Member Info for Alas_Smith

Yes, the results are decent with an increase in the dividend but investors tend to sell facts and buy rumours. Todays news will allow institutional investors to move assets around to ensure alignment of their portfolio and any adjustments in the ratio rules which they have in place. Private punters are less immediate in their response to news preferred to add when a share price is rising and sell when falling.

Of greater importance are institutional reviews and analyst opinion with information published today.

£1 - £1,50 / kg is my guess, so best case scenario is £100k revenue annually per unit. Assumes working at capacity 5 days each week with minimal downtime

Have added today on weakness. Whether we like it or not, the "stable genius" made no bones about his desire to walk away from NATO in his first term. This was re-inforced by Mr Vance last year and although the "Greenland" issue has been walked back, Europe is under no illusion that with an intellectual pygmy in high office, risk to defence is elevated. Politically the mood is changed in Europe and aside from the desire to ensure that the conflict in Ukraine is contained there is focus on and expansion to National Service. And that has to mean assured returns from defence companies, surely?

Of course, wars are won by men, morale and money which as Russia and Ukraine have 2 each, I do not foresee an early end to the Ukraine conflict.

Cummins of Indiana might be the S&P partner.

Mining seems to be in a super cycle so have bought some shares for elder son in his SIPP. His holding won't set the world alight or shift the price, but am gradually tweaking his portfolio (equally split between ISA and SIPP) to hold fewer equities in favour of investment trusts.

Ratboy1971, at the risk of repeating myself, companies grow either organically or through acquisition. There comes a point when organic growth cannot occur.

Markets behave like elevators…….but with lunatics at the controls.

The funny mentals are fine. Geo-political sentiment adds volatility to a dull company. I like dull.

No, driftking27, there is no evidence of a stock split and my comment was to assist a recent contributor to this bb with some basic information. You will notice that Ratboy mentioned splits and made a remark about a "friendly price". Hopefully, he is better informed now. It is easy to be critical of others, and schoolboy type errors to confuse the price per share as somehow being cheap or expensive if considered just at the mid price. An investment of £x remains at £x even if the stock consolidates or splits.

You and I both know that in the event of a split (or consolidation) that the only thing to change is the qty of shares held. I perhaps foolishly assumed that a more "friendly price" was to allow a greater qty of shares to be held.

I'm afraid that I didn't understand the relevance of % portfolio that RIO has for him in his ISA.

The rules on ISA permit sheltering of £20,000 each tax year AND the replacement of any cash withdrawn from the ISA during the SAME tax year.

Stock splits can be misleading. If the bald price per share is the judge that is used for the valuation of a company, then all that changes with a split is the qty of shares for the cash that an investor is willing to risk.

Any rise or fall in the value of RIO does not make the least difference to the value of an investment if the shares are split. £20,000 buys an awful lot of shares in a penny equity but not very many shares in RIO and just a few gold sovereigns. All could be considered on their own for investors but a mature portfolio is likely to have exposure to many asset classes including some speculative holdings

must confess that i always s****** at the thought that minority investors wish to "trade" individual equities and give the illusion that somehow they get it right. well. this investor has lost count of the number of times when have bought shares too early, sold too late, not sold, added to losses by averaging down and so my holding in whatever equity it is is considered no just on its own but also in context with the whole caboodle.

i've been fortunate in picking more winners than losers but for me my stake in rio is structural to have exposure to mining and infrastructure. every few months i adjust my portfolio. trimming some, augmenting others but trying to ensure that my portfolio grows and this it has done so that i can rely on a mix of dividends and stock movements for sufficient income to allow my wife and i to retire.

my first goal was to have £100k invested, then £1m, then that annual growth in the portfolio exceed salary by 3x, then income from portfolio to replace salary in retirement and the final goal is to die having exhausted or gifted the capital to my children. no expiry date in birth certificate so this is a bit of a stab in the dark and likely to be anything up to 30 years in execution.

Huge companies can only grow by acquisition. Talks, even if abhorted at least demonstrate to shareholders that growth remains in focus. Companies that have run out of ideas can only buy their shares back to grow MKT, return surplus cash to shareholders or do both.

I can certainly see more appeal for Glencore shareholders than RIO ones and the cynic in me feels that this is akin to a d!ck waving contest

‘fraid that whatever ramp you might have for another hat in the ring, RMV is the first point of call for the vast majority of buyers. Yes, they will explore other portals but if agents abandon RMV, they will have fewer enquirie. There is a direct correlation between enquiries, visits, offers, exchanges and completions. RMV remains the market leader and vendors tend to list their home with the agent with the most “under offer” and “sold” boards.

