Member Info for dasv

I've talked to a few coders in my time in the gaming industry. Surprisingly it's low paid for the amount of deadline pressure involved - the coding team of the Harry Potter game decided after many late nights coding they would start going home at 6pm. Their manager told them if they did so they would all be fired. Tie-ins with movies have to be released in synchronisation with Hollywood launches. Electronic Arts is extremely dominant in the gaming industry and has the power to bad-mouth coders in the rest of the industry and use that as blackmail to force people to comply with outrageous deadlines. This is not directly useful information for choosing whether to invest in a gaming company but does illustrate that it can be a very tight and cut-throat business. Remember most games flop. They still cost a fortune to develop, but the majority are not earners. A title like Championship Manager, Halo or Tomb Raider can make a company however.

gold has come off a tad (about $740 an ounce) apparently because the figures coming out today will show some job creation and a strengthening of the US economy. Personally I don't see why gold shouldn't continue to rise in price with US inflation on the cards. What are your thoughts on the future for the price of gold?

Following the EGM there will a 4 for 1 share split and some more shares issued in relation to the acquisition of Fisher.

this one is flying. Did you get in? if so at what price? I feel like I'm a bit late to T trade this long...

I bought just as I was heading off for the office - ended up paying 334 :( - I was convinced it was the start of a run-up. I've never lost money on a trade on SOLA and I don't plan to start now ;) .... Good luck to you too.

To be honest I expected more momentum than this. Remember the low sp followed what amounted to a profit warning and also the share was the subject of much shorting, so I wouldn't see the rise from 200 as a problem. Anyway we'll see how this pans out. Think a stop loss is in order on this one just in case though.

I'm in with another T10. News just out a few mins ago.

Nasty fall today. Probably best avoided for time being until earnings visibility is clearer. I have signifcantly reduced my holding. It should turn around eventually but sentiment is weighing it down for the time being.

leedskier - thanks for the tip. I'm in this morning with a T10 - couldn't get an online quote with T20. Keep an eye on SGM ;) (haven't punted on it yet but am considering a T20)

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Landore Resources said drilling at the VW deposit on its Junior Lake property in Ontario, Canada has intersected multiple zones of resource grade nickel mineralisation and that the infill drilling on the site is complete. The mineral exploration company said the assay results frequently returned grades of nickel in excess of 1 pct. The drills have now moved to the B4-7 nickel-copper-PGE deposit to begin similar but smaller program of confirmation and infill drilling.

On the back of the record DOW finish, SVS is strongly up 7.7%. I suspect the feeling that the worst of the credit crunch being over could be helping, but the future of the UK residential and commercial market is far from being clear. I'm holding a few for the long term in my ISA FWIW.

I'm afraid I've reduced my holding here substantially to safeguard against further erosion of the sp. I still hold a few but I need the funds elsewhere for the moment.

Alstom gets $190m to supply parts for a hydroelectic power project in Vietnam. This is what I'm looking for from this stock - more emerging market infrastructure contracts.

Some recovery from the massive fall earlier. This is kind of analagous to the rest of the banking sector getting pulled down by NRK. DETS is diversifying away from being a pure play IVA provider, but the bad news from debtmatters has resulted in a significant mark down by the MMs. The question is: will the bounce be sustained? My guess is that because this company has a tight fiscal control, increasing diversification, more acquisitions on the way and operates on a favourable macro-economic climate (i.e. an ever increasing UK debt mountain - with the dark cloud of a house price correction/crash) on the horizon, it's not a bad bet for 2008 at these levels. I am continuing to hold - (this is a very small percentage of my portfolio).

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Debtmatters stood out among small-cap losers, plunging 41 pence to just 26-1/2 after the provider of Individual Voluntary Agreements said it is undertaking a full strategic review to consider all options for the company, which include seeking a possible offer, due to the potential impact of fee modifications on its IVA business and continued disappointing share price. Shares in Debts.co.uk were dragged down 29-1/2 to 66-1/2 in sympathy, but Seymour Pierce retained its 'buy' recommendation on the stock. The broker believes the company structure and management will prove quite capable of operating profitably in the new environment, although it is hoping there is some resolution on fee levels sooner rather than later.

Thanks for posting your research this weekend. Looks interesting. I have a feeling this one might pan out if Peter Hambro is anything to go by.

I have read that the reason for the upscaling of resources at olympic dam is to some extent due to a rise in the price of commodites - i.e. it has now become economically viable to mine lower grade ores and that they are considering open cast mining there. The news regarding this was reportedly priced-in to the sp already but I see the large hike in the dividend and extreme bullishness from the outgoing CEO and confidence from the new CEO as a signal to hold BLT for a while yet.

Davius - OK cool Leedskier - I wasn't going to short this. I think I'll leave it well alone. Margin squeeze could continue for some time. I don't see ingredients division profits rising for a while and I think the dollar will weaken further now that the Arab nations are considering removing the dollar peg and China seeks to stem inflation. Sterling could well drop too as it is weighted to UK house prices which look increasingly precarious to me.

http://tinyurl.com/36a626 "The rich are getting richer every day. And the little that the poor man got it shall be taken away" - Junior Byles: "Fade Away"

Hi Davius, Are you shorting with a spreadbet, CFD or otherwise?