Our share tips took another bashing last week when stock markets tumbled to fresh 12-month lows on concerns over the slowing global economy and a slump in the price of oil and other commodities.
All four of our portfolios suffered valuation falls of 2% or more, while the 2014 selections came within a whisker of recording their first overall loss of the year when we carried out our weekly review.
The share price slide resulted in three more of our recommendations triggering "sell" signals under our stop-loss system, where we eject any share which has fallen 10% from previous peaks.
We were disappointed to lose Scottish cloud computing specialist Iomart, which we feel has been unfairly penalised for failing to agree terms to an opportunistic takeover approach and we may well reinvest once the share price settles down.
Less surprising was the departure of packaging group DS Smith, which has been hit by problems facing its eurozone business, while Saga was ejected after investors took fright over the likely effects of the ebola scare on its elderly travel customers.
The latest disposals mean that our four portfolios are now sharing a notional cash pile of £16,400, representing about 45% of their total valuations. We accept that this is too high but will await signs of a recovery in stock market confidence before making further notional purchases after some recent disappointments.
Those to fall back last week included heavyweight advertising group WPP and catering giant Compass.
However, a few of our recommendations did manage to beat the overall trend, including Edinburgh based security systems supplier IndigoVision, drinks group Fuller Smith & Turner and alternative energy supplier Infinis.
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