Member Info for Bonz1957

Only bought into this in early june, re-investing some of my profits from the sale of shares in another football club, so only need another 11% from here to b/e. Didn't think this could fall much further, and once Spurs finally give up any hope of moving into the Olympic Stadium and get on with building their own and then start to reap the rewards of 60,000 crowds IMHO this will fly. If Arsenal have an mcap in excess of £800 million, or 9 times that of Spurs, then surely there has to be room for growth here. Lets just hope that we are still onboard for the ride when it happens and that Levy hasn't sold us all out in a takeover only worth say £120 million, where the new owners take all the profit!! ATB.

Is he/she a friend of yours?? Seemed a rather out of place post on here BWTFDIK!! Still munching choccy treats but not too many of them are Thorntons - shame :( Good news from BP at last, are we due a rise in the div?? Been away a fair bit recently so not had the chance to read up on everything. Still trying to get my head around big companies doing very well and the prospect of countries going bust!! What will it all mean in the long term?? Should i get out of the markets and hide the proceeds in Kruggerands under the bed?? ATB.

Are you looking for suggestions???? ATB.

Nice 11% rise today, does somebody know something?? Glad i didn't sell out on your last recommendation, though still a long way from b/e!!

Just pop into any store for your free smile, i'm led to believe they are on offer by the till. And are on offer up to Xmas so plenty of opportunities to grab a handful. Maybe if i collect enough i can use them as a Xmas pressie for someone - who said Scrooge??? LOL!!! Glad to hear you are doing OK on EO, all of mine are a bit of a mixed bunch at the moment. If you left me in charge of your shares you know exactly how many i would sell - none!! That's not my style. Hope you're having a fun break, the weather in N Devon has been a bit of a mixed bunch so not as much gardening done as i would have liked, but I've a bunch of workmen on my roof putting the finishing touches to my solar panel system, so at least one of my objectives has been achieved on this visit. ATB.

Pop into your local Thorntons for a free Chocolate Smile. It may only be the size of a 2p coin, but it's chocolate and it's free - so enjoy!! ATB.

You've got me well and truly pegged. I am the absolute master at getting a good deal with my vouchers and money off coupons. I don't buy anything without checking all the voucher sites for money off coupons or discount codes. Have also recently discovered Cashback sites. What an absolute doddle. You get paid for buying all sorts of things through their sites, so when i find the cheapest place to buy something i then buy it through a cashback site and save even more. Best buy recently was my car insurance, shopped around to find Fully Comp for £110, then got £75 cashback by using Quidco - 1 years car insurance for £35!!! Am off to the wilds of Devon tomorrow for two weeks so will pop on as and when i can. As we've just had the worst quarter since the bursting of the Dotcom bubble i'll leave things in your more than capable hands. See what you can do about nursing the FTSE back up above the 5500 level, and i promise i'll be nice to the next Thorntons shop assistany i bump into lol!!! ATB.

You've obviously not taken todays absolute hammering too badly as you're still talking to one of them 'soft southerners!! As for your strategy, well if it works for you then that's all that matters. As you know only too well my strategy is not in any text book and i'm sure i would be held up to ridicule by most posters on here. The trouble is a lot of people are trying to chase that all elusive fortune, trying to find the next multi-bagger, looking to make £50-£100 on every trade by being glued to the screens and making a buck on every 0.1p rise or fall. There are an awful lot more successful people than me out there. Think how much Netley, or you or thistle could have made by being active in the market with the funds i have had to invest in the past. The difference being i always saw my purchases as savings more than i did investments. I like to think of myself as a Squirrel burying all of spare nuts when times were good. Then when i come to dig them up some have rotted or vanished, ie Railtrack, most have survived to make a nice meal and a few have taken root, grown into trees and are producing more nuts than i could eat in a month of Sundays, ie BP, BT, BG and all its offspring, and NG!!! What type of animal are you?? If you can buy and sell Lloyds at a profit, then reinvest at a lower price - ie getting more shares for the same money - then do it again, then i would say that was a job well done. If you have been able to trade and make money out of a falling HMV sp then that is great. One thing i have learned is that you will always find some so called expert who will try to tell you that they could have done better, but as long as you are happy with your results then that is all you can ask. IF i have managed, as much by luck as by judgement to have amassed £1 million and am happy with my lot then it matters not if you could have made £2 mill, or Netters £4 mill. The average age of my 3 cars is over 19 years, and i wouldn't change any of them for a shiny new one, even though i could afford to. Hope you enjoy your break, it's a country i would like to visit one day as i rather enjoy their fortified wine. Have a ride on 'The Big One' if that's what you enjoy, i love the climb as you look out to sea and then break right and dive along the seafront. I'm still a big kid, even at my age!! Am off down to Devon for 2 weeks mainly to arrange for Solar Panels to be fitted to the house. The Government are being so generous with their 'Feed In Tarrif' that it would be rude not to bite their hand off. Have probably missed all of the good weather, but it will make a change to renovating the house up in town. Seems way too early to wish you a Merry Xmas and a Prosperous New Year but i will, i usually wait until at least Dec 20th before thinking about festivities!! ATB.

