Member Info for cynic

CHG - for my sins I bought some about a week ago, which are just about in the money ... I always intended to hang on to them.

I remember all too well the fine selection of "must have; can't fail" shares that litter my tax returns with CF losses when they collapsed.

BVC - had completely forgotten about this stock. Current price is certainly holding nicely above 20dma, and traffic today was HUGE ..... Any idea why?

PIX - I agree that this looks to be an interesting share, but its capitalisation is only £11.5 million, so liquidity will be tight with disproportionately violent swings in the share price almost inevitable.

By chance I note that CER holds 7.82% of VOG ..... While VOG has performed well of late, CER has somewhat languished ...... That does not matter much, but to my mind it makes CER and even stronger buy than I thought.

ELP - I am no accountant but ..... I have just lookd at ELP's accounts, and for a tiny company that hs only been trading for 14 months, the directors certainly look after themselves very well indeed. The travel and other expenses also look way over the top. Of course, if ELP actually get lucky with their sites, then the shareholders will see a fine return and be able to turn a blind eye to what the directors have taken out. Hoever, as a general word of caution from a jaundiced cynic ..... There seem to be an inordinate number of minuscule exploration companies whose share prices have (comparatively) rocketed on (lemming) sentiment and blue sky rather than on actual profit-earning assets ...... The dotcom bubble had a similar feel.

only a good buy if their drilling produces the right result ...... Also if drilling is only starting now, presumably nothing to report until around end Feb

spread looks to be 1.75p before you start, so you still wouldn't have been in the money, surely

ZOO - hope this is just traders being forced out rather than peeps knowing stuff we others do not!

MOG - have had a quick look, but the price seems to fluctuate wildly on minute trades. Implies very poor liquidity or similar. Not for me!

Or at least that is how I currently read commodity prices ...... or read them from the press! I fully agree that a correction is now overdue, but over the medium/longer term, I think that gold, platinum and copper are all likely to rise ...... Picking one's timing is, as always, the most difficult problem.

MRX - If a share is showing an 8% yield, there is invariably a very good reason for it ..... Either the divi will be slashed, or the market doesn't like the company at any price ...... Similar analogy to Banana Republic Bonds

IGE - well spotted GedW - the shares have also done well today against a very dull backdrop, despite some quite hefty selling orders.

BES - Hi Deano - well you were right that the figures would be good, but the market is clearly underwhelmed ...... no obvious explanation ..... hope they pan out for you eventually.

From my (amateur) experience of trading these over the last months, I have come to the conclusion that GOOG, even more than most shares, are more sentiment than logic driven ..... As a result, I tend to pick a price to buy where there seems some sort of support, but the rapid rise has blown any chart or similar right out of the water.

I trade these as a CFD through IG where the spread is only a copper or two (per market) and the commission charged just $0.06 per share ...... Can't get dealing charges much lower than that! As mentioned before, I think both FTSE and Dow are due for a pull-back, though that would be no bad thing. I don't think I am brave enough to go short though, and certainly not of GOOG ..... Got burnt once doing that, and that was enough!

Is there a direct correlation in the sp between this poor relation (lol!) and the main share? ...... Up to now, I have only bought (and sold) GOOG, rarely in lots of more than 200/250 - quite scary enough, even though I can (usually) monitor constantly either at the office or at home.

ELP - While I agree this is quite an interesting punt, it is also only for the brave (I think) ...... There is absolutely no guarantee that the next drilling (or any after that) will bring economic positive results ..... If that happens, then there could be a very significant impact on the share price ...... The converse is also equally true!

ZOO - Nicksig - Yes, I did buy some of these, but modestly .... That is to say about 20/25% of my usual stake. Despite the poor half year figures, I was quite cheered by ".... We have signed our first deal with a major Hollywood studio" and that they reckon to move into profit for the second half. It would seem that they also hold the rights (worldwide?) for Millionaire which is undoubtedly exceptionally popular and their general stable of interactive DVDs looked to be pretty good. I am perfectly happy to sit on these shares long-term.

Then I would not be allowed to use it! .... As it is, and I accept the inherent weakness of the "logic", experience tells me that companies that issue one warning often follow with another ... and then another ..... all (often) progressively worse. Having now seen 2 warnings within 8/10 weeks of each from this company, I can see no good reason why anyone, let alone me, would deem this company to be worth buying.