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Hurrah! Mandleson's back! Just goes to
show the old cliche rings true: it's not what you know it's who you know! Just
wish I knew someone. Of course I'm not going to play with
the whole lot but probably £150k of it. I'll keep you up to date with how I'm
getting on... XP Power reports the week after next
and I'm looking forwards to the report. Burren Energy
looks set for another run up with 380p resistance level the one to get through.
Typical isn't it. Just when us punters
think everything is going great, the market turns right around! The
market-makers have lobbed a bit of most stocks - but when the red ink is already
in place before the open it's best to ride it out.
Well, there's a surprise! A strong rise
in the markets today and I'm sure very welcome for investors who've been a bit
down in the dumps recently. Oh.. you've got me going now...hang on
a minute. Right, that's it. I've sold the FTSE for a fiver at 4387. If I lose
money on this I am coming round to your house with the boys to demand a refund.
Any dream experts out there! In my
dream I was in Boots and I looked in the music section and found a vinyl single
"lucky number" by Lena Lovich.. it was white and shaped like a guitar, rather
nice! The shares suddenly tumbled while my
order was in the market and I got shafted by the market-makers and my
8,000 shares got taken at 69p!
Another penny below the 70p on screen by then! I just wasn't concentrating as I was
busy doing something else at the time. (no, not that!) Oh well - anyway that's a
loss of £1,200.
Here we go again! Here come more taxes.
I find it amazing the government thinks just because someone can "afford" a
£620,000 house in London they can "afford" to pay £6,000 a year council tax. Still, not a bad day for the portfolio
as it continues to move higher. The two best movers for me are White Young Green
and Sondex.
A warm welcome to the site to new
readers coming from the link to the site from the bottom of my column in The
Sunday Times. The site gets updated every weekday
around lunchtime with my latest buys, sells, market views, offers, and a few
strange ramblings. On the European front, Garcia has
finished in the top ten for the last 3 years and his style of play is well
suited to a links course such as Troon. Haas has at least played here before,
and Maruyama and Singh have more experience, but will they have enough to last
all four days? I just don’t have any confidence in
his game right now, especially on the green. History is against him too – an
American has won the last five Open tournaments at Troon...”
It's all good news. The consultant had
a very long look at the upcoming baby and said everything was fine. He doesn't
say much so there was a worrying few minutes at the start. I realise many of you enjoy the daily
ramblings and I want to give something back to you all for all that love I feel
coming through cyberspace (aw shucks!) I also know that weird Indian lady from
my dream in March is looking after us this time! Looks like we're going to be left with
the usual boring ones at the end! TV watchers should realise it's much more fun
keeping the lively ones in (Ahmed, Jason and Victor!) This is something I am looking at and
I'm hoping to do this once I get to around 50-years old. At this point I expect
my TP income to reach £5,000 a month. Look at your bills when they come in
and see how cheap they are and how efficient TP's billing and customer service
is.
It's 9.30am and I only really have time for a quick
message today - we have Mrs F's 20 week scan this morning so we're a bit
stressed and I'm taking the day off to be with her. We hope for the best as obviously after what happened
before we worry about whether baby is alive or not. Burren
Energy lost a bit of
ground yesterday because of a share placing - I'm not even slightly worried
and if I didn't have so many shares I'd be buying more! Otherwise everything
looks good with the portfolio and I'll be back tomorrow (Thursday) with a full
report.
What a relief! No pain at all during my visit to the dentist today. I was a
little worried when I went in today in case he'd read my website where I'd
described him as a "drama queen". Not a great move was it? Anyhow he's obviously
not a site reader as he was ultra nice.
What the hell has happened to summer? I
want it back and back now!! Everyone's wandering around looking a
bit grumpy and it can't be having a good effect on the markets! (Bloody hell,
that's smalltalk for you!)
By the way did you know the less hair a man has on his head the better
they are in bed? Fact! So all you men with thick locks of hair you just don't
cut it where it matters! Then to top that he changed his mind,
took a huge loss (£1m or something!) and then shorted it to get his own back.
The shares are now showing strength!
I woke up at 5am thinking about Monday's share buy White Young Green. How sad is
that? Then my mind for some reason decided the name of the share was like
one of those ridiculous Mensa IQ test questions... I suspect the slide will cease given a
good AGM statement mid month - people tend to pile in to volatile stocks as fast
as they move out. I can be rather relaxed about it as my
buying was done a long time ago at 30p, 83p, 120p and 219p! Looks like there is
the odd shorter in there - they get out fast when sentiment turns and that
usually means a nice spike up.