AI will open up things for buyers as, most don’t care who is acting as the agent, simply a property to buy.

Where AI will benefit matters is an overhaul of the conveyancing process that is rooted in the 19th century needs to be simplified and is, for the most part a sheet of A4 with a series of clauses. It should NOT take months to determine good title and cost thousands of pounds for what is actually involved.

Well, well, well that was an unexpected move insofar as Venezuela is concerned on Friday night to add some tailwind to defence equity shares and, now with US eyes on Greenland, the race is on to arm Denmark should the sovereign Danish territory be further threatened. Of course US foreign policy for the last 30 years has been a disaster and while Trump in his first term, indicated that US would withdraw from NATO, I had put it down to bluster and puffery.

My money is on Panama as the next acquisition and, if this is not checked in International Law, then I would not be surprised if Greenland, and by implication Europe, is embroiled in the dispersal of NATO and isolation of US on the world stage. Not convinced that US is a reliable ally from a defence perspective.

With each glimmer that talks of peace advance to compromise, so the market valuation for defence equities will fall. UK, Europe and the wider NATO excluding US have committed to their defence spend, but modern wars, like the vast majority in the past have been traditionally fought using with boots on the ground, and navies at sea. That is where the increased expenditure is expected to be with maintenance revenues for weaponry and the evolution of electronic warfare.

I hope that helps Tasdevil06, but it might help to explain why the SP for BAE, Rheinmettal, Thales and many others are declining. And, although I have increased my exposure to European defence stocks in an ETF, I am not yet ready to sell off my direct holding in BAE as the war in Ukraine is not over and, frankly doubt that a peaceful settlement will occur in the next 12 months. I dearly would like to be proved wrong on this latter point, but Mr Putin is not yet ready to concede political points or land captured.

The mantra, men morale and money win wars. Each side have 2 of the three crucial elements, hence this is going to be a long drawn out process.

Ah - 6'7", of medium height

I've trimmed my holding here as been making some structural changes to portfolio in recent weeks.

Following a review of portfolio last month am strengthening exposure to Defence. Time will determine wisdom or folly of decision.

AliveandKicking, it is never wrong to bank a profit and, of course, the market cap will rise and fall according to geopolitical risk. FWIW, I have added to my holding (prefer these days to average up) as defence will remain a hot topic for many years to come.

While Mr Trump who claims to be a brilliant negotiator, might believe he has ended wars, Putin is certainly not ready to consider peace and Zelenski (and much of Europe) find the proposals suggested by America for peace unacceptable. The Ukraine conflict is likely to last a few more years, with the complete destruction of towns, ruined land and tens of thousands killed, maimed or injured on each side.

The short term effect will be to both supply sufficient weaponry for Ukraine to survive AND replace depleted stocks in European NATO countries. The longer term defence of Europe has started with Germany in particular taking up the lead boosting the training of land force troops with conscription and it seems that France is following suit too.

Perhaps even our shambolic Government will sit up and take notice if matters escalate and the US withdraws further support of Europe. After all, defence spending as a proportion of GDP is half that at the turn of the century and the UK needs to boost the number of land based troops before it can start to train any National Servicemen/women.

Actually, even if conscription were introduced in the UK, I'm not convinced that there is sufficient patriotism for anything other than mild enthusiasm. Wars are won by men, morale and money.

Have bought a few shares today for elder son in his SIPP ; yes close to a high, but this is just a solid company where the shares can be tucked away in a drawer for a couple of decades and forgotten about. The share price might fall or rise in this time, but has rewarded this shareholder and even gives a small dividend every 6 months for good measure.

AI is not just about Nvidia. Look at Broadcom, Alphabet, Amazon and Microsoft for the direction that technology is going. Oh, and for good measure ASML is probably the VERY long term beneficiary of technology as, without the capability to make the machines that make the chips, advance will be stalled at worst or choked at best.

Mr Buffet felt that the best companies to invest in were those with the greatest moats. ASML fits that bill nicely.

Oh, and for the avoidence of doubt I own shares in ASML, Broadcom, Nvidia, Amazon, Alphabet and Microsoft plus ATT. I do NOT directly own shares in Meta, Apple or Tesla and cannot find a compelling case to suggest I alter opinion in the short term.

Investors expect markets that are forever changing, whether damp, overcast and still days, windy ones, bright and showery, solid sunshine - the fat lazy days we sometimes see, frosty ones that are crisp and brittle and others that are muddy and recovering. Some are investor induced but most are Geo-political. Thus, paying attention to politics and sentiment helps to smooth out the extremes.

For my money technology is a growth part of my investing financial future