Member Info for Bonz1957

* Rbs raises Persimmon PLC price target to 475P from 395P, rating 'hold'. Rbs today also rose its price targets and ratings for Barratt, Bellway, Bovis, Berkeley and Taylor Wimpey. Nice to see a bit of good news for the nations housebuilders for a change. ATB.

Tuesday Jan 11......JP Morgan raises Trinity to overweight from neutral. Maybe there's life in this yet. Was on the point of selling this after last years poor performance. Might just hold this for a while longer and see where it goes. ATB.

Well spotted, with that positive trading update let's hope they see fit to re-instate the dividend. The Group will release its 2010 Preliminary Results on 3 March 2011. The change of name certainly seems to have had an amazing effect on the sp. Wonder if it would work on some of my other poorly performing shares!!

It all depends on which of the two main house price indices you favour. Personally I prefer the Nationwide over the Halifax as the analysis is more detailed, with seasonal and regional variations. And to a large extent of course it depends where you live. I own two houses, one in London the other in Devon, two regions that are faring better than most, both seeing rises in 2010. The first of your Telegraph articles specifically mentioned Persimmon as doing well, boosted by building family homes rather than the now unpopular apartment blocks. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/constructionandproperty/8250325/House-prices-why-its-not-all-doom-and-gloom.html With yesterdays upbeat trading statement, and the recent re-instatement of the interim dividend paid recently, hopefully this share is not currently overvalued and can push on to higher levels. While not entirely cushioned from the general effects of the housing market, they are in the new homes sector which, as their results show, is performing well. ATB.

Maybe we've scared everyone else away. Reckon we have the highest average word count per post of any board on LSE. Perhaps we could take the Choppy/Bonz roadshow to other boards. What else are you in? I'm big into utilities. As long as we avoid the heavily posted penny-share ones we should be OK. ATB.

Ah, all the best people were born in '57 lol!! To go paperless I would have to sell everything and then buy it back, two sets of dealing charges for no great benefit. I'm a collector, a hoarder of shares bought many years ago. I've never been an active trader and it's years since I bought anything new. Occasionally I am forced to sell, Cadburys being the most recent and being a t/o no dealing charges. I do participate in RI's, the most recent ones being NG, NEX and LLOY, all have performed well. As I have enough in shares any recent purchases have tended to be in Unit Trusts, with some success in China and Em Mkts. Am looking forward to being in Devon permanently as I will have access to 2 Thorntons within easy reach and hassle free parking. May go large on the cream teas but will definitely leave the cider to the Mrs, she likes it orange and lumpy!! To me it just tastes like vinegar which I can't stand. Yes I am a Tesco holder - sp gone no-where for ages - and was unaware clubcard vouchers could be used for whisky tours, mmm!! I use my vouchers for RAC membership and magazine subscriptions for the family and have 'doubled up' any others. You're correct I'm not in HMV, just saw it on the losers board, had a look at the chart history and felt the need to post. Sorry, bit naughty of me, wasn't gloating as I too have shares with a history of falling off a cliff, just questioned the rationale of investing now in a company with such a poor record. But am sure most people have done their research and believe it has a future. I wish you and all the others the very best of luck. You're correct in having me down as a Basil Fawlty type of guy, with a huge slice of Victor Meldrew thrown in. Am quite laid back and content , but I do not suffer fools gladly!! Wow, what a knowledge of whisky, although adding an 'e' is the Irish kind - I'm quite partial to Bushmills Black Bush after aquiring a taste for it while working for UTV. Whereas the Americans use both Whisky and Whiskey for their Bourbons. Have a bottle of Jura Superstition (subtly sweet yet smoky) yet to opened, if I become an honorary Diurach they promise me a free dram every month for life - may just have to move there!! We have a tour of the independant Gin distillery Sipsmiths - in W London, as seen recently on Oz and Hugh's TV prog - booked for next month. If you're still around, and I ever get to plan a distillery tour, then with hubby's permission and my wife in tow, I'll look you up to ask your advice. May also need your skills as a translater as I do struggle comprehending a broad Scottish accent. Stayed in a small guest house outside Glasgow years ago and mentioned to the landlord it was my birthday. He took me to his local and I had a wonderful night but didn't understand much of what was said, and they laughed quite a lot, not sure if that was good or bad!! Next div announced 17/2ish, was paid on my b'day last year, maybe we'll get a good trading update before then. ATB.

