Sky News editors should think carefully.. what's the
one phrase that's going to mean all viewers turn off immediately and move to
another channel... 'In a moment we are going live to Brussels...' A big welcome to readers from the Sunday Times who may be
joining the site for the first time this weekend. It's updated every weekday lunchtime with my thoughts
on the market, any buys or sells and a few ramblings. The market-makers are being kind to be today and marking
up a lot of my stocks. In fact I'm holding a party tonight for all
Fenner
shareholders as Fenner advances another one pee! Risers include
Burren,
Trifast,
Dignity,
Carrs Milling
and
Broadcastle.
It's Burren's first day in the FTSE 250 and a rise to voer 300p must be on the
cards in the next few days as tracker funds buy in. Although I take the mickey out of Fenner, interesting that
it's often the slow and steady plodders that end up making money over time. My
three 'plodders' Fenner, Dignity and Carrs Milling are all bringing in
excellent profits now. Add in the dividends and these companies that are
never going to set the world on fire are a must for any portfolio. Judging from e-mails I've received a lot of you have
having problems trying to make money from the market at the moment. The tight trading range seems to be causing difficulties
and some of the small caps are stagnant or going down. Perhaps at least until September some of you should
consider forgetting the 'exciting' penny share environment and going for a few
steady plodders - you may end up making a few per cent more than a building
society if you stick with them for a while! Oh dear. What can I say about Big Brother. It's all
reached a climax too quickly (not something I ever suffer from). For betting purposes it's beginning to look more like a
luck bet than skilled betting now and quite honestly I'm going to stop
watching soon and pack up the betting if it carries on like this. The violence
is not surprising and it's hard to see how the show will survive this. It's
all gone too far. Channel 4 doesn't want to lose its cash cow so I expect
they'll probably give contestants a carrot or two to calm it down. In the
meantime the future of my bet on Shell to win is dependant on her not walking
out.
A shorter update than normal as
Thursdays seem to be manic at my cafe business and I keep getting phone calls
asking me to come in and help!
Goodness me, a lot to
get through today. Honestly this site used to take me 15 minutes to write now
it's taking up to an hour!I'm not sure I can keep this up.. anyhow for now... Loads of action, all the spread-betting front. This
morning I bought
British Telecom.
£25
pounds a point at
191p (equivalent to
2,500 shares) I've had BT on my watch list for years and it's always
been pretty boring, moving in a tight range. But this morning there is a
definite breakout occurring and it looks like a great buy. Volume is high and I think institutions are getting
excited about it again. The main reason is the company is looking at new
things to make money out of rather than just phone calls - their current phone
call market is being eroded by rivals like Carphone Warehouse and Telecom
Plus. Broadband looks a great area for BT to develop and there
are plenty of other interesting developments in the pipeline.. whatever..
something is up! (I hope!) I've closed out a few spread bets (I had too many
positions open). Some were closed out anyway as it was expiry day yesterday
and some I closed myself. Here they are:
Amec
closed at 273
to lose £460.
Costain
at 39
for a profit of £60.
WPP
at 548
for a profit of £40.
And Mitchell and
Butlers at
267
for a profit of £100. A good performance from the FTSE but I'm still not
convinced! Burren
continues to go well in the run up to entering the FTSE 250 on Friday.
Now
with not just market makers in the field here the spread does widen a bit here
and there but the trend is still up - a break of 300p will be significant and
is not far off! Just when I thought my disastrous oil gamble
Aminex
(which sadly for me announced bad news while I was out of it on holiday in the
states) couldn't get any worse it's going to spend money on legal action and
the price has tumbled further. Well, really, I should have just exited and it serves me
right to be losing on it. The lesson is even if a stock goes through a stop
loss when you're away, sell it anyway even at well below. I've kind of written
this one off for the time being. The more I look at
Brown and Jackson
the more I think this will steam up and be a big winner this year. It has a
similar profile to Mothercare which turned its business around. Fenner
continues its tease - I was thinking about holding a party every time it goes
up a penny. Dignity
looks strong still. Costain
is still a long-term goodie but short-term it looks a sell if it goes to 37p.