Forgot to say i've just come back from a trip to see the M-I-L in Barnsley, about as close as i get to you these days, and taking your advice on board decided to treat myself to a Thorntons ice-cream while out shopping. Well!!! Not 100% impressed!!! The 'Choc Heaven' ice cream was stunning, which is more than i can say for the service. The surly aged shop assistant - obviously suffering from the heat wave we've all been experiencing - told me my first choice Vanilla was off, there were no double cones and no choice of 'two free sprinkles' "cos they're finishing ice cream next week and were running the stocks down". Hum!!! That's when i dreamt up the 'using money off vouchers to buy gift vouchers' scam to get my own back!!! ATB.

Here's an interesting little trick you can try when your vouchers arrive. It says on the voucher that they are accepted against ... 'confectionery (including the purchase of gift vouchers). So you could go in and buy a £20 Gift Voucher for £15 and a £5-off voucher. You could then go back the next day and buy £25's worth of choc and use the £20 Gift Voucher and another £5-off voucher. Effectively getting £25's worth of choccy for only £15!!!

Spot on with your estimate of my holding here, so you'll appreciate that this doesn't form a huge slice of my funds. Now how about guessing the no of BP's i have?? There are cheap ways of dealing in paper shares, one of them is to sell them through the registrars. With one of the big ones as long as you don't need them sold on a particular day and are happy to wait for the next 'batch' date then it's free!! The misses thinks i'm having yet another affair 'cos of the name change, but i keep telling her that CO2 and QE are one and the same!! You know i'm a one woman man - well one at a time anyway :) lol!!! ATB.

Don't have any sell targets as i'm an unusual type of investor. Invested years ago, mainly during the privatisations of the 80's and 90's, to provide me with a pension pot that i had control over - i'm not a fan of conventional pensions with the limitation of having to take an annuity, etc. So what i have now is a collection of investments - both directly in shares and indirectly in Unit Trusts - that i can sell as and when the money is required to fund my retirement. I do not have the time, or knowledge, to constantly monitor every movement on over 100 different investments so i have what i have. As and when the time comes to sell something i will weed out the poorly performing and those that do not pay a div first, and leave the rest for another day. On that basis i do not think IMHO that BG will be anywhere near the top of the list. I know my investment syle would not sit well with the majority of investors on here who seem to be constantly chasing the extra 0.5p, averaging down, guessing the next move, etc, but it works for me. I had more than enough in the pot to fund a lenghty retirement - i retired in my late 40's - when the market dipped below 4000 back in Mar'09, so am reasonably happy with current levels. I am old enough to remember the 50% slide in the FTSE from Dec'99 to Jan'03 so nothing too much worries me these days. What are your plans, long term hold or sell for a profit if it gets to 1600p?? ATB.

My next batch of discount vouchers has arrived in today's post, but only one set this time. The envelope has 'Delivered to wrong address' written on it so i'm glad someone put it back in the post or i'ld have missed out!! Now i'm wondering what alse might have been mis-delivered :( A better couple of days in the markets but i'm sure it will be short lived as the next crisis is surely only just around the corner. Can't remember a time where the market has swung so wildly for so long, up 400 points one week then down again the next. ATB.

An Ex-Gooner scoring the goals, Spurs rising up the Prem, yet this sp continues to fall. Where next?? Sub 40p?? Tottenham desperately need a new stadium. Especially as Arsenal could attract over 10,000 more bums on seats for a Carling Cup game vs Shrewsbury than Spurs could attract for the Prem game vs Liverpool!! Even more remarkable when you realise season ticket holders did not have a voucher for the game!! When is Levy going to wake up, abandon ever more desperate legal appeals to gets his hands on the Olympic stadium and build one in Tottenham where the fans want it??