Well, a number of you appear to be closet Ambrosia Creamed Rice fans.In fact you all
seem to relish telling me about your ACR eating habits. Any dips look like buying
opportunities. One interesting e-mailer asked me if I hadn't noticed Burren
before would I still buy it? Well, I think I would! I can tell you, getting kw/h rates off
energy salesmen is next to impossible. "The rates" I said, rather commandingly,
I thought, real alpha male!
My previous long-standing addiction to
green Aeros ended a few weeks ago and I've switched addictions to Ambrosia
Creamed Rice and polish off half a can a day.
It looks as though a lot of private investors are keeping their money in
their pockets. I suspect it will be a very quiet summer.
Brokers tell me that activity is at a low and there is little trading
going on. The problem they say is the very tight trading ranges so even active
traders are finding it hard to make money. However I think there are still gains
to be made from the right stocks.
A busy week ahead for me: as many of you know I've sold my house to take
advantage of what I think is the peak of the housing market so on Tuesday we're
moving into a rented house!
This means I have something like £350,000 extra to play with on the
markets from the end of next week... could be interesting.
So the FTSE continues to trade sideways. But it doesn't look good for the
summer and I suspect the index will sink to around 4,200. I'm tempted to take
out another index sell bet after my profitable one this week. We'll see.
It's very quiet today! Havelock Europa looks
the strongest of the portfolio today and it does look likely it'll carry on
rising to at least the 130p level. Helphire looks
like it's about to break out.
Brown and Jackson's AGM statement next week
will almost certainly make the share a buy or a sell - it'll move one way or the
other but I'm hopeful of a positive statement.
I'm happy with the resilience shown by my recent buys despite the down
market. White Young Green, VP
Group and XP Power have all stood their
ground.
My Close Brothers short has proved a real
success and I'm more than 100 points up! My other shorts look good too though
the III short looks borderline.
I see Motion Media has been re-listed at 4p! A company called me a few
weeks ago "tipping" me the shares and offering some to me at a knockdown price.
I had words to the effect of "you must be joking". When I probed further
into him and the company he rang off hastily to move onto the next mug. All I
can say is if someone phones out of the blue offering you shares or tips, put
the phone down!
Thursday 22th July
Rather fortunate that down bet I made on the FTSE yesterday at 4387 -
considering this isn't my forte I did rather well selling right at the top!
And on this occasion, discretion being the better part of valour and the
fact I'm crap at indices betting, I closed out the £5/point position today at
4324 for a profit of 63
points or £315 profit. Hey, maybe I'm not so bad
after all, may try it again!
The market seems caught in a 4300-4400 range and a break either side could
prove interesting though I'm afraid I rather think we're in for a rough passage
this summer.
A few points here and there have been taken off some of the portfolio
shares - pretty much all the damage was done right away so there's no real panic
on. The falls could easily be reversed quite quickly and there's no real selling
volume.
It's at these times I'm always grateful to have a few shorts open! I feel
investors who don't look at shorts are missing out. All my shorts have gained
nicely today.
I don't feel in the slightest bit worried at the falls - I have a good
selection of shares that will withstand a downturn. So there!
Example.. a company in trouble .. It includes more than 3 photos of its
chairman or chief exec; it mentions EBITDA, the accounts are difficult to read
or follow.
Company in health: Includes financial highlights in the first 2 pages of
its report. The company owes less than half the amount it's worth and steady
increase in EPS above the market average.
Wendesday 21th July
Will it last? Let's hope so! Do I think it will? I really don't know - I'm
just going to carry on being cautious and buy good companies!
You could always ask a "charting guru"! They will probably inform you if
the FTSE goes up, it will go up for a bit more but then again maybe not and if
it goes down it may go down further unless it changes its mins and goes up.....
etc.
Yes, that's right! I think chart gurus generally sit on the fence and
write stuff that covers them for any eventuality. And if you pay one a fee, then
I think you're wasting your readies.
If you pushed me I'd sell the FTSE at this level, but I've always been
rubbish at playing indices so don't listen to me. Actually it's got to be worth
a little sell hasn't it?
Please note the above trade I consider a gamble for fun and not an
investment!