Telecom Plus
is on the up again and 300p now looks to be the floor. An interesting e-mail from reader
Shaun
re spread betting on Euro 2004 bookings. Yesterday I mentioned my webmaster
Dale was making good returns from 'Buying' bookings on the spreads. Here's what Shaun reckons: 'Just a word of caution for you on the bookings front
at the Euro Champs. I have been buying bookings too from game 1. Previous tournament trends are that the first matches
have a rash of cards, the spread quote gets shifted up then the make ups tend
to decrease. Normally this is because players work out what they
can and cant get away with, refs become more lenient (heaven forbid) and UEFA
don't want to see 9 a side matches. I expect i will be selling bookings before too long
if the spreads get any higher. The first round of games are completed today
and i expect the change to happen soon. Mind out for the Portuguese ref, made up at 105 in
his first game and could have been higher. His performances in Europe this
season has always produced high make ups. Note from Dale : Took a pasting yesterday, not a
single booking in the 1st match and only 4 in the second. And talking of spreads I'm going to have some fun and
watch the racing this afternoon. I reckon there could be a couple of outsiders coming
home first today at Ascot so I've bought the sps with sporting index for £10
at 65. (That's their guess at all the winning sps added up). I reckon it will
be nearer 75-80. That's the beauty of spread betting - I can cheer on
the outsiders without caring which one wins and hope the favourites lose! I've also backed a couple of long shots in Hamilton's
4.40 race. Both I think are capable of taking a hand in the finish if on song
and great prices. They are Ulysees and Sir Don. Sir Don has done bugger
all this season but is on a winning mark and capable. Ulysees could come from
behind to win if they go off too fast. And carrying on with spread betting the spreads have
all changed in Big Brother. Shell is now favourite (which is fine as I have a
tenner on at 20). Dan has moved down after being nominated (remember I
said he was a poor favourite!) Emma has shot up the betting as she was tipped to win
by the Racing Post today. I don't agree with them and will be looking to lay
her (stop it!!) soon. Looks a great sell. Sporting don't seem to be betting on
eviction percentages so far this year - maybe they think there are too many
insiders with knowledge?
I did a great six mile run on my
treadmill this morning. Plenty on the TV to distract me from what my body is
doing! Here's my flicking schedule: Sky News, BBC News 24, MTV
Hits, MTV Dance, Kiss, Smash Hits, The Vault, E4 (Big Bro Live). Best video to run to at the moment is Mass Destruction
by Faithless. The beat is in time with my running. No idea why. Also good The
Beastie Boys one. I don't bother much with Bloomberg or CNBC - why?
Because they are so boring! Also the so-called experts they have on talk out of
their a*** most of the time. Sky News is really good. Straightforward stuff
without the patronising feel of the BBC news. So the market is back up, still trading in a pretty
tight range of 100 points or so over the last few weeks. I think many
investors/punters are keeping their cash in their pockets for the moment. And I'm not sure it's such a great time to buy anything
- and it may be a summer of stagnation. I don't trust any sharp rises right now
and would be tempted to sell into any strong rise. And not much happening today with my lot.
Telecom Plus looks like it's trying to confirm 300p
as the bottom of its recent range. Serco looks set for
another run up - it seems to do quite well when the market is flat or going
down. Fenner's breakout looks
good and getting through 108p would make it very promising for a 120 target. It looks worth holding any Big
Brother bets for right now as it's all a bit tangled! Today's nominations
should help to clear things up a bit. I wasn't impressed with the egg on bed
idea - bit juvenile! Plenty of sport on offer for spread betting fans.
Webmaster Dale has been making a few quid betting there will be lots of
bookings. The spreads he reckons are set at around 45 when they
should be 60. It's 10 points for a yellow card and 25 for a red.
What a blow the end of the football was!
But the real message of the evening for me
was: don't order a meal during an England game!
There were about 8 of us in a gastro pub
garden with a view of the game from inside.
Of course the chef was far too busy watching the game to
concentrate on the food so we got overcooked fish, vile-tasting overdone meat
and horrible puddings.
Still, my friend's dog did well and ate most of it. We
agreed to pay 70% of the bill - the pub owner agreed it probably wasn't a good
night to order food.
