Member Info for Alas_Smith

Elective surgeries are not able to be performed due to shortage of beds in ICU and, currently, surgeons through quarantine regulations. Earliest chance for a revival in revenue for TSTL is with 80% population fully vaccinated (currently on target for 70% by March) and with a consultant led initiative to deal with the backlog.

Cases presenting in A&E currently are serious and in the main are consequential in NOT receiving regular treatment at GP or triage level. Sure there are the same numbers of cases from slips and spills, strokes and heart attacks along with those running out of talent on the roads in the winter but the lack of beds as a result of the unvaccinated needing a few days hospitalisation means that elective surgery for Aunt Mabel and her dodgy hip can be put off as there is no immediate likelihood of death and as she has waited 3 years, another few months won't determine whether she lives or dies.

The GP network is poor, the doctors too eager to pass off patients to specialist care and a health service that is not equipped to cope on a local level with the calls that are made on it.

Stockready1 - FWIW, I am never averse to rises that exceed my targets! My long term average (since 1979) is compound growth of 13.54% but last year, despite my holding in RIO underwater and yet to break even. I managed growth over 16% . There are al;ways going to be poor years and thus far 2022 has started off very badly, however, in isolation this last week has given opportunity to pick up some decent shares at decent prices.

I have bought a new holding in XDWE and added to holdings in AFC energy and EZJ but have kept some cash aside for RIO to bring back in terms of cash exposed, my original holding value (2% portfolio) in case there is a pullback this month. Sadly January is always an expensive month as renewals fall due for both houses, cars , horses and motorcycles plus I need to begin to buy currency for skiing holiday that draws me to the mountains each February.

The 2020/21 tax year was the last where I could shelter the maximum amount for self and wife. The current tax year allowed me to filled one ISA completely but not both. Any losers picked now have no advantage in mitigating future taxation.

Somewhat paradoxically, the transition to a green economy needs miners but mining activity has a poor environmental image. Wind farms, solar panels, batteries all the good stuff that is being driven by legislation around the world needs raw materials. All fine and dandy to mine for the stuff, but the real problem lies in getting licences to expand mining activity and the cost in mitigation of the environmental impact that mining activity has on local communities. COP26 sharpened restrictions on mining in forests for instance.

For the green infrastructure, much will come from re-cycled material, but ores eill still need to be mined - copper, aluminium, iron are the obvious heavy grade stuff, but the real growth will be felt in mining for cobalt, nickel and lithium.

It is as important to know what each mined product is used to gauage the value of such item. Copper for wiring is the most sought after industrial metal and used in all electrical appliances for instance. Coking coal is needed for steel production, and mineral sands such as zircon, ilmenite and rutile are needed for most, if not all infrastructure.

RIO has licences to mine for all these products AND the capital to mitigate the environmental damage. As a business, growth will be from acquisition. As I see things, the dividend distribution will reflect any whiff of acquisition. The more it throws off by way of special dividend, the smaller the chance of expanding range of activity in buying other miners or seeking approval for new activity. The special dividends that we are receiving now reflect the expansion of past acquisitions, I believe. Accompanying notes in future statements will probably give better guidence for investors.

This is NOT a company that I expect to have rapid share price growth. I do expect to see a 100% return on investment through a mix of dividends and capital growth over the next 6 years to imply a 16% return. 2021 has seen a huge expansion of growth companies at the expense of "value" ones. With inflation in focus, 2022 has all the hallmarks of a financial shift to the value side of the see-saw.

Albermarle, I think they have a listing in UK as OHC7

Good to take advantage with a sharp drop in prices.... added some for elder son that will be transferred to his ISA in April

Unusual price reactions, particularly when against the broader market tend to be unsettling in isolation. I don’t subscribe to “tree shaking”, MM manipulation or “shorters out in force” type of comments. January generally sees quite a bit of fresh money entering the market and opportunity for adjustments in portfolio.

So, although ABC has been a growth holding (for me) and I am not ready to dispose of my holding at the moment, I am torn between value and growth throughout 2021 and, of course now in 2022. Yesterdays strong rise was led by airlines; the next leg up might be something else, but healthcare and technology are key areas for long term future uplift for MY portfolio. Had I not been fully invested,I might have been tempted to add a few yesterday taking advantage of unusual weakness.

While I enjoyed the joke (very 1970's), in all seriousness we face a new year with different optimisms and thoughts that are presented. On the plus side, we have several viable vaccines that are well tolerated and appear (as far as UK, Europe and US are concerned) to have been fully rolled out (2 x vaccine) to around 70% adult population and have around 30% with a booster jab. With the measures in place that make it rather more difficult for the not fully vaaccinated to live an unfettered lifestyle and with the mutation in place that has high viability but with lower mortality, I am pretty certain that the worst is now behind us and the emphasis will be to consolidate.

Consolidation for long established and well capitalised companies gives opportunity to cut out the fat. For companies struggling, time to start again and for a few, the opportunity to cherry pick those in both camps and cutting the excess at a later date. This bodes well, I believe for BEG.