Turnover, Profit, Completions and Average selling price all up on last year. Plus Net Borrowings down to £51mill from £267.5mill last year. Taken from todays RNS No: 1355Z Persimmon plc announces the following update ahead of its Preliminary Results for the year ended 31 December 2010, which will be released on Tuesday 1 March 2011. For the year just ended we have achieved a significant increase in underlying profit before tax, which will be at the top end of analysts' expectations. During 2010 we have legally completed 9,384 (2009: 8,976) homes at an average selling price of c. £167,000 generating a turnover of c. £1.57 billion. This represents an increase on the 2009 performance of 4.5% on legal completions, a c. 6% improvement in average selling price of our homes, partly due to mix changes, and a c. 10% increase in turnover. We have also achieved a further significant reduction in net borrowings to c. £51 million (31 December 2009: £267.5 million) during this period. This reduction in net borrowings is well ahead of original expectations and is a result of our continued strategy to generate cash whilst maximising margins. As previously indicated underlying operating margin for the year will be c. 8%.

We're just going around in circles here. My original objection was to your first post on here, 23/11/10: "poor housing market will drag down sp to below £2.50 by early spring 2011" rather akin to little boys who throw stones and then run away. Would you have backed up your views if unchallenged by myself and others? This came after a positive set of interims from PSN who had also announced the reinstatement of their dividend. Hardly the actions of a company expecting things to get a lot worse. Agreed the housing market is not great but no-one is predicting huge falls for the forthcoming year. Nationwide said recently "prices rose by 0.4% month-on-month in December........For 2010 as a whole, house prices posted an unremarkable gain of 0.4%.......“On balance, a relatively stable picture, with the possibility of a small price decline, appears the most likely outcome for 2011 at this stage". And in todays trading update (RNS 1355Z) PSN announced "For the year just ended we have achieved a significant increase in underlying profit before tax, which will be at the top end of analysts' expectations". I would respectfully suggest that this is a financially strong company, which is well placed in the current market conditions to weather any short term difficulties in the housing market. ATB.

What bias have I shown? I have merely taken exception to your deramping on this board. And don't we all have our own self-interest at heart? That is something you have clearly demonstrated on the 'other' board all too often. I will still be here for years to come, whatever the sp. All of my investments are for the long term, probably still be here in 2020 unless they are taken over. Wonder where PSN and LMR will be by then? ATB.

My only interpretation has been on what you have posted. Presume you are now out of LMR judging by the profit you claim to have made on the money you claim to have had invested. Which seems rather strange considering you have been predicting anything from 20p to 100p for the share recently. Why would a man of your considerable experience sell up on such a sure fire winner?? The only purpose I have is to expose people whose posts just don't make sense. Remember there are a lot of people on these boards who do not have the experience that you and I have, and can be easily led by someone who claims to never have made a loss on their dealings in leisure shares. Having conveniently forgotten that they had previously posted that they had bought at 95p and lost tens of thousands!!!! You may well be a very well intentioned sort of guy - or girl - but misleading people and predicting falls of 200p on shares with no research hardly endears you to people. I read all of your previous posts and I must admit I was impressed with a lot you had to say on LMR. Well researched with a lot of factual back-up. You've almost got me believing it may do well, although i do think you're a little too old to still be out clubbing - lol!! Let's agree to disagree for the time being, before this escalates and we both get banned by LSE. Hope all goes well for you with LMR - will have to check whether either of my two (18 and 20) frequent LMR clubs - but for obvious reasons hope you are very wrong on the direction of the PSN sp. ATB. I would love to buy lots of shares at levels they were at years ago, but that doesn't mean it will happen.

