Member Info for Bonz1957

Hello you, hope you are well. Thanks for popping in as it gets quite lonely here now that Aunty has gone. Think the squirrel analogy fits my investment stlye rather well, have left a few of mine buried that have now turned into trees and produce their own acorns!! Keep an eye on the HMV board and read your posts over there, but now that pash seems to have gone it's turning into the UTC/Cherry show lol!! Seems HMV and THT have joined the ranks of the great unloved retailers, not sure i see a great deal of hope for either of them :(o. As for me i've picked a great week to try and dig out holes for some gate posts and repair a broken drain - it's sheeting down here in W London - so will have a quiet afternoon and watch something off the planner. ATB.

It was no great 20/30 year plan to make a fortune it was just the way things worked out, had money to save and bought shares and left them to grow. Have been involved in quite a few FTSE re-traces over the years - Dec'99 6930 down to Jan'03 3567 - but instead of panicking left everything in place and hoped one day it would return. Not a brilliant strategy as anyone with even the smallest amount of knowledge would have sold out on the way down and bought back in at a lower price on the way back up, and made a great deal more than i have. No discipline at all, just laziness and ignorance lol!!! But never had the time to follow things that closely, and always steered clear of the fashionable 'get rich quick' and 'the next big thing' shares which usually turned out to be all hype. Bit like a squirrel who spends all the autumn hiding nuts in the hope he remembers where he has put enough of them to see him through the winter. I wouldn't necessarily recommend what i have done to anyone, but i would urge people to tuck away a portion of their funds into a good yielding solid FTSE 100 stock - possibly one of the utilities - re-invest their dividends and allow it to grow over time. All the best with your future investing. As for THT can't see any real good news for them in the current climate unless they can make serious inroads into the supermarkets, maybe they will dwindle into an online company because i really can't see where a potential takeover would come from. ATB.

Evolution Group has attracted potential bid interest from more than one party, according to Lord MacLaurin, the City grandee who has returned to the board of the UK stockbroker as it assesses its future. Shows how wrong i was, but still a long way to go to get back to the 140-150p last seen two years ago. ATB.

Totally agree. Spot on M8!! ATB.

Spent my sixth form days with a mate working out to become rich. We wanted to become names at Lloyds as it was a sure fire way to makiing a fortune back in those days before it all went wrong. But it was never going to happen as you had to well connected and be asked to join a syndicate. So we decided to buy shares instead and one of my first purchases was part of BP which was sold off in 1977. With all of the subsequent share splits and capitalisation issues think my base cost for those shares is now around 35p. Pity most of my subsequent share purchases haven't performed as well!! With only a few small purchases during later sell-offs and RI's and taking all of my divs as new shares BP is now one of my biggest holdings both in terms of number of shares and total value, a prime example of how a decent share - recent foul-up excluded - with a good yield taken as shares can grow exponentially over time. I have only ever bought around 4000 but now have nearly 10 times that number, with each quarterly dividend now producing approx 400 new shares!! Not trying to big myself up - that really isn't my style and i very rarely tell anyone on here exactly what my holdings are - just wanted to show how things can grow over time. The beauty of holding long term is that you are not as affected by the falls as new investors or those that only ever hold for a short time. Yes i am down, but not as far down as i have been, and way up on my starting point. Also by holding what some would regard as boring slow moving safe stocks, my falls are roughly in line with the FTSE falls and not the much larger falls seen on some of the 'Boom' stocks that were all hype in the first place. You pay your money and take your choice with this game. You either put your money in a safe account and know than down the line you will have something invested, or you spend it all on lottery tickets and the 3.15 at Chepstow and hope for that big win. Some people are lucky, most are not, so i've taken the cowards way and built a safe portfoilio. ATVB with what you decide.

My you were up early today, or had you just got got back in after a nights looting lol!!! It kicked off in Ealing last night only 5 miles away, dark days indeed!! Not good news on the markets and another bad opening today. You know my strategy - such as it is - so will just monitor the falls, look at the lines on my graphs, and wait for the rebound. But as you say those with cash will be able to take advantage of these prices. ATB.

Perhaps they're building a cashpile to pay for all the phone and pc hacking lawsuits that will come their way when the current market turmoil subsides and people remember how the story was unfolding. We only have to wait until Friday for the Interim results, but expect them to show further falls in ad revenue, and i wouldn't advise holding your breath waiting for a resumption of the dividend. ATB.

If things get any worse, which i'm sure they will, then everybodys price targets will become more likely. Then everybody buys back in, the FTSE rises and we all live happily ever after. Sorted!! ATB.