Had a good result at the footy yesterday so broke out the cava when we got back - makes a change!! As for diversification, i've found it's as much about looking at different ways to invest just as much as it is about looking for different shares. On the shares side i have quite a few defensive stocks, fags, utilities, telecoms, etc that are not so affected by market downturns, as well as providing very good divs. But i also have roughly the same amount that i have in shares invested in Unit trusts. With the exception of Japan and USA i have coverage of just about every other region in the world, with China and Emerging markets doing very well for me over the last decade. With phone and car usage growing at exponential rates in places like India and China, i can have access to the markets via experienced fund managers that i would not be able to achieve by buying the individual shares myself. I've also found it easier, and usually cost free, to switch investments with investment companies from say Europe to Russia, or Far East to Special situations. By monitoring fund values regularly i can switch out of a poorly performing area into an area that is doing better just as easily as changing a share. There is always an area that is outperforming the markets in general, so the more areas i am in the more chance i have of piggy-backing a fund managers expertise. Over the last 3 or 4 years my UT's have far outperformed my individual shares, maybe i've been lucky, but these guys seem to know a lot more than i ever will so i'm more than happy to pay them their 3-5%. It's also a hell of a lot easier to do CGT calc's when you only have an initial contract note to worry about!! Talking of Lloyds how did you get on with your relative?? who had a load, did they get out before the recent drops?? Hope i didn't ramble on for too long. ATB.

I'll keep it short then!! Speak later after the footy. ATB.

You burning the midnight oil as well, i don't know you youngsters seem to have so much stamina!! If you have managed to stay awake whilst reading my last two posts to you then you will have a pretty good idea of where i'm coming from. Probably not an investment strategy i'ld recommend but it has worked for me. I've probably told you all of this before, but you know how forgetfull us oldies get. Am currently up in the London house - like to keep a small pad in the capital!! - doing some much needed renovation to the place as No 1 daughter is on a placement year from Uni and working in Fulham. Up here there is not a local THT's that i can pop into, whereas there is - for now anyway - one in my local shopping centre in Barnstaple. That's way down south for you, where we while away the days sat on stone walls giving the wrong directions to passing grockles - we know how to have a good time!! My reading of things was that the closure of the 180 would be sooner rather than later. Apart from the odd one-off, and there is an absolutely brilliant hand-made choccy shop next-door to our fave chippy in Instow, there are not a lot of specialist choc shops on the high street. Maybe thats because there is no real call for them. You can call me an old cynic if you like, 'cos i am an old cynic, but - to use one of my daughters fave sayings - what's the point!! I do hope they survive, and purely from a financial point of view hope they make a positive contribution to the growth of my portfolio. Another concert, surely not. Thought that was last night?? Are you down in London for a while?? I know it would be very dangerous or awkward or difficult to arrange but it could be fun to meet and have a drink. I would be the one with the Zimmer!! I'ld also bring the wife as i wouldn't want to be jumped on - brittle bones and all that!! Talking of seeing concerts on consecutive nights, went with a huge Queen fan to see them at Wembley, probably late 80's, absolutely brilliant night - 'we will rock you' era. Loved it so much we bought restricted view seats for the next night. OMFG they were front row at the side of the stage. When he walked to edge during the show we were within touching distance. The man was a GOD, i wanted to have his children. I have so many memories from way back then but can't remember what i did yesterday!!! Who are you??? Goodnight. ATVVVB.

