Here’s a quick glance at the movement column of my shares portfolio today:

As you can see, there’s a lot of red in the movement column (indicating a loss, grey= no movement, and green = a gain) – The only green in fact is in my watch list, so not actually a share I own!

Whilst it can be disheartening to see a red day like this, you have to accept that this is part and parcel of Investing – If prices didn’t fluctuate, no-one would make any money on the markets! So, a quick glance shows all red, I’ve lost some money – Time to find out how much, why, and will I lose more?

• How much? Whilst they’re all red, most of the fluctuations are small in % terms – Probably taking no-more than a couple of hundred quid off the value of my portfolio.

• Why? A quick search of the newswires for related news to my companies shows no nasty surprises – Just a usual FTSE wobble that affects most shares.

• Will I lose more? As above, there appear to be no nasty surprises waiting for me on these shares. I’ll need to keep a close eye on the market as a whole over the next few trading days just to be sure, but I’m pretty sure this is a blip, and that I’ll soon be back to a mixture of red, grey and green screens.

So, an all red day is not the end of the world – Just as an all-green day does not make me Warren Buffet. But it does serve as a useful warning to see what’s going on and check that disaster isn’t waiting for you around the next corner. And there’s only one way to end a red day – With a nice glass of Merlot! Cheers!

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