When France scored their two goals, the posh pub
garden we were in rang to the cries of "Oh no."
While across the road the rough pub rang to cries of
"******* **** the ****** *******!"
Anyhow hope some of you spread betters out there made
some money out of the game! I'm afraid it might continue to pay to "sell"
England.
For those who just want to bet to small stakes
Don't forget Ascot starts this week and I expect to
be spread betting! You can bet on outsiders to win, you can lay favourites and
act like a bookie, it is great fun!
Apologies for the very late update on Friday and advance
apologies if updates carry on coming through late - this is because our
******* **** hacker is still at it.
It looks like I'm going to have to fork out for some
expensive anti-hacking software - it's really sad how some people enjoy
upsetting other people for no discernible reason. Oh well, I believe in karma
and the hacker will find unpleasant things happening to him one day, rest
assured!
Well, the market seems in a vile mood and has woken
up with a football hangover. I'm sure if England had won the market would be
up! Anyhow my lot are doing
OK.
I dumped
Exeter Selective IT.
Boring name, and what a boring investment it's been! I sold
15,000
shares at 23.5p
to bag a loss of £67.
The release of the cash enables me to buy my open offer
stock in
Sondex
- I get nearly 2,000
new shares at 160p
- with the current price 175p, that's rather good.
Burren
Energy enters the FTSE 250 on
Friday - and in preparation, the share now can be traded on the order book as
well as through market makers.
So far the effect is good with the price well up,
although it means the price will move quicker and the spread widen and shorten
dramatically.
But looks like Burren should continue trading higher. I'm
not quite sure when it's time to take profits but while it's steaming on up,
I'll keep my finger away from the sell button. I'm up over £3,000 including
the spread bet so at some point it would be nice to take the profit.
Some of my spread bets close out tomorrow so I will have
to decide whether to roll over to the next quarter or let them expire. Still
deciding!
This continues to be the best Big Brother yet, though the
betting is fraught with dangers. Things should become clearer when the two
girls go back into the house. For betting purposes I need to have more
evidence of whether the adult or child side of the house wins through. It's a
close call.
I feel sorry for the two girls having to watch people
talk about them. It's lucky in real life that we never get to hear what people
say about us behind our backs - I'm afraid most of us would be gutted. It's
just human nature to be bitchy.
I'm so clever I can't even manage to vote properly...
I managed to go to the wrong polling station! They looked at my voting
card and there was a quiet discussion behind the scenes. The copper there started looking at me. Had they
found out about various misdemeanours from my past? (Too many to even think
about!) 'Wrong polling station,' said the clerk. Phew! Not surprised Labour's
been caned in the voting.
They've sneakily taxed us all up to the hilt and we have
nothing much to show for all that money except steadily declining public
services. The worst thing they ever did was stop tax credits
for pensions. That's cost us all dearly.. pensions are a complete joke -
whatever happened to the stakeholder pension?
If you are comfortable dealing shares, get a SIPP (self
invested personal pension) like I did. Control your own destiny! E-mail me if
you want details of how I did it and some of my research. Quiet on the markets today, with USA closed it was never
going to amount to much - I suspect a lot of traders are taking the day off. So nothing getting me going today.
Carrs Milling
was tipped by the Investors Chronicle (thanks guys) and is up a few pence. Burren
Energy enters the
FTSE 250 next Friday and the price should continue to fly as tracker funds get
in. Together with spread bet exposure I have more than £20,000 worth of stock,
and that money will increase, looks like being a big winner for 2004... Vanco
has stabilised now and looks set for another run up - the next run up should
see off the last of the shorters. I'm
pretty confident that in the next few weeks
Havelock,
Brown and Jackson
and Fenner
will all gain. Otherwise nothing's going on and I'm taking the rest of the day
off! So Euro Football gets underway this weekend. Good luck to
all of you betting. I don't know enough about football to bet on it myself but
if you're betting to make money take the emotion out of your betting and back
the best side! And remember the spreads on England to do well will
probably be on the high side as the bookies expect plenty of patriotic
betting. Of course you can bet on things like the number of goals,
etc so you can have a bet without necessarily betting on England to lose!