Sorry taken so long to reply, had to get me bag emptied and the embalming fluid topped up lol!! As you know i hold about 60 shares and have a read on most when time allows, and contribute when someone asks a question or something is happening. I know only too well my limits so there are some boards that i have never commented on as they're inhabited by people who would chew me up and spit me out in little pieces!! I also tend to ignore boards where i only have a small financial commitment, as i went through a period of diversification where i bought a lot of small holdings around £300-500, some have paid off but a lot didn't. Two boards where i do post regularly are here and MWH where i found a couple of posters with whom i can have a good natter. Although it's hard to keep up with the changes sometimes, people seem to disappear only to re-appear as their evil twin lol!! I would never ever dare offer advice to someone who appears from their posts to be more researched and clued up than i've ever been - that would be you - BUT i would always advise people to diversify as much as they can. I have made my views on averaging down to a few people here and have seen nothing yet to change my mind. Take your HMV or wag7's MWH for example, both of you have almost blind faith in the share and have continued to buy on the way down in an attempt to reach break even. Maybe you have, but all you have achieved is break even. You need a big rise to make any money. My point has always been that it is better to spread your risk, buy into something else and try to make a profit there to offset your losses elsewhere. My records are so incomplete it is almost impossible for me to work out what some of my original purchase prices were or even when!! Between the early 1990's and about 2005 i was so busy with work that every thing was thrown into bankers boxes - only the div chq's being recorded for HMRC - and it wasn't until 2005/6 that i had the time to work out what i actually had. I had heard over the years news of FTSE falls and assumed that my nest egg had gone and was actually racked with guilt about how much i might have lost that i was almost too scared to look. But when i did i had quite a pleasant surprise. Fortunately for me i had invested quite a lot into BP and what people generally call the defensive stocks, utilities etc, which had done very well for me. The one thing i did learn over the years, having my own Ltd Co and being VAT registered was how to (legally) avoid tax, something i'm rather good at. So now i can keep my CGT sales to a level where i can stay under the radar and don't need to know my base cost. And as we no longer work we can also keep enough cash on deposit to make sure we make the most of our personal allowances and that all of our accounts earn the gross rate. People with low mortgage rates have it far too easy for far too long!! Us savers need a break!! Rant over Aunty, off to bed. ATVVB.

Hello to you too. Looks like your m/e BP guess is going to be closer than mine!! No, not a great day out there. It's been a funny market since the steep fall to 4936 on 9/8, swinging wildly between 5000 and 5400. There seems no end to the bad news out there - bit like my footy team - and i for one would not be at all surprised to find us around 4500 at y/e which would represent an almost 25% fall from where we started the year. The only hope for shares is the huge dicotomy between the fortunes of business on both sides of the pond, and those of entire nations at the moment. We have companies reporting record growth and countries on the point of bankruptcy. It's a funny old world!! Certainly hoped to be proved wrong on my thoughts for y/e or certain people will be jumping on my back again accusing me of influencing the markets - as if!! The only spot of blue in my portfolio today is MCB, producer of own label household products, bought out of sentiment as both myself and my sister used to work for them back a while, seemed as good as reason as any to buy them. ATB.

Can't say i'm a great lover of this incarnation of someone who i enjoyed sharing the odd rambling post with in days gone past. If you're intent on picking a fight you'll have to go elsewhere, as i'm not interested. Everybody is allowed their own opinion and i'm merely expressing mine. Time will tell who is closer to the truth with this one but i don't expect to see any big rises any time soon. As for my Lloyds well that dates back to the flotation of TSB and having invested heavily in the RI's my b/e is not very far away from where the sp is now. These days i'm only interested in what the overall total is and not the fortunes of individual shares, even after todays fall there is plenty in the pot to see me through my retirement. I was more then happy when i retired in my late 40's and was not unduly worried when the FTSE dipped below 4000 in Mar'09. So any talk of your **** shares are worth less than they were whenever is rather pointless. In the 120 years i've been holding shares - as i'm really old aren't i?? - you sometimes learn things. One of the things i've learnt is that not everything that falls turns the corner to rise Phoenix like once again. I remember i took some flack over on HMV when it was 20p for suggesting it was a failed retailer going nowhere. It appears to have bottomed out now at 5p, maybe it will rise again and maybe it wont. Similar story with LMR, i took flack at 15p and it's now 2.4p!! Some things never recover, i know i've had a few over the years, and some people see it as a personal attack on them if someone criticises a share they hold. Hope you enjoyed your Avril Lavigne concert at HMV Hammersmith, I saw dozens of my favouite bands there in the 70's and 80's when it was the Hammersmith Odeon. Avril is not my cup of tea, and neither is Doris as i'm sure you're well aware as you're not that much younger then me!! Anyway, as ever i wish you all the very best in your share dealing, may all of your holdings double in value and may you also be blessed with being able to retire early enabling you to devote your time to the things in life that really matter. As worrying about every 0.5p rise and fall and arguing with people who hold different views are most definitely not. ATB.