You've got to love Burren Energy haven't you!
Yes, I know you should remain unemotional but it's made me loads of money in a
short time and I can't bear to part with it. I'm staying loyal and there's a
nice rise today.
XP Power is rocketing up very nicely since I
bought it yesterday and it looks like the shares will carry on rising through to
results in early August.
An e-mailer kindly informed me a broker has just raised their target price
on the shares to 700p. Well, maybe that's a bit optimistic but this company is
going places!
Vanco's up today but not as much as it should
be and I feel a bit sorry for the directors of this company. It won contracts
worth nearly £10 million in the last few weeks. However "Evil Knievel" and his
mates have shorted it recently making it difficult for the shares to rise.
However I gather Mr Knievel is up against it at the moment having lost
more then a million quid buying TDM.. selling out at a loss then shorting it
while it, er rises!
So I am very hopeful he will close out of Vanco which would see the shares
rocket. He more or less admits he did no research into his short and I think it
won't be long before value will out and Vanco will be on its way back to the
300p area where it belongs.
Mr K is now fairly obviously outed as a gambler not an investor and if you
follow him I would "bear" that in mind!
VP group is going back up and looks about to
head into breakout territory - a decent company as is
White Young Green whose chart looks terrific!
I can hardly believe my luck with Aminex. I'd
more or less written off this share as my once a year gamble that went wrong but
it's coming back strongly all the time and I may even break into profit soon..
quite amazing.
Tuesday 20th July
But instead of buying it I decided to steal it....Maybe my brain is
sending me messages.. lucky number.. should I play the lottery this week?!
Maybe I'll go and queue up for a lucky dip, behind the usual suspects
buying bottles of whisky, fags, scratch cards and large bottles of Tizer!
A busy day on the market for me, can't say I was expecting it but you
never know. One buy and two sells to report. The buy first - that's
1,300 shares in XP Power (XPP)
at 424p. Stop 390p
Target 550p
I've been eyeing this one up for a while and decided to plunge in today -
I've ummed and erred a bit as it's already had a big rise over the last few
weeks. But I think there could be a lot more to come, another 125 points or so.
The company is building the leading position in the mid-tier of the power
supply industry in Europe and North America. It is a sales force in all major
European and North American areas.
It's no wonder the shares are booming - their statements are very bullish,
profits are rising fast and the company has been in the market buying back its
own shares.
While not without risk I think there is still a big rise to come and the
catalyst for more rises could come from the company's results due in a few days
at the beginning of August.
I was a complete utter and stupid investor this morning. I was watching
Broadcastle begin to move down again and decided to
sell at 73p as it was moving too far below my stop
loss. But I made an elementary mistake, I forget to put a limit price on the
shares! Dunce!!
So, in football terms, market makers 5, Robbie Burns 0! I wouldn't have
sold at 69p if I'd known that was going to be the price.
I've also sold my spread bet in Keir Group at
680 to bank a profit of (spookily!)
£680. It looks like it'll come back as it heads
towards 700p and I've had a nice run with it.
It's a pretty vile day in the markets for most shares and smaller shares
are being hit today. One or two of mine are down a few pence though nothing
drastic.
Burren Energy continues to look good in a
weak market and Aminex continues to shoot up! I
think it's generally wise to be very cautious at the moment.
Monday 19th July
I know a couple with four children who live down the road. A £620k house
in London is the same as a £250,000 house in the north. They don't earn much -
the house was handed down to them by previous generations.
Of course one suspects Blair is doing the usual thing of planting a story
in the press with totally over the top rises... two weeks later a new story will
reveal council tax will go up.. but not as much as we thought. So we think
that's all right then without realising we've been well and truly stuffed again.
Then there's plans to tax us every time we use a car. What's it going to
be next? Everyone to have a microchip and we get charged a fiver every time we
have sex? (Blimey I'd have to sell a few shares to pay my bill!)
As usual we all sit there and do nothing while services continue to
worsen, crime goes up and the quality of life goes downhill. But what can the
other parties come up with? Sadly, not a fresh idea between them!
Another dull market today - looks like most sensible people have gone to
find better weather abroad.
White Young is looking strong and in good
breakout territory - no reason why 250 should not be reached.
Sondex has been a great buy and with its products
in demand I think there is plenty more to come!
