I’ve sold 88 shares in AEI for a profit of £250.00 as I want to explain an important point.

Prior to the sale

Intra profit of £448.00

(Unrealised profit of £254.15 Realised profit of £193.85 dividend )

After the sale

Unrealised profit of £187.87

Realised profit of £328.88 (dividend plus sale profits)

Unfortunately u can’t decide to sell x number of shares and take the profit. The buying price was 280p and the selling price 290p, the 10p profit per share, less trading costs is spread over all the shares including the remaining shares, where the profit can disappear as fast as snow on a summer’s day.

Simpler to understand is a profit is not a profit until it sits in your account as cash. I know of one trader who has a very successful trading history often buys two equal positions so he can sell one position and book all the profit for his blog.

One final point the AnnualRateofReturn ARR, which u often seen quoted on the trade was 35% which is meaningless.