While company failures are always disappointing with many more losers than winners, re-structuring , although costly has many more winners PROVIDED that the underlying business (not necessarily the managers) is viable.

Each Xmas break allows me to review without the pressure of work or market movements, my portfolio as a whole. Not the individual elements, but all of it. For me, the bulk is in ISA wrapper, split between self and wife. The next largest holdings are our SIPPs and general dealing account followed by a trust that was created in 2015 for IHT planning and that starts to fall out of our estate from the middle of next year.

The target that I have is to beat the market, which for the FTSE was 14.3% last year. I did, and added 16.54% to bring my average to 13.53% each year for the last 41 years. Plenty of holdings struggled in 2021, with many going backwards. Good luck to all in 2022. I doubt I will contribute much to debate in the future.

Since I seem to be the only contributor to this board, with a new year ahead, it seems a good time to cease.

Good health and fortune to all.

Bought another chunk on 21st following the sale of half my holding in MTE. Time will tell the wisdom of this, but this is a well managed company with down to earth managers. Price paid was 17.31052

I trimmed my holding in half on 21st as I believe that the trust is fully priced for now and it will allow profits to run. I've bunged the proceeds into XDWE and HILS, the former because it addresses the tech imbalance in US and the latter for long term capital growth and infrastructure investment.

Mr Market is enthused with the resignation of the senior bean counter.

Computerisation has gone down the route of being powerful local dumb terminals and with that, the potential for criminals to exploit vulnerability increases. I’ve added a few more this week.

As a shareholder, I applaud all news. It means that my holding in battery companies such as Varta, are better assured than before. That the deal has different acclaim to RIO is unimportant.

HL are, too all intents and purposes a fund supermarket that specialise in peddling open-ended pooled investments. Insofar as their analysis of equities goes, it is for the most part poor, but it is not really their area of expertise.

I have already disclosed that my holding in IBST is underwater, yet all the evidence SHOULD point to a rising share price based on what has been reported in the press, so something is wrong somewhere, but I am struggling to discover it. Now, I have no inside knowledge and my only interest is based on the balance sheet and P/L accounts so there has to be something that is either buried in the notes or I have overlooked.

New builds sold in droves last year and even those in my local area (Shropshire/Herefordshire/Radnorshire border) were snapped up in the days and weeks of release. So I look at the chart for a little guidence on future direction. It is just going sideways since its precipitous fall in 2020. At least at this time of the year, I am able to take a leisured look at all my holdings so that I can get rid of the dead wood and trim back the leggy stuff. Just from the bald numbers, the SP has dropped 17% since August and, no matter what sort of greenwashing is spewed out by the current set of managers, this is a company that is either ripe for takeover or needs a kick up the backside to breath some life into the share price.

Bricks are not innovative. Houses are getting smaller. it should not be too difficult to work out the number of bricks sold to each major housebuilder and use that to establish pricing based on their average house sale. And although one builder might have an average £700,000 selling price, others might be at £300,000. Without an outside skin.....

Hmmmm.....dividend has yet to be paid into my account. Bit rummy.

The SARS variants that present as Covid 19, (Delta and Omcron) will, I suspect, be with us for many decades with domination in strain through further mutation. UK, Europe and US are, I suspect at an inflection point to being able to claim herd immunity in the next 6 months. Herd immunity allows disease to spread without imposition to liberty as there is reduced impact as a result of vaccinisation and those that have recovered from exposure to virus.

So, although RFX might not set the world alight, downside influences are receding. I am preparing to add more to my avcount

The Market read these as flat.

While I am sure that your "research team" has much to commend itself, you are domestic in your choice of audience and will not attract interest that will actually move the market.

I am not going to bother to click on your link, preferring to follow my own counsel and rely on contributors such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley for their opinion on how the SME is likely to fare in the weeks and months ahead.

That aside, I have added to my holding in Begbie, not from the new information but through common sense. Zombie companies are expected to fail , but where economies begin to revive, so those that are at the top end of the M in the SME inclusion are the most vulnerable. What they ideally want is a market that is flat for organic recovery. These companies have the least effective managers with the flabbiest of thought. It is based on years of failure to evolve with minimual investment in innovation.

RMG is a good example and an excellent container. Captive monopoly of delivery, mature process for this, late upgrade to innovation, terrible management and a product that has never evolved since creation.

Well..... very much as anticipated. The price of these long dated gilts is bouncing around like an ecxtasy fuelled spacehopper . No wucking furries; the pitiful payments roll in on time and are set to increase. 2044 is at the point where I will be rather more active in my planning for succession. This is an instrument that has many advantages in the inevitable

No evidence of a Santa Rally for this year, though there are few days to go.

Weather in Mongolia is extreme in summer and winter, the latter is freezing, occasionally seeing temperatures of -50° and ferocious in the summer with temperatures in the mid to upper 30's°

I think it is the 2nd largest landlocked country in the world.