We can all play that bluff game. Give me your address and I'll happily come around to have a look at your figures. The sp didn't move enough in the period you were invested to make that sort of money with the money you claimed to have invested. You only had £25k invested how do you make 20% when the sp only moved 2p!!!! Why was nothing said on the LMR site?? What about the £10K+ you lost previously?? Still makes you a loser!!

What's an 'f' between friends. I'm sure you'll find loads in my posts, spilling never was my strong point. Not sure what acquisition you refer to, only thing I can see recently is a German investment co taking it's holding over 3%. I'm not a dog fan, never seen the point of them. Cats are so independant, if you forget to feed them they go and catch their own. I have a pic of Poppy, a tiny little thing, with a wood pigeon nearly twice her size that she was dragging away for supper!! The Lakes are OK but a bit twee at times and over touristy, I much prefer the rugged wildness north of the border. Back before the A74M took most of the traffic off the smaller roads, I was cutting across from Dumfries to Edinburgh on the A701/A702, I always took the straightest route even if it meant a slower journey on smaller roads, and around a bend was a magnificent Stag, stood up on a large rock no more than 10 feet away, who serenely watched me drive past. Truly majestic. Not a great reader either, not in the literary sense - books, poems,etc - anyway. It has to be something I'm really interested in, like my new hobby. Having reached 50 without one I decided to immerse myself in the subtle art of the Single Malt. Bought myself a selection of seventeen 10 to 28 year olds, and armed with much reading matter am on a mission to find the perfect Malt. Once I've worked out what I like I can then buy the rarer and more expensive ones. Might have to plan a tour of distilleries if I can rope the Mrs in to being my driver!! Also have a love of Bourbon, so a large part of my retirement will be spent in a 40%+ haze!! The vast bulk of my portfolio, sounds grand but ended up with a lot of small holdings in all of the privatisations and placings of the 80's and 90's, is all in certificated form, except those I've managed to squirrel away in PEPS and ISAS. It's going to give me a major headache when I come to sell as it's so much more costly and time consuming, and brokers who still deal in paper seem to get fewer by the year. Makes it impossible to move quickly on a share, if it drops as in the recent case of BP i'm stuck with it. I just watch it go down, and then hopefully watch it come back up again. As they were all bought so long ago I'm in profit on most of them. Yes, BP went from £6 to £3 and is now back up to £5, but as my average is somewhere around 35-40p I'm not doing too badly. Not much of a killer strategy I know but it works for me, didn't have the time to monitor them when i was working, no internet access in those days, so used to resort to trawling through copies of the FT. A smarter man than me would have sold and re-bought, dumped the poor ones and found the next big thing and by now be sitting on a fortune. Me, I'm stuck with what I have, but not complaining as I've guaranteed our retirement by our early 50's. And at least I saved something, some of my peers are really struggling now. C'est La Vie. ATB.

