each consecutive day that we hold a trade. There are no other charges.

What to do with your medium-term stocks: consider holding for a while. Stocks have taken a battering recently, particularly the banks, but a recovery over the next few weeks is a reasonable probability. Whether we see a new high – or, just as probable, a retrace in a few months to a lower low – is too early to tell.

New software: I explained in a previous blog the need to backtest, coupled with a change of charting software that has taken a few weeks to sort. The new software provides a higher degree of trade placement accuracy and is, we now know, a good improvement on our previous system.