Fluctuations

Gosh, but shares are slippery little things. I suspect that I probably shouldn't buy any at all, and I would be the first to admit that I just dabble, not investing enough to make it worth while. But things take my fancy and I decide it might be worth a punt. I only look at the relatively small companies so that I can actually buy more than one share! Anyway, why slippery. Well about a month ago I was interested in Oxford Biomedica and I set a buy order in the evening. I set it slightly lower than the finishing price as I felt that they would probably dip first before going up. I was wrong and didn't get any. So I raised my price again but still below the end of day price. Again missed them. I kept the same logic going for two weeks until I gave up and bought them at the end of day price. Had I originally not planned on a drop then I would have made money. So last week I had my eye on two more companies, Allergy Therapeutics and GW Pharmaceuticals. Again on the first day I set my buy order slightly below the end of day price in the hope that they would drop. They didn't, but rather than play cat and mouse I just decided to bite the bullet and raise my offer to the end of day price. So I bought them and the price then dropped. I think there may be a touch of irony there somewhere.