Of course if you are a lover of chocolate and Thorntons then you could consider a small investment here. As well as a decent yield - for as long as it lasts - you also get a sheet of money-off vouchers with the annual report that you can use in any Thorntons. But please DYOR before investing here as there has been poor trading reports and profit warnings recently which have impacted on the sp, as you can see from the recent graphs. ATB.

Thank you for your few kind words. My knowledge - such as it is - is born out of what has worked for me in the past and may be of no use to you. I bought my first share in 1975 - when i was 18 - and continued adding until the late 90's, although i almost always take up RI's and always if offered take divs as new shares, so my portfolio continues to grow. All of my holdings bar 2 are in paper form, which makes quick dealing impossible, so am considered a dinosaur by most on here!! I always considered my shares as my pension fund, so not interested in continually changing holdings or day trading as i didn't have the time. Over the years i have roughly split my investments 50/50 between shares and unit trusts, using UT's to invest in areas that i would otherwise not have had access to. Made useful gains in the early days of the dot.com bubble, and more recently switched to Emerging Markets and China, again with some success, so would suggest you look at those as a way of diversifying. I retired in my late 40's and have what i consider to be enough to last me and my family to the grave!! As and when i need the money i will start selling off my stocks and UT's, getting rid of the poorly performing and low yielding ones first. Enough about me and on to your question. There are an infinite number of types of investor, ranging from me - with my buy it and keep it for life strategy - to those who monitor every 0.1p move, and those that buy penny shares on AIM looking for the next big thing. Somewhere in amongst all of those will lie your good self. Personally i cannot fault your strategy or choice of shares, it has worked for me. Other good yielders would be NG and the utilities, and if it gets it act together soon BP. I would hesitate to recommend individual shares to you, that is not my style, and there is always someone out there who claims to know more and will disagree, sometimes quite unpleasantly. Some advice i would offer however is that where offered i would always suggest you take your divs as new shares, via a DRIP or SCRIP. With a yield of 6% your holding will double in size in about 12 years at no extra cost to you, so even if the increase in sp has only been modest over that time you will have seen your investment at least double. And, spread your risk. The more areas you are invested in, the more chance you have of picking a winner. Have seen some major falls and recoveries in my time so am not unduly worried at the moment. FTSE stocks have fallen recently, but most by not as much as some of the AIM ones who are all froth and hype. Unless you are the luckiest person on the planet, or have your own crystal ball, don't get too hung up on trying to get in at the bottom or out at the top. Buy when you have the cash to spare and when you think a share represents good value, some you will get right, some you won't, but, if you hold long term, then 10-15 years down the line 5-10p here or there won't make much difference. ATB.

Not sure we have any chance of a takeover to rescue this one. THT is no Cadburys, and i can't really see Kraft, Mars or Nestle desperate to add this to their portfolio!! There is no other confectionery manufacturer with high street shops, so if there was a takeover IMHO it would result in THT disappearing from the high street and being stocked in the big supermarkets and sold online. But do agree with you that they are overpriced. Remember Manganese Bronze (the maker of the London Taxi) is the largst british owned car manufacturer, but i don't see people queuing up to buy them!! Are you any relation to 'Sideshow' ?? ATB.

Wise words indeed. Have been in the market since 1975 so have seen a couple more reversals than you, but eventually it returns. My advice, FWIW, is to invest in safe FTSE100 stocks which ride the waves better than the AIM 'this-will-be-the-next-big-thing' punts, take the divs as new shares (which means that when the sp drops your div buys more shares), and look long term. A share with a yield of 6% which offers a DRIP or SCRIP will double in size in around 14 years. So even if the market or the sp never returns to it's original high your increased holding will be worth more in the long term. ATB.

After yesterdays speck of blue THT has decided to join the rest of the market and head south!! Nice while it lasted. Share graph now beginning to resemble a ski slope. Where's the bottom?? ATB.

Not likely to rise any further in this falling market until we find out if this third party interest actually leads to a bid. Unfortunately in this current climate any offer could be less than we may have received even a week ago. ATB.

This one - so far - refusing to fall any further despite carnage and mayhem in the markets in general. Maybe this has reached the bottom and all of the talk of 300p was just that. Then again WTFDIK!! ATB.

It may be all doom and gloom in world markets but THT and CPR are two specks of blue in a sea of red - funny old world!! ATB.

This is going to be a bumpy ride......!!

But not for long.......

Now now children, learn to play nicely together!!

The dividend has been raised by 20% to 23.28p, and the company has also announced a £750 million share buy-back.