Always expect the unexpected

Friday, 27th November 2009 09:10 - by Boredmum

Always expect the unexpected. Yes, I know how hard that is to do. Take Ascent Resources (TIDM code: AST) as an example. For anyone that has followed my previous Blogs, you will know this has certainly been an interesting play for me. Now, from memory, I originally bought around 8.13p. A duster came in the form of Gazzata-1 and the share price hit the floor. Well, I had plenty of available funds at the time and did some tranche buying and selling until I came out at break-even. I then went in again with a lot more funds and started with a new average of around 4.25p. That very quickly doubled and I came out completely with a nice profit. I decided to go back in again for a quick trade, buying-in this time with my complete profits (plus a little extra) for what was to be a quick turnaround for 25% profit (hopefully), based on results of their PEN drilling programme results. Well, I was looking for a get-out level of 10p, but wow, there was 10.5p before results were announced. I thought ‘That will do nicely’, so I tried to deal…no luck, quote failure, tried again, same thing. I quickly checked the market size, which was 30,000 shares, reduced to market size and still found quote failure. The bid then ticked down to 9.5p and I thought ‘I’m not taking that’ and left it. Always expect the unexpected. Here I was patiently waiting for PEN figures, AST had stated that the find was ‘substantial’, confident my 10p would come soon. Then the share price starts to drop off, lower and lower, but not to worry as this has happened previously before good news. Then bang comes the unexpected (well to me anyhow) - rumours of a placing, strong rumours of a placing, the possibility of a need to raise $20million and a rumoured placing price of around 6p. Oh, don’t you just love hindsight? The placing news came (5p) and don’t I feel silly for not taking 9.5p? As I type, the bid is 5.25p. I’m sure I’ve read Blogs from a very sensible girl that states ‘take profits’ and ‘be flexible’! I now have to ‘expect the unexpected’ and start to take on board what she says as she really knows what she’s talking about. I’m sure 10p will be back, but it will take longer. In fact, it has (frustratingly) already taken much longer than I anticipated.