I have to say the Polish youngsters are by far
the hardest-working and most motivated and driven. It makes me sad to say
this but British youngsters just can't hack hard work judging by the ones
we've employed.. they nearly always quit quickly. The Polish though love and thrive on hard work,
and they are coming over here in waves. I am more than happy to employ
them! Interest rate rises haven't stopped punters
spending money and we are taking more than ever! The market seems dead
quiet today. Burren
Time to vote on Thursday. Look, I know most of these
politicians are a desperate bunch but the previous generation fought for us to
have the right to vote so use it! I've read through all the blurb written by London Mayoral
candidates... not one new idea between them. Ken Livingstone is a ghastly character. He's done bugger
all for our capital city - transport, crime, etc all still going downhill and
as for the state of the roads....! He just loves being on TV. I'm going to vote for Steve Norris, the Tory - not because
I think that much of him but I'm against congestion charging and he's pledged
to get rid of it. Another pretty good day for the portfolio as shares
continue to advance nicely. One new trade today. Well, at last
Fenner is shaping up
as I thought it would and I've topped up by adding a spread bet long for
£40
(equivalent to 4,000 shares) at
107.5
(had to pay a little more than cash price as the spread firm adds spread to
make its profit). And as I write just gone to 108 on the buying side! Looks
really good now for a ride up to 120p. Target for the spread is
120p
stop loss 100p. Excellent news regarding
Burren Energy.
The FT reports today that Burren should make the FTSE 250 and that this should
be announced after the close of play today. This is wonderful news for us shareholders as FTSE 250
funds will start to buy in and this should easily lift Burren onwards and
upwards past the 300p mark.... Good news too from Telecom Plus with another good set of
results. Profits are up 90%, dividends has been hiked up and 5.5p will be paid
out next month. As with my recently exercised options I directly hold
more than 20,000 shares I'll get a dividend of more than £1,000. The shares had a good run up before results so there's
some profit-taking and tree-shaking today - but I intend to hold onto these
for years and short-term fluctuations don't bother me. This is a company that is really going places and it'll be
in the FTSE 250 within the next couple of years. The only down note
was suffering gas margins - but this is only a temporary issue - prices will
simply go up but they will still be the cheapest on offer. The offer of free calls between TP customers is already
helping the customer base to take off and that will really push customer
numbers up well over 200,000 quite quickly. Directors nearly always buy on results day or shortly
thereafter and their buys will help to underpin the shares at over the 300p
level. So shareholders ought to forget about the volatile moves
that are bound to take place for the next few days and just tuck them away for
long-term growth and dividend income. My buy of death looks good as
Dignity
continues to go up - some more big institutional buys today. Serco
also continues to look strong and
Havelock Europa
continues to flirt with the 100p area.. once though the flirting there should
be a big romance with 120p! Market makers have pushed up the spread in
Brown and Jackson
which will kill of trading a bit but unless it goes below 52p, it looks a
cracker. Talking of market makers, I'm glad so many of you are
getting connected to level 2 re the brilliant ADVFN offer! One reader commented: 'I realise now it's like I've been
driving with my eyes shut' which sums it up very well.
Well, what a fabulous day - weatherwise and shares wise! One trade so far today, and that's a top up of my holding
in Dignity (DTY).
I've added a spread bet to my cash buy and bought for
£20
a point at 262p.
Stop loss 250p
target 290p. Dignity is looking very strong and I'm in a good profit
from my cash buy already but I feel there is a long way to go. There's a lot
of good news around for the portfolio today. Vanco
continues to push back up. I did say a few days ago I could see no reason for
the decline after great results. If
you remember a reader e-mailed me to say one of the reasons for the decline
was a short taken out by self-styled guru Evil Knievel and then jumped on by
his followers. There
was no rationale behind the short apparently with EK vaguely saying a friend
told him to do it and he didn't even know what the company's business was. It
makes vans, surely that's obvious!! Well, it looked like there is plenty of shorts being
closed and a bit of a smell of burning! Vanco looks a great growth company and
true value should be somewhere around 315p where it went to after results.
Keep closing shorters!! Telecom
Plus continues its
pre-results climb. Results should be good tomorrow (Wed) and it'll be
interesting to see whether any comment is made about future growth.