Others going up for me today are Havelock Europa
(still undervalued) , Brown and Jackson,
600 Group, and Fenner.
Broadcastle has fallen just below my stop
loss and at this point I should sell and take losses! However I see a statement
is due in the next few days, and looking back over the last year ago all
statements have been positive, directors have bought and the company looks in
good shape. So I'm still holding though I can't give it much more leeway...
An excellent pre-close announcement from Burren
Energy today. Surprised the share isn't up a bit more but it shouldn't be
long before it starts to climb back towards 400p.
The markets still look a bit grim and I'm hesitant to buy anything right
now. I am very patient these days when it comes to waiting to buy shares at the
right price and one I am keeping an eye on is Radstone Technology.
This one has been hit hard recently after a placing. But it's not some tin
pot loss-making tech share but a profitable and good-looking company.
It's still in a downtrend and to be honest I hope it falls further so I
can get in at an amazing price. I'm hoping to buy in at the 250-260 level for
what I think could be a 20-30% bounce back.
It really does pay to be patient when waiting for a turnaround. It is very
difficult to call the bottom of a downtrend and I would rather give ten points
away than get in at the wrong time.
Friday 16th July
Thanks for all your kind comments regarding our successful scan. Obviously
as we get nearer to the 29th week of Elizabeth's pregnancy we get a bit worried
as that's when the baby died last time.
But we do have a baby heart monitor so that gives us some reassurance.
What we don't want is what happened last time when we discovered the baby had
died a few days before a routine check up.
Anyway right now we are "up" and feeling more confident that we will soon
experience sleepless nights and a whole new way of life!
I see the number one in the charts is called "bum" - which sums up the
state of pop music at the moment. It comes to a sad state of affairs that when
I'm having a run on my treadmill the best thing I can find is The Spice Girls
and "if you wanna be my lover..."
I begin to despair of the so-called investment magazines. The Chronicle
today says "perhaps it was ambitious of us to call the bottom of Big Food
Group's recent share slide when we recommended buying shares at 94p"
For investment mags to guess the bottom of shares is not the business they
are supposed to be in.. guessing.. it's supposed to be investing!
Some of their "tips" have been decidedly dodgy recently. Bizarrely, they
follow up their tips with an article entitled "advice to buy and sell shares is
silly and patronising"!!
"Tips from most brokers and journalists are arrogant nonsense". Oh well at
least they realise that!
And when are these magazines and tipsters going to stop trying to fool us
and their followers by quoting "mid prices" for their buys and sells! No-one can
buy or sell at a "mid price".
Be honest and use the real buy and sell prices! If I was heading the FSA,
that's one of the first measures I'd bring in and include proper monitoring of
these tip sites that claim performance figures that I reckon are bumped up by
using dodgy mid prices as well as other tricks.
The market still looks a bit down - 4290 looks the level to watch -
anything below that and we could be looking at a summer of discontent. I'm happy
to have a few shorts open.
Nothing really getting me going today. With my last few buys all nicely
higher than my buying prices and all looking strong I'm happy to hold for right
now.
What happened to Fenner? I'm only used to it
going up! I can't see it going any lower and it looks like a spot of
profit-taking before it goes up again. Not worried!
On their way up today are Helphire (looks
very good), 600 Group (heading for 80p again!),
Costain, Cairn and
Burren. White Young Green
and VP are holding nicely higher before
their next moves upwards.
My stinker Aminex is rising from the dead on
news from Tanzania - is it possible this could come back to life and even make
me a profit? Stranger things have happened.
I know plenty of you are betting on the golf. I've been asked by a couple
of you to chat to a golf trader at Sporting. Here's what the market-maker says -
please be aware this could be out of date when you're reading this!!
"I’ll be closely watching Els and Goosen, who are both in great form at
the moment and have good Open records. Goosen in particular, with back-to-back
wins at the US Open and last week’s Smurfit European Open, is looking hot and
will want to improve on last year’s tenth place.
“Tiger seems to have turned his game around recently. The Open is the
first time in 5 years that he is not the favourite to win, but obviously we’re
not writing him off.
“Anyone who was still playing in the States last Sunday is likely to
suffer through lack of preparation; so Cink, Dimarco and Johnson, who have not
played Troon before, have not done themselves any favours.
“Darren Clarke, who finished second here last time in ’97, missed the cut
by two strokes in his latest tournament last week, as well as missing the cut at
the US Open.
