How my tips have fared

Given the turbulence in the markets, it’s little surprise that all five of my long tips have fallen in the last four weeks. Construction firm Morgan Sindall has dropped from 2,238p to 2,145p; supermarket J Sainsbury has slipped from 283p to 248p; telecoms firm Airtel Africa is down from 140p to 130p; transport firm National Express has plunged from 254p to 196p; and asset manager Rathbones Group dropped from 1,858p to below the stop-loss level of 1,500p. Counting the loss on Rathbones, the net profit on my five long tips has fallen from £2,497 to £967.

But while the performance of my long tips has been poor, the good news is that four out of five of my short tips have also dropped in value. Remote medicine group Teladoc fell from $75.20 to $66.37; online sales firm HubSpot fell from $483 to $428; Chinese real-estate broker KE Holdings slid from $19.11 to $13.76; and DWAC, the company behind Donald Trump’s social media “empire” slipped from $84 to $83.34. The only exception was cinema chain AMC, which rose from $14.44 to $15.21. Overall, my five short tips are now making a net profit of £3,587, up from £2,775.

Overall, combined profit on my tips comes to £4,554. I now have four long tips (Morgan Sindall, Airtel Africa, J Sainsbury and National Express) as well as five shorts (Teladoc, HubSpot, AMC, KE Holdings and DWAC). I also have a pending long tip in Asos. While I wouldn’t close any of these tips, I would raise the stop-loss on Morgan Sindall to 1,925p (from 1,900p); on J Sainsbury to 150p (from 144p); on Airtel Africa to 105p (from 100p); and on National Express to 135p (from 130p). I would also cut the price at which you cover the AMC and Teladoc shorts to $30 (from $35) and $160 (from $210) respectively.