This
should come from brand new services - I'm guessing here but I imagine credit
cards, holidays, water, travel and insurance could be new services that could
be added over the next couple of years. Fenner
at last looks like it's about to bust out. The chart looks like it's about to
explode and once it goes through 106p I expect a big rise and quickly too. Burren
Energy continues to
climb and there's a chance of it getting into the FTSE 250 in the reshuffle
this week, exciting news if it does as it should easily get over 300p and
more. Serco
is going great guns and my 196p looks good as it sails now towards 210p.
Yesterday's buy Brown
and Jackson is a bit
quiet but when this one moves it really moves and could easily spring 4 or 5p
in a day. Big
Brother evictions
should be announced this afternoon. I reckon Ahmed and Michelle will
definitely be up for the vote, with possibly Marco or Emma. My plan if it is an Ahmed V Michelle vote is to
buy Michelle's percentage if it's too low at say 35 or 40% - I think hordes of
teenage girls are likely to vote for Ahmed to get Michelle out. The market makers may think Ahmed is a dead cert to be out
but against Michelle I am not so sure!! We'll see what happens this afternoon
- I'll let you know what I did tomorrow! My outright bet on Shell to win (£10
at 20) looks good still.
What
more can you want - a lovely sunny day and shares are going up...If you're
stuck in a grotty office and wish you could be elsewhere and enjoy some
freedom, read my 'Escape' piece above. Cut
your costs and look for extra income, that's a good start. Now to a few trades
I've made - two sells and a buy! First two trades from Friday afternoon.
I
decided to dump Big
Yellow at
135p
to lose £129.
While prospects still seem good it looks to have petered out around here. I wanted to get into something that might move more
quickly - and I've gone back into an old friend,
Brown and Jackson (BRJK). Regular readers may remember I bought these last year for
around 95p and sold at around 125p for a decent profit. I then thought I'd made a terrible mistake as they
zoomed higher to something like 160p - but then the shares were hit by various
profit warnings and they sunk fast. Brown and Jackson is in the middle of changing the design
of its stores and is having some success - there was a rights issue at 51p
recently which went well and the company now has the money it needs to
complete its turnaround. It's quite amazing how quickly retailers can turn things
around (remember Arcadia!?) and I think B & J shares have a great chance of a
big recovery from here even given the dilutive effects of a rights issue. Anyhow, they look worth a gamble at this sort of price and
I can't see much downside below 55p or so for the present with a huge upside
potential. So I bought 9,500 shares at 60.7p on Friday afternoon and
they are very slightly higher as I write at 60-62, though 61.25p seems to be
the real current buying price. My stop loss is the rights issue price -
51p
and my target is 80p. This morning I dumped
Park Group
and sold 17,000
shares at 29.8p
- I only seem to have 10,000 listed on the site so I must have bought more at
some stage. Anyhow
the sell is good enough break even. It's a shame as the shares still look
undervalued but I've been thinking that since I bought them in December and I
really think I've given them a fair crack. Results on Friday looked really
good but investors just don't seem interested so for the moment, I'm out. Most of the shares in the portfolio are having a good run
this morning. Telecom
Plus results are out
Wednesday - the shares had a massive rise on Friday afternoon with a whopping
buy of 30,000 shares going in. They are rising again today - results expected
to be above market expectations. Serco
looks stronger and stronger and 220p looks a good quick target.
Sondex
seems in great form, especially given the open offer.
Vanco
is currently bursting higher! I still think it's a great company and remember
it's only been depressed because 'Evil Knievel' (!!!) has been shorting them.
This
bloke often gets it wrong and he's already said he had no idea what the
company did! His band of followers will soon get bored and buy back the shares
if they go up a bit more which will lead to an even bigger rise. Havelock
Europa is climbing
closer to the 100p level - I think the market will wake up soon to the huge
potential of this company and once through 100p, 120p beckons. Dignity
has taken its time to climb, but is now breaking out very nicely and 275p
looks on the cards.