Thursday 15th July
But he says this pregnancy looks a lot stronger than the last and
Elizabeth can feel movement which she couldn't feel in the last.
Of course we can't relax after the death of our last one at 29 weeks.
We've bought a baby heartbeat monitor so we can check everyday to see if the
heartbeat is there.
Thanks to you all for your kind messages of support. Whenever I think
about stopping doing this website and get back seven hours a week, I remember
all that support and carry on.
Right, onto the markets!
It's all a bit gloomy however actually all my lot are well up over the
last few weeks despite the main market falls.
I think if you can work hard there are opportunities out there. It looks a
very dangerous time to be in the very small volatile stocks and I would steer
clear till later in the year.
The best ones to be in are mid-ranking (market cap £50-300m) with solid
businesses - these will still prosper during difficult times.
It's always worth looking at shorting - all my shorts are going well with
Close Brothers the best - I'm up 100 points on the
down bet.
With the markets likely to drift further I suspect
3i Group (III) will be hit and I've shorted this morning through Cantor
with a £10 short at 578p
(equivalent to 1,000 shares) Target is 520p with
stop loss at 605p. It's looking weak and could
suddenly go lower.
Havelock Europa has proved a cracking buy -
up from my buy at 95 to 115 in a few weeks. It's announced another acquisition
today and this one is really going places - more to come I think.
Dignity is rising slowly and steadily up from
my buy at 251 to the mid 270s - I would look to take profits just below 300.
Monday's buy VP Group looks a strong market -
it looks like TA traders are getting into it as it's broken out of a year's
range. I really rate this one and expect it to hit at least 180.
All my recent buys are holding up at increased prices.
Helphire, 600 Group,
White Young Green, Havelock,
Sondex, Burren, all
look good and give my portfolio a really solid defensive look but also plenty of
scope for upside with few shocks likely.
A nice report from Keir Group today - I'm up
nearly 60 points on my spread bet - I fancy it'll get to 700 at which point I'll
bank the proceeds.
Brown and Jackson may prove volatile in the
run up to an important statement at the end of the month - definitely worth
holding onto because if the statement shows a good turnaround at the new Instore
shops, the shares will rocket.
Big Brother has proved a betting disappointment this year mainly because
Sporting isn't doing spreads on the percentages on evictions this year which is
where I used to clean up.
It's amazing the poor yields offered by the terrible annuities. If you
have a pension fund of say £100,000 - you only get around £7,000 a year pension
income! £200,000 would only get you £14,000!
In my SIPP I am forced at the moment to buy an annuity when I get to 75
years old. What a load of nanny state crap! Just give me the money and let me
invest it as I want! It's outrageous!
These thoughts lead me on to the benefits of becoming a part-time
distributor for Telecom Plus. It took me 3 years (of admittedly hard work) to
get a £1,500-£2,000 a month income from Telecom Plus. Consider to get this kind
of sum through a pension I would have to have built up a pension pot of £300k!
Now imagine you are 35-year-old and just spend the next 30 years getting
say only 30 customers a year and build up a network of distributors... can you
imagine the possible income for your old age!
And if you really put effort in, how wonderful do you think it would be to
tell your boss: "I quit" (or in my case try to annoy him to get a redundancy
cheque as well!) and go and lead a new life away from corporate bull.
TP also has a "retirement option". That is, you can lock in the income you
have built up once you get to a certain stage.
If you also throw in share options and other bonuses I cannot praise the
potential of this business enough. And why shouldn't I, it helped me to free
myself of office life.
While you have to put the effort in and not be shy about selling the
services - I believe anyone can do it with a bit of effort and commitment.. and
the ability to put a bit of money into what is in effect a business venture.
For those of you wondering whether to take the plunge or not I suggest
maybe you try the services first and see how you like them. I suggest you take
the TP home phone service and the energy services.
Wendesday 14th July
Tuesday 13th July
To put me in an even better mood, Geoffrey e-mailed to let me know
Safeways/Morrisons are doing two cans of Ambrosia Rice Pudding for the price of
one. Guess where I'm going later? And by the way.. my dentist has offered 15%
off for cash!
So back at home I've rattled off a couple of trades kicking off with a
brand new buy. With the markets looking a bit grim I'm carrying on my search for
successful smaller companies with good earnings, rising dividends, profits and
some potential for growth and recovery.
