A quick update on Contrarian Miner’s performance – following last week’s China-led mining rally the portfolio stands at £128,552 (up over 28% since inception against the FTSE 350 Mining total return index which is up 8% over the same period). Of the portfolio a significant £14,716 is currently in cash – the mining sector has moved a little too much in a straight line in the past two weeks and expect there may be better buying opportunities later this week or next.

Late last week I sold half of my BHP Billiton shares at 893p per share – realising an 8% loss but given the 23% rise in the space of a week I was pretty happy with that price. I bought BHP early on as a relative safe haven given the perceived “strong” balance sheet in what was an extremely volatile market . It has been one of the worst performing stocks in the portfolio – and that serves me right for buying a company that I don’t like because its viewed as “safe” rather than following my own (contrarian) views.

Likewise selling Anglo American at 288p in December has proven to be by far my worst exit. Serves me right for selling a company I liked because I was scared of what the market might do to the share price in the short term.

See below for the full Contrarian portfolio. I like the current geographic and commodity mix but I do need to deploy that excess cash. I’ll be aiming to do so by topping up  recent purchases which remain relatively small holdings currently.