Hello to all Sunday Times readers joining the site
for the first time. The site is updated every weekday around lunchtime with
any trades I make, market views, special offers and some rambling from me. It's been a pretty quiet bank holiday week with low
volumes - most investors appear to be on holiday or keeping cash on the
sidelines. Having said that the market appears to be showing amazing
strength given oil prices and political problems. However I think I've been wise to do little trading this
week - I have a few shares that look like they're bottoming out and I expect
to be quite busy next week. Fenner
is doing its usual teasing today - I was wondering whether to hold a Fenner
shareholders party when it goes over 105p! A nice rise for
Dignity
yesterday which climbed decisively over 250 - looks good for more.
Burren
also had a good end to the day and continues to look like a sure-fire winner. Havelock
Europa has climbed up 2p again
after going ex dividend.
Sondex looks good, I'll be
taking up my rights and Serco looks set for a run up.
You might think I have a great time. out
of the rat race, going to the gym, lunches. Swimming, watching daytime TV and
basically being extremely lazy. And sometimes you may be right. But I worked very hard
between 1998 and 2001 to achieve this state so there! Well, you're all wrong today. I've been in a real life
hell's kitchen - my café's kitchen. My cook called in sick so I dashed in at 7am
and I've cooked shepherds pie, veggie dishes, fish pies, quiches and about ten
salads - and some breakfasts! Now I remember what it's like to work for a living. Why
anyone would want to work in a kitchen is beyond me. I am hot bothered and
knackered. But I haven't started yelling "**** off you **** ******'s" a la
Gordon Ramsay.. Yet! They must be fixing the votes on Hells Kitchen! Surely
they voted out Edwina Currie. It just makes better telly and viewing figures to
keep her in I guess. Another fairly quiet and low volume half term week -
the sort of week you could go away and come back next week and find nothing much
had changed. However, I still think the omens don't look that great
and anything could trigger a market downturn so I think caution is still
advised, especially in the small cap arena. It's better to wait and watch for the moment before
plunging into anything - patience is the key. Remember it is all to easy to
overtrade and just buy something for the hell of it! I've had a few e-mails from chartists saying their
charts "aren't working out" at the moment. I do believe charts have their place
but you also must look at fundamentals as well. Charts only tell you where the
crowd might buy and sell. Burren Energy continues to
be a good winner and is rising consistently. As chartists would say "it's a
breakout!" Looks a fine hold at least up to 300p, beyond that there could be
even more to come. Serco's trying to hold above
200p - I can see it heading back to 220p if it shows strength in this area. Remember I cautioned to be careful with the betting at the
beginning of Big Brother. The Sun reckons today (look, I get The Independent as
well, I'm not THAT downmarket you know) that one of the housemates will get
kicked out at random because Kitten broke the rules again. If that's true this makes the betting more chance thank
skill and I think it's best to wait till early next week to launch into any
serious betting. I'm happy with my tenner at 20 on Shell for the moment.
The markets are doing amazingly well at the moment
given higher oil prices and political uncertainties. I'm trying to get back
into the swing of things after my holiday and I'm holding fire for right now. Burren
Energy continues to
thrive and looks like it could really motor at any moment.
Carrs Milling
has now decisively broken out of its previous range and there are some decent
buys going in. Three shares in the portfolio have gone 'ex' dividend
today so although they appear to have dropped because they are 'ex' the
dividend value has been stripped out. They are
Get Group,
Havelock Europa
and Sondex.
I'll be getting divi's from all three in the next few weeks. Havelock and Sondex look very exciting long-term holds -
both have really good prospects for around a 30% rise from current levels. Telecom
Plus will announce
its results next Wednesday. It will be interesting to see the new customer
numbers and whether the dividend is going to be increased.
One suspects some new services are in the pipeline which
will help the company to grow further - head cheese Charles Widoger is very
shrewd. If it follows the pattern of previous years, the shares
will start to rise after results and at this point the directors usually buy
more shares. I'm starting to concentrate on Big Brother a bit more.
Sporting Index has Daniel as the favourite (27-30), and Stuart and Shell as
joint second favourites (23-26). This looks about right for the moment - I'm £30 up on my
buy of Shell at 20. (I could sell at 23). But she looks a cert for the last
four so I'm happy to hold this one. The one possibly under priced is thong dude Jason at 11-14
- he might turn out to be prat with a hearth of gold type. But I'd rather wait
a bit before backing him. Things will really get going when the eviction spreads
start - the market makers often make mistakes with their % quotes and if you
get in quick, you can make a few quid.