My searches for these kinds of companies has really paid off in the last 3
months with my last few buys all soaring higher. Well I believe I've unearthed a
nice little gem!
The company is called VP (VP.) and I've
bought 4,000 shares at 138p
just now (around 12.40pm) I bought while the share was having a bit of a dip - I
was waiting for a touch of weakness to get in. Target is
180p, stop loss 128p.
VP's an equipment rental specialist and has various divisions. Turnover's up,
profits up 19%, dividend up 11% and low debt. I like the sound of this!
All their divisions are doing well bar one called Hirestation. But what I
like it the company is addressing the problems by firing middle management ( a
useless lot generally from my experience!).
It sounds like this division will be turned around. The company has a low
PE and there is plenty of room for growth - my view is it is well undervalued
right now.
So all in all a very confident buy here and once through 140p, I think 180
is a very fair and achievable target by October. Maybe even 200. Throw in the
nice dividend paid out that month too and it's a rather nice purchase with
little risk.
I sold my holdings in Carrs Milling. Nothing
wrong with this nice little company except it's not moved for ages and it looks
like it will stay put until near the next report. I would buy back on any
weakness. The 1,000 shares I'd bought for 319.63 I sold at
332.75 to bank £131.
Monday 12th July
I see Tony Blair's going to stay on for another five years. God help us
all! Great, another five years of rising taxes, poorer services, rising crime
and more poverty! Yipeee!
It's hard work writing a book. I write some every day but the finishing
line is still a way off. I use any excuse to stop working. Ah, isn't the cat
looking nice, must give her a stroke.
Or, haven't had a cup of tea for ten minutes, must get one! Or, maybe I'll
watch Neighbours today, see if it's got any better since I last watched it in
1987! That's it! Today - no distractions! I'm going to get this published in
November even if it kills me.
Another excellent day for the portfolio. There are a couple of shares I'm
really keen on - trouble is I don't want to sell any of my holdings they all
look too good to part with!
My last ten buys are all in profit, some in very good profit - but good
runs often come to an end so I am going to try and be careful. My two oil holds,
Burren and Cairn look
strong today and I'm sure further advances are on the cards.
Telecom Plus and Sondex
have been tipped. Telecom Plus continues its recovery and looks like
heading back over 300p.
There's an AGM statement due this week - I hope it will be positive - and
if so should help the shares clear 300 again.
Sondex was tipped by a magazine over the weekend - quite handy! I'd be
tempted to sell into strength but the share looks too good to part with.
Havelock Europa still has a lot of mileage
left and is rising. I can't believe Fenner isn't up
its normal one penny today. What's going on!
I see Thus (don't hold at the moment) is getting a bit of a battering. But
at some point soon it'll start to look undervalued - keeping my beady eye open
for a possible good entry point. Just watching for the moment.
So for today I'm holding fire - but looks like there are plenty of good
share buying opportunities coming up... but which to take profits on? Hmm,
that's the question.
Thursday 8th July
One buy today - I've taken the cue from the CEO of Telecom Plus who bought
100,000 shares this morning - there are also a number of other large buys going
in.
I think this signals the end of the slump for the shares which now must
surely be incredibly good value with a sensible PE and good yield.
One also suspects shorters will clear out fast - and given the buy will be
reported tomorrow this looks like a great time to buy in.
So I bought 3,000
Telecom Plus (TEP) shares at 257.5 - I
wasn't fast enough to get lower prices and it was already up 9p but I bought as
quick as I could after the announcement of the director's buy. Target price
295p, stop 215.
Another great reason for a good time to buy is the AGM announcement that's
on the way. Head man Charles Wigoder is a very shrewd operator and he will have
a few surprises in store!
The figures that I see on my customer base (as a distributor) look good
with customer and distributor levels still rising.
I flogged my shares in Trifast at
76.75 - although it's shown strength recently this
was a badly-timed buy from me so I've spanked my own bottom (which I quite
enjoyed, don't tell mrs F) The loss is £888.
A pretty good day for the portfolio as it continues to climb.
Vanco's been quiet for a bit mainly due to
"Evil Knievel" shorting it despite by his own admission knowing nothing about
the company and "some chap told me to do it".
By the way, this is the bloke who bought shares in a company called 3DM at
something like 180p - saying it was going to £20 and the shares promptly
crashed!
So I now don't feel that worried about his Vanco short! The company
announced an excellent contract win this morning worth 18 million dollars.
