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and 5% each for 12 stock picks......If someone says they think a 10% stop loss on their stock is correct then i'd leverage at 10 times. If stop loss at 33% then 3 times leveraging.
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I have some disposable suggestions regarding risk:
It looks like you would lose your entire position should your stop-loss be hit. Since you are betting 5% of your portfolio on each stock, then that means you're risking 5% on each trade.
I think this is a bit too risky and you might be better off toning down your bet-sizes (by a factor of 5, to be honest). Also your
portfolio heat looks to be 100%. I think you'd be better off with 20% - especially since I believe you're just starting out.
Also, what vehicle are you using to trade? I suspect you're using spreadbetting. Bear in mind you should factor in the spread when assessing initial risk, and also that spreadbetting is an artificial market. If a 2+2er makes a recommendation with accompanying limit buy/sell orders, then you need to understand how much the corresponding market is trading above the underlying market.
I did a little study on this a while back, and some markets can be off by a few %! However, they do tend to trade above the underlying throughout the day. (I contacted CMC, Capital Spreads, Finspreads amongst others to ask why without receiving satifactory explainations from any of them)
Limit orders on spreadbetting often suffer from (sometimes significant) unfavourable slippage on both sides of your round-trip. Using guaranteed stop-losses will cost you a few pips, but may be worth considering.
Final point - financing. With UK overnight LIBOR around 5.8% these days, this can be a significant expense for positions held longer than the short term. It's sometimes worth having shorter-term targets for prices. Spreadbetting isn't really suitable for holding more than 5 months or so.
Good luck [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]