Phew! Just back from a long weekend away, so a
briefer update than normal. How come holidays always make you feel more tired
than when you left? Good fun weekend away, though as per usual English hotels
always seem to live up to Fawlty Towers standards when it comes to afternoon
tea and room service. Still with loads of complaining we got an upgrade to a
suite... I've only managed a brief scan of the markets as I've
literally just walked in and nothing much seems to be happening and it looks
kind of jittery but there's also some support out there too to balance it all
out. Burren
and Sondex
seem to be my strongest performers at the moment. Sondex is now well above the
placing price at 160p which bodes well for this one as a long-term result. Carrs
Milling rose strongly
on Friday afternoon and is in breakout territory along with Sondex and Burren.
My BskyB
short looks like it might pay off as it's struggling to stay above 600p. So onto
Big
Brother 5.
Sporting Index updated prices live as the contestants came onto the screen and
I thought they did a rather good job. In wasn't intending to have an early bet as this show in
particular looks set to be difficult to predict especially as the producers
are going to change the rules to suit whatever storylines they want to come up
with. But I thought the early spread of 14-17 on
Shell
was a bit low considering unless she gets 'taken out' by a rule change she
ought to make the top 4. Sadly I dithered and missed buying at 17 and ended up
getting a tenner on at 20. Still, I've seen she's at 25 now which is probably
about right. She's the most stable of the lot and it's unlikely the public
will vote her out early.
The problem with betting early on is twists and turns are
difficult to predict. We know Kitten will be nominated but will be in a
hidden room in the house after that but rumours are she can take someone with
her. By the way it's 60 points for first place, then
40,30,20,10 and 5 for second place downwards. So if Shell came seventh or
below I'd lose £200 (ten times my buy at 20).
You can buy or sell any of the housemates. I went away on
Sunday but I saw the Monday show - I need to catch up with things before
considering any further betting. The whole lot of them are prats which should make it
entertaining though it would be nice to get past the early clapping at
everything and taking clothes off routines which are all a bit tedious. Biggest prats obviously are Jason (thong prat) Marco (over
camp prat) Stuart (up himself prat) Victor (I wannabe in rap group prat)
and Kitten (rebel prat). I'll come up with a more erudite look at the candidates
and the betting tomorrow. Just remember if you are going to bet, patience
could be the key and the eviction percentage betting when it starts is often
more lucrative than the outright betting.
Thursday 17th June 2004
Onto the markets...
Telecom Plus continues to rise. An
interesting piece in Shares Magazine today regarding BT being forced to allow
rival companies to charge for line rental.
'Alternative companies like TEP will benefit by offering its customers a
complete billing package including call charges and line rental.
CEO Charles Widoger expects OFCOM to cut wholesale prices to around £80-90
a year against the £116 being charged by BT. 'TEP will enjoy increased profits,
more control over its customers and less churn.'
So in just a few weeks distributors will be able to sell a complete phone
package - and profits should soar.
Personally I think the current 300 or so share price is going to look very cheap
by the end of the year! Do e-mail me if you fancy becoming a distributor and
earning new residual income and free share options!
Dignity, Burren
and Carrs Milling continue to rise and look good.
My spread bet on BT looks good too and as soon as 200p is broken, 220p is the
next target. Institutions are buying in big time.
Big Brother was hilarious last night - but
perhaps my bet on Shell is looking precarious because the kids are going to win
out over the adults - we shall see!!
Wendesday 16th June 2004
Tuesday 15th June 2004
Monday 14th June 2004
Friday 11th June 2004
Thursday 10th June 2004
Well, I've had to work today.. Again! The café is
so busy today I've been called on an emergency basis. Great news the
business is going so well but bad news for me. but actually it's quite fun
and it's nice to get out of the house sometimes.
Wendesday 9th June 2004
Tuesday 8th June 2004
Monday 7th June 2004
Friday 4th June 2004
Thursday 3 rd June 2004
Wendesday 2nd June 2004
Tuesday 01st June 2004
brought to you by Mr Robbie Burns from FrequentTrader