I would suspect once the Evil factor comes out of the share a bounce back
to where it should be, 300p is likely.
Talking of shorting, my Close Brothers short
is now in a nice profit - and I'm hoping it goes below 700p today for another
leg down - I'm going to carry on being greedy and leave the short open for a tad
longer before hopefully collecting.
Thanks to a Shares Magazine tip, Sondex has
soared higher today. I was half tempted to take profits simply because the
market makers just raise the price because it's a tip and the chances are once
Shares Mag punters buy in they'll push it down again to make money. (Usually it
is just the market-makers who make money from the tipsters!)
But actually I think the writer is right and Sondex still has a way to go
so I resisted selling my shares into the strength created by the tip.
This week's buy White Young Green is holding
well at higher prices. It's the kind of share like Fenner that doesn't move for
a while and then moves gradually higher - one to hold for a bit! Actually
Fenner hasn't moved yet today, maybe later!
Wendesday 7th July 2004
White Young Green. Complete the sequence. Well, ok, it's got to be Old,
blue. Do I get my Mensa membership now?
Mensa's supposed to be the high IQ organisation but it's the people in
charge of Mensa that are the clever ones - its punters have to pay for the
tests! I wonder how clever members would feel after trying to make money trading
for a few weeks!
The market still carries on in a tight range making it difficult for day
traders to make money.
However careful stock pickers can still make some loot. And I've been
going very well in the last few weeks by sticking to good solid profit-makers
and leaving the racy techs well alone.
Talking of solid profit-makers WHY, Monday's
buy, is climbing nice and steadily every day à la Fenner. I'm hoping for a
steady climb up to what I hope will be an excellent set of results.
I've got a lot of recent risers and it's nice to see nearly all of them
are steady today and not giving up any ground.
600 Group continues to knock at its
resistance level. Burren Energy is holding well
after yesterday's bout of profit-taking. It looks like it's about to make the
next leg up as it continues to get re-rated.
Telecom Plus has given up a lot of ground
recently - mainly worries about growth and the telecoms sector is in a bad way
with a lot of competition around.
I think a few of the smaller telecoms will fall by the wayside this summer
and the bigger players like TP and Thus will come back strongly this year.
What can I say about the delightful Fenner
except it rises every single day now - yes, only half a pee today I know but up
over 30% on my initial purchase - 140p looks a sensible pre-results target now.
Havelock Europa continues to look strong.
Helphire has come back a touch but that won't last
long! Brown and Jackson holds well at current
prices - I expect a decent statement at the end of the month which will really
lift the price higher (unless they are really screwing things up!)
Let's really hope the more interesting BB players aren't voted out - I'd
love to see Victor and Jason stay in and beat the like of the anodyne (nice word
huh?) Stuart and Michelle.
It's been hard to make money on it this year with just £220 banked and
three bets open that could turn and bit me on the bum at any moment!
Tuesday 6th July 2004
Some of you like eating it cold straight out of the tin. And some of you
heat it up - some add jam and some don't. (That's enough "some's" - ED)
Here's the way I do it - empty half a can into bowl with a top up of milk,
put in microwave. My crap-on-the-neighbour's-roof cat gets two spoonfuls.
I suppose if us ACS fans end up buying Premier Foods when it debuts on the
market this month and the shares start to fall, all we have to do is each eat
one more can each a day - that should help prop up the share price!
One buy and one sell to report today although both trades were made
yesterday afternoon. I've been "stalking" my new buy for some time, waiting for
it to climb over 200p to confirm a really good chart breakout.
It's not a share you'll see discussed much as it stays under the radar of
most private investors but not the institutions who seem to like it! The shrewd
Artemis Investment Management hold nearly 3 million shares.
The company is called White Young Green (WHY)
and I bought 3,000 shares at
205p yesterday afternoon plus some for the pension and a few for Mrs FT's
Isa. Target 290p Stop loss
190p.
I think this company is an excellent example of a small growth company
that is doing all the right things for me, anyway. It's gradually winning some
excellent long-term contracts and slowly growing by acquisition.
Loads of the signs I love to see when buying a share including increasing
profits, dividend, director buying, and a 52 week chart breakout!
I was only worried slightly when ADVFN quoted a 1,000 normal market size
(ok, still £2,000 of shares) but going on level 2 the market-makers are happy to
deal in 2,000 share lots and I bought 3,000 with no trouble. So no problem when
it comes to selling.
