Member Info for Bonz1957

I consider myself to be too much of a chocoholic to buy that cheap brown muck. There should be a law to prevent that stuff even being called chocolate!! But i do buy my CDM and G&B's at Tesco. Don't let Tesco know but did weekly shop at Sains on Sat. Had a load of nectar points to use up after getting quadruple points on a laptop purchase. ATB.

Yesterday actually, 18/1.

I'm more of a staycation kind of guy, and my fave tipple would be ESB, 1845 or King Goblin. And i own part of a local brewery so never have far to travel for a decent drop. ATB.

Yes, of course it is. 10 years down the line when all of this is but a distant memory it will look pretty good. With me it is the overall total that is the important thing, not individual shares, and as my p/f is at an all time high i'm not complaining. ATB.

This has indeed gone ex-div today. The div of 67p is payable 17/2. ATB.

Looking forward to that beer already. ATB.

Agreed, we can only really comment from a perspective of experience. I could have chosen shares in my beloved Arsenal as a point in case of one that has risen steadily. But, few will have heard of it as a share, be tempted not to invest as it's not their team, or baulk at the £14,500 per share price - but it has served me very well over the years and is still rising. Agree about the possibility of moving elsewhere for even more losses, have done that myself once or thrice over the years, which is why i tend to stay put these days. Shares that have looked after me for 20-30 years deserve to be held onto in my view. My portfolio has sort of evolved over that period of time rather than been hand picked. Have bought into so many co's over the years that only the fittest have survived. The rest have been bought out, gone bust, or in THT's case dwindled away to virtually nothing!! Have always tried to divorce the business side from misgivings over a firm's customer service department. Even the best co in the world can have a pillock working for them. B.Gas gets ****ged off by everyone on a crusade over its complaints yet it has more customers, so a similar level of complaints produces the bigger head count. Am willing to bet more Ford cars break down than Renaults, but there are 10 times as many so only to be expected. Renault are probably the most unreliable though - although my 17 year old Espace has never missed a beat. Lies, damn lies and statistics. And i refuse to do surveys these days as they are always done with an ulterior motive. Give them an address, tel no. or email and you get spammed to death. I never deal with anyone who cold calls, either on the phone or at the door. Had a call from a very nice young girl today who wanted to introduce me to the investment opportunities of fine wine. She rapidly lost interest when i explained that the only wine i was interested in was one that could be drunk within 5 mins of getting it back from Tesco lol!! Still made a change from the usual calls which all seem to be trying to sell me carbon futures these days. Now WTF is that all about!!! I digress as usual, so forgive me, have spent the day ringing various council and government depts trying to sort out the M-I-L's affairs, refunds and benefits. The lack of anyone capable of implementing points raised in a simple letter is staggering. Even though letters were written two months ago and sent with certified copies of POA's, getting anything changed on their systems is slower than the slowest thing on planet Slow!!! Did read about Henderson, but thought it strange that it only appeared to be voting rights and not shares. Not sure if that was significant or not. Enjoy your broth and may all your reminiscences be pleasant ones. ATB.

Thought the meeting was Friday 13th, just a beer and a chat, but must have been good as it has had a positive effect on the sp. RNS Number : 4965V Capital markets event 13 January 2012: Stagecoach Group plc ("the Group") will today host an event for institutional investors and analysts in London. The event is intended to provide investors and analysts with an improved understanding of the Group's strengths and opportunities, and to give them an opportunity to meet the broader senior management team. The event will principally comprise a series of presentations by members of the Group's management. The presentations will commence at approximately 9:30 a.m. Copies of the slide presentations are now available from the Group's website, at http://www.stagecoach.com/investors/financial-analysis/presentations/2012.aspx No new material financial information will be disclosed and there will be no additional statement on current trading further to that included in the announcement on 7 December 2011 of the Group's results for the six months ended 31 October 2011.

Sorry, meant to say last two years for BT, as it's been fairly static for the last year. ATB.

You know my views on topping up, it's not something i would usually consider although i did do it with BP after the spill, and may consider again with Tesco as they are both too big to fail. Most co's with a dramatic slide never recover to former highs. The best averaging down usually achieves is to get to a point of break-even where you can justify not having sold at a loss. I would rather take the path of investing somewhere else to realise a profit there which would compensate for a loss elsewhere. For example you have said that you have managed to get to a point of break-even or a small profit on HMV and now if it does recover you will be well placed to reap the rewards. However if that extra money had been invested in say BT, which has done well over the last year, would you not have made more money there than the loss incurred on HMV. Maybe with a few sheets of A4 and a couple of pencils you could show me the reasoning behind your strategy, which i'm sure you'll agree is a million miles away from mine - such as it is!! Notice the sp here is still falling so would respectfully suggest that any top-up you may be considering is delayed for a while yet. Did your free 'survey' chocs materialise? ATB.

QE is spot on with her estimate as to the size of my tiny holding lol!! I think she's a wizard - or should that be a witch?? - with a calculator and scours posts for any info which might tell her how much you hold. I bought a lot of small holdings years ago and left them to stew for a while. I put the same investment into Tesco and THT, yet now my Tesco is worth over 70 times the value of my THT - which incidentally would not now buy me a decent hamper after dealing costs. ATB.

That is the $64,000 question. Some on here would have you believe that as it has fallen so low then it must be a good recovery stock. Others - mainly me - believe that a specialist chocolate shop on the high street has had its day and that things may not improve by much and may even fall further. Sorry to state the obvious, but i'm afraid it's a case of DYOR and best of luck with whatever you decide to do. For what it's worth, i would be very surprised if an investment into Tesco did not outperform any recovery here. ATB.

The AIM-listing of football club Tottenham Hotspur was cancelled this morning after the decision by the controlling shareholder to take the company private.

I could be wrong - and very often am - but it would depend on how you elect to take the Feb SCRIP dividend. Today 13/1 was the record date, with next Weds 18/1 being the last date to vary your election. I'm guessing that if you did buy today you would not have enough time to register for the SCRIP div, but as i've already said i could be wrong. Santander are a bit of an anomoly when it comes to divs. They issue 4 per year. They go ex-div on the day they are declared, and they currently offer 2 cash divs and 2 SCRIP divs a year. Plus, the picture is further clouded if you hold your shares via their SSA scheme, which gives you the option of taking all the divs as new shares and you earn interest on the cash balance held between divs. More information can be found here: http://www.santandershareholder.co.uk/financial-information/dividends/scrip-dividends1/ Confused?? You should be. I hold mine via their nominee SSA account. I take each of the divs as new shares, and i get an annual statement in Nov of my holdings, as well as an annual account statement in Apr showing what my cash balance is along with the interest i've earned each year. Hope this helps. ATB.

Not sure this board will still be here next week, so will the last one out turn off the lights!! ATB.

Less than 5 hours to get out. ATB

Possibly early March for 2011 y/e if last year is anything to go by. Nice to see them going up for once. ATB.

Don't think so. IMHO we may well be heading for 5p or worse. Divs almost certain to be cancelled, so only worth keeping for the money-off vouchers - but it's a long wait until the next batch of those arrive in Oct!! Great chocolate but failed business plan. Can't see them surviving on the High street for much longer. ATB.

Received mine as new shares today - all two of them!!! Every little helps. ATB.

Are you blaming 'cut and paste' for your Panda error over on BP lol. ATB.