Thanks for your kind comments. Would be nice to sell the house but may have to rent it out for a while, don't need the cash so a nice income, but as I'll be 200 miles away the agents fees will eat into that. No goldfish but I do have a nervous cat who won't be happy to find a couple of strays at the Devon house - could you use one for your mice?? Have had it for nearly 4 years but Mum and Sis are next door and look after the moggies in my absence. Early 2007 was not a good time to buy a house, but I don't ever intend to move again so it makes no odds. We have a lot in common, as well as some differences. Was also mortgage free in my 30's, but have been married for almost 30 years. We both worked hard and had good jobs. I had my own haulage business, that's how I fell in love with Scotland, and the wife was a senior civil servant. As well as being a chocoholic, I'm also a savaholic. All spare cash was stashed away in shares and unit trusts, the UT's gave me access to foreign markets. Made money over the years out of Emerging Markets, and more recently out of China. I retired 3 times in my 40's, the last time for good. The wife took early retirement before Xmas as part of HM Gov's cost cutting measures, and we now hope to be residents of Devon, with our view out over the sea, by the summer. Am a little older than you at 53 but still got a few good years left. Don't plan to work again but may do charity or volunteering work if boredom sets in. Both kids are at Uni so we're free of ties if sis looks after the cats. The wife would like to travel the world, whereas I'd be happy driving round Britain in a motorhome!! If I had my time again I might go into accountancy as I've always had a love of figures, but really did enjoy my 20 years on the road. Was once caught in a blizzard near Ayr in the 90's. Skies opened at about 11am and a good 12" of snow fell in 2 hours. It was mid afternoon before we moved again, it was a total white-out everything was buried it was like a lunar landscape, truly beautiful but unfortunately I didn't have a camera. Have fallen out of love with London and can't wait to enjoy the peace and quiet Devon offers. Will be near my birth town of Barnstaple and look forward to wandering around the little shops, such a pleasant change from the out-of-town Malls that rob a place of it's individuality. I'm a collector not an active trader, locking them away and watching them grow as I take my divs as new shares if I can. I only ever sell as part of a t/o, although I'ld be much richer if I had sold a lot of them at their peak. If the markets are at this level when I need to start cashing them in I will be very happy, but that's a while away yet so still some room for growth. Agree with you about the muppets on here so hope any new job won't keep you from staying in touch as it's so nice to talk to a real person once in a while. As ever good luck with your investments and wonder what other shares we have in common.

Think you might be interested in reading my post below to smiley99 on his fortunes in LMR. What he claims changes from week to week and board to board. Don't think we have to worry too much about his predictions for PSN, he hasn't had much success predicting the sp's on JJB or LMR!!! Perhaps he's just bitter because he missed a good buy in price here a while back. People should learn just to post the facts. When you start claiming to have made £££'s on a share so soon after you have stated you made a big loss, ones credibility takes a huge dent, especially as he is talking about such a short time frame with so little movement in the sp. Will be interesting to see what, if anything, he has to say.

How do you reckon to have made £000's on LMR recently?? It just doesn't fit with what you have been saying on that board!! On 15/11 you were not holding. On 23/11 you claimed to have bought 50,000 @ 13.89p. By 24/12 you claimed to have £25k in LMR. Now you've sold some and made £000's with the sp only moving between 13.75 and 16.25p. Yet you haven't mentioned your sale anywhere?? You would have had to have sold the whole lot on 17/12 to have made anywhere near £2k!!! You admit to being a mug who bought the RI @ 95p, and that you lost a 5 figure sum on this one in the past. Yet on 15/12 you claim to have been investing in leisure companies since the 1980s and never backed a loser yet. Which one is it?? A £10k+ loss or always backed winners?? If you made £2k pre Xmas you're still down overall!! Bit like telling everyone you found a pound coin on the pavement but forgetting to say you lost the £400 rent money last week!!!! To save you going back through your posts to check, I've pasted a few extracts below so everyone can make up their own mind as to your credibility. 26/10: I was one of the mugs that bought into the rights issue at 95p. 27/10: As I said, I was a shareholder in lmr until not too long ago and therefore I still have an interest to see how it goes. I did lose a lot of money in it. 28/10: I lost a five figure sum on this company in the past. 15/11: I thought I'd made my position clear. I have been a shareholder in lmr but am not holding right now. 23/11: I just bought a large number of shares at 13.89p. 23/11: I bought approx 50,000 this morning. 15/12: I've been regularly investing in leisure companies since the 1980s and never backed a loser yet. 24/12: I am a shareholder with nearly £25k worth of stock so I am desperate for lmr to do well. And finally on 22/11 you said about JJB: 2p or 3p coming soon, me thinks, then zero in the new year. And you expect us to place any credence on your opinion of PSN reaching 300p!!! ROFLMFAO!!