All in all, I like the look of this one and I reckon I'll get a 30% return
on my stake this year together with a dividend and expect to hold this
medium-term. It's already up 5p since I bought (Well, the buy price anyhow).
And, if it goes pear-shaped I have the share code to comfort me. I can
rock back and forth in my chair going.. "Why... why... oh..why....."
My sale was Serco Group - sold at
219.28 to bank a profit of
£692. My spread bet was sold at 220 to bank
a loss of £50.
I sold because Serco was having a lot of trouble getting through 220 and
it seemed to be a pullback was inevitable. I do expect to get back in as it
looks like a great trading stock in a range of 200-220.
The portfolio's still looking good! Whoopee! Fenner
is not just up its normal one pee today.. it's up one AND A HALF!! Time for
another Fenner party.
600 Group is trying to break this crucial 80p
hurdle. It looks really exciting if it can break through this week. 90p could be
reached very quickly if it does. Brown and Jackson
looks ready for a ride higher.
A little profit-taking in Burren, not as much
as I thought there was going to be today but I'm still in there - looks too
powerful to get out yet.
My short of Close Brothers looks better every
day and I'm still with it although it's reached my target, greedy boy!
I gather some of you have piled into Nadia (steady now..) but I stand by
my "lay" of her and still don't think she (he) will be first or second. (Sorry
talking Big Brother here!)
Inside info says Jason, Becki and Dan will be up this week, I'll see if
the insiders are right later. If they are, looks a close call between Becki and
Jason.
I get a phone call a day practically from desperate energy salesmen. They
always start: "If I told you you could get cheaper gas and electric through us
would you switch."
"Sure," I say smugly, knowing they can't possibly quote me a better price
than Telecom Plus.
Yesterday's saleguy was really desperate. "Tell me what your rates are per
kw/h," I said.
"Oh, I'm not sure but I have my energy calculator here...."
He went away and after two minutes said.." 2.1per kw/h..." "Thanks", I
interrupted. "All I need to know, I'm on 1.24 per kw/h."
"That's a good rate," he admitted. Then clutching at straws.. "What about
the service?"
Doh! "Well, I just switch on lights and the cooker and it all seems to
work," I said.
"All right," he muttered. "Goodbye". One suspects after he'd hung up he
said something less than complementary about me, but at a wild guess he probably
called me a "******* ******".
Monday 5th July 2004
I was wondering the other day whether I should take a stake in the company
that made it but hadn't got round to finding out.
Premier Foods is being launched on the market on July 20th, says David. It
owns Typhoo Tea, Sun Pat Peanut Butter.. and Ambrosia Creamed Rice. This has got
to be someone signalling to me to snap up some Premier shares!
Talking of addictions, I'm sure other Burren Energy
holders like me keep staring at the share price open-mouthed! It just keeps
rocketing up and must be in the middle of a market re-rating.
I thought when I bought them just a few weeks ago they'd hit 300 and maybe
320, but I didn't expect to see 373 quite so fast!
I'm not exactly complaining - I'm in profit by something like £6,000 on my
Burren share buys and nearly £4,000 on my spread bet long. And it's so strong it
looks like more to come. I'm sticking with it!
At the other end of the scale Fenner is up a
penny!! I can't knock this share though and after all if it keeps going up a
penny a day for the next ten years I am going to be very wealthy!
Friday's buy Helphire is up nicely today and
is really breaking out - I can see another 30 or 40p upside to this in the nest
few weeks.
600 Group continues to hold at a higher price
and I see one market-maker is moving up as I write (about noon) and it looks set
to go up again. This one looks bullish at over 80p.
My short in Close Brothers has reached its
target but being greedy I'm hanging on in the expectation of it tanking some
more.
Big Brother punters have been piling in to
back Nadia. Good luck to them and can't see her/him being in the last 3. So I
took advantage of the betting surge.
So I laid Nadia. No, Mrs F doesn't have to worry! I sold her for
£20 at 19. I'd only
lose if she ended up in the top 3. I'd be really surprised if that happened.
brought to you by Mr Robbie Burns from FrequentTrader
Past Commentaries
Tuesday Monday 21th June 2004 to Friday 2nd July 2004
Tuesday 01st June 2004 to Friday 18th June 2004
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