Sorry, just caught the headline. Let's hope the sp keeps rising so that when/if Murdoch finally makes a bid it has to be significantly higher than the originally proposed 700p!!

To a co. with an mcap of £4.5 billion, fines of £15 and £8 million are akin to returning a library book late and being fined 5p!! It's just the Gov regulator flexing its muscles and trying desperately to justify the huge amount it costs in office space and salaries!! Am willing to bet there isn't a single co. out there that hasn't made one or two mistakes along the way. This is a good solid share that has come a long way since the RI and I wouldn't disagree with your 'Buy' rating. ATB.

Admittedly their interims of 14/12/10 showed a decline in t/o and profit but they have made huge strides in reducing their net debt, and held the interin div at 8p. Also Lord Harris the chairman is on the board of my football team so I'm slightly biased!! Remember only disgruntled punters ever bother to post. For every unhappy one there's always going to be hundreds of satisfied customers or the co simply wouldn't survive. I'm completely happy with Sky for my TV, B'band, line rental and phone calls, but I'll bet you could find someone who isn't!! Am renovating my house with a view to - hopefully - selling it after Easter, so I will be paying a visit to my local branch in the next couple of months which might help the sp!!!!! Have to admit to never having shorted or longed a share so not totally aware of what is involved, ie, what is the cost per point, how much do you have to put upfront, do you have to have money in an account to cover any potential losses, how long can you leave it open for, how much can you make or lose, and how do you get out - or is that set up at the beginning?? If you have the time would very much appreciate any comments you have to make. Am in this for the (very) long term and only plan to sell when I need the money to fund my retirement, so if you can make money from your short and the sp then recovers before i need to sell then we'll both be happy. ATB.

Happy New Year to you, and it seems that despite our combined best efforts to boost THT's sales the sp continues to drift lower. I'm all chocolated-out so you're on your own for a few weeks now!!! Sorry if I ruffled a few feathers over on the HMV board, and sorry for your prolonged pain with that share, I think you know my feelings on that one so won't repeat them again. I'm just a little wary of people - MissusR - who continually claim to visit shops, spend hundreds of pounds and always find them busy - she must have money to burn as just about everything is cheaper elsewhere. Especially as my experiences are a little different, admittedly I visited Uxbridge early in the day, but also went into the Portsmouth branch on 12/12 late afternoon, quite quiet, no queue at the tills and yet again didn't have what i wanted. And for the record I'm fortunate to live in both N Devon and W London, although if I can find a buyer I'm hoping to sell the London house and retire gracefully to my beloved Devon. I've been away for 30 years, am still a country boy at heart, and London has changed quite a lot - mainly for the worse - over that time. The only other part of the country that is worth spending time in is your Scotland. So much beautiful landscape with so few people to spoil it. My favorite time of the year is the autumn when the foliage starts to turn, and all those distilleries - heaven. Cannot believe what has happened over on the HMV board today. Didn't get to see Goose2004's post but read about the aftermath. I've swopped posts with him a couple of times, the last time being today at 1.30pm on WTB!! Only silly bits really, nothing heavy, so it came as a total surprise to see what he had done on HMV. Now there is no record of him at all on here, so I will never know if he plans to up his coffee drinking at Costa in a bid to help the WTB sp!!!!!!! I have enjoyed our little conversations and have spent most of my time on these boards swapping stories and offering tips and advice to people when I have known what I've been talking about - RI's, consolidations, take-overs, company law, etc - that I have gleaned over the last 35 years of owning shares. I have even taken on a few people who have been completely wrong in what they have been saying in an obvious attempt to mis-lead the un-informed - of which there seem to be a large number on these boards - with some success. But with one exception I have never posted a buy or sell reccomendation, have never made wild predictions, and have never misled anyone - i hope!! Hope to hear from you soon, then we can compare notes when the trading figures are released. Although I think that we both realise that we will never get rich owning this share, it's more about the reasonable div and the money off vouchers. ATB.

It's happening now, nice rise today.