Member Info for fleccy

"The bad news for competitors of Openreach is that we can confirm the news of Openreach hitting an FTTP footprint of 11 million premises on 10th July 2023. The footprint we have in our database for Openreach is currently at 11,012,728 premises passed. While the 11 million is several times that of any other FTTP network in the UK, the Openreach goal is 25 million premises in 2026, but based on the build rates, we can see this is looking like it will be reached in the first half of 2028. Of course, Openreach may speed up its roll-out in the next year, and we will do our best to keep the lag we have in finding it to a 4 to 6-week period."

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/9655-july-2023-update-on-broadband-availability-across-the-uk-nations-and-regions

Notready1 down at the beach:

https://stock.adobe.com/uk/search?k=ostrich+head+in+sand

Also he keeps banging on about the aircraft having to adjust for the curvature of the Earth with his nose down theory as his proof, but no artificial adjustment is required since the aircraft is continually falling as it moves forward, as mentioned previously.

Did he take into account that the Earth is spinning at around 1000 miles per hour in an eastward direction, while travelling around the sun at around 67,000 miles per hour anticlockwise, or that aircraft flight paths follow Geodesic lines, or that the aircraft may alter its flight path and altitude for any number of reasons ? He seems to be taking a simplified view of something that's extremely complex. He's just writing a narrative to support his flat view of the Earth, I suspect it would take some highly complex calculations to determine the relative position of stars as an aircraft follows a path across the sky.

"How a Pilot Ended the Globe - Part 1"

DS I just watched about 5 minutes of your Flat Earth Video and I don't understand the nose up, nose down theory the guy is using to suggest the Earth is flat.

Here's my guess, an aircraft stays in the air due to the forward speed and air pressure under the wings; The forward speed is created by the thrust of the engines propelling the aircraft forward and in turn creating lift under the wings. Once in the air, you have the force of Gravity pulling the aircraft back to Earth, in perpetual freefall, with the only thing keeping the aircraft at a steady height being the forward speed. The reason the pilot doesn't need to drop the nose while navigating around the globe, is because the aircraft is continually falling with the forward thrust maintaining the altitude, dependent on air pressure and lift.

In summary, the forward thrust of the engines maintain a steady altitude in relation to the Earth's surface, due to air pressure at the cruising height. The reason the nose doesn't need to be dipped is because the aircraft is continually falling as it moves forward, but the altitude is maintained in relation to the curvature of the Earth.

I only watched a couple of minutes of the Video, but it struck me that the guy is completely disregarding the effect of Gravity, on one hand, but taking it into account on the other; If you were to take his nose up, nose down theory seriously, wouldn't the aircraft just fly off into space with the nose permanently pointing upward?

Does that mean we can expect an update on Tuesday then? Or do you have a history of intrusive thoughts, maybe a history of Clairvoyancy in the family, or is this a classic transference event due to a childhood experience? Unfortunately my crystal ball is in for a service, so the future's currently cloudy with a chance of rain.

Jamboner, FUD is just one of the stupid acronyms used to dismiss anything the fanboys and vested interests don't like to read or hear. Here's an example of FUDite commentary:

https://blockworks.co/news/binance-ceo-goes-full-fud-in-attempt-to-bury-ftx

"It’s certainly ironic that Binance’s Zhao, who has pandered to faithfuls by positioning himself as a fighter of all things FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt), has so quickly pounced on wavering public perception of his direct rival Bankman-Fried.

Curiously, Zhao now seems content to not only lean into media speculation, but incite it directly despite having repeatedly threatened to sue journalists and their news outlets throughout the years."

It's FUD for thought for the investors who lost their lunch in FTX; Especially since everything's FUD in Cryptoland, until it isn't.

Https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/bitcoin-price-outlook-digital-gold-crypto-crash-volatility-ftx-sbf-2023-8

"Bitcoin is finally behaving like gold – because interest in cryptocurrencies has dried up over the past year."

"That means bitcoin is steadier than the S&P 500 benchmark of US-listed stocks, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite, and even gold.

However, trading volume for bitcoin has also faded to its lowest level since November 2020, per K33."

"The data reflects the sad reality for digital-asset evangelists.

Institutional and retail investors alike turned away from the sector over what was a nightmarish 2022, when rapidly rising interest rates and the spectacular collapse of high-profile companies such as FTX cratered bitcoin's price."

"To an extent, their vision for a low-volatility asset has now come to life – but only because nobody really cares about crypto anymore."

Only in your dreams Suthy. Nothing's beyond the realm of possibility, but the probability of a collapse of the banking system is highly unlikely. Banks are so interwoven into society they're indispensable, why do you think the US bailed out SVB depositors? It was fear of contagion sparking other bank runs. Many of the SVB depositors, who benefited from state protection, were/are involved in Crypto related projects in a sector where cheerleaders decry the current system, but are among first to rely on state protection's when things don't go their way. The Crypto narratives are full of contradiction, catchy acronyms and false hope for the majority, the cult will eventually fade like a f@rt in a lift.

"They been accused of paying low interest rates.. on savings. Once these are hiked can kiss those dividends good bye lol"

Doubtful, the dividends are well covered by profits. As far as the £700 Million provision, that's just putting money aside in case people default on their loans. In my opinion the reason for such a high provision, and a slightly lower than expected dividend progression, is due to Political and media pressure around windfall taxes on banks, which will blow over when inflation and interest rates stabilise.

What I really don't get is this narrative that your money is somehow protected by being in Bitcoin. If you get thrown in a cell and told to give up your private keys you'll do it, as has happened with previous Bitcoin seizures, so tell me how is your cash more protected in Bitcoin than gold? I've seen the Michael Saylor comments when he talks about going through customs with a usb stick instead of gold bars, but who would do that apart from crooks running away from the authorities? It's just a sales pitch to criminals.

"It now pays a 2.1p dividend so a cut of 90%+ in yield."

Check your facts, Lloyds total dividends were 2.4p last year, and the latest interim was increased by 15%; Assuming next years Final is also increased by 15% it would mean a FY total dividend of 2.76p. I have to say I was disappointed that Lloyds debased the dividend post covid, with it still being below pre-covid levels now, but that's Lloyds choice since they make enough profit to pay a higher dividends; Unfortunately they seem to have diverted cash into Buybacks rather than dividends. I have no doubt Lloyds/BT/VOD share price's will eventually recover to more sensible levels, in the meantime I'll just keep topping up.

Glad to help.

It's funny how people think they are somehow presenting an argument in favour of their own investments, by assuming they can dig at me by highlighting the performance of my investments. If I was that bothered about the performance of my investments, would I be so upfront about my paper losses? The truth is I worry more about my Dental appointments, car servicing and road tax, and in the moment more pressing needs. I am a little disappointed that Lloyds only raised the dividend by 15% to 0.92p, instead of my expected 20% to 0.96p, meaning the total dividends from the most recent ex-dividend payouts will come in at £11,974.16 instead of my expected £12,153.28; But that was more about the game than the monetary difference. The money will likely get reinvested, meaning more dividends next time, since it isn't currently required for any other purpose.

The reason I don't worry about BT and VOD, is because they generate free cash flow and make profits, they own assets meaning that they'll always be worth something to a buyer if they flounder. Lloyds is a bank, and as we learned in 2008 shareholders can be left with nothing if a bank fails, but Lloyds is probably one of the safest banks on the planet due to the low LTV's on it's Mortgage book, and the fact it doesn't have an investment arm. Since I see my investments as massively undervalued and have confidence that they'll eventually recover their historic P/E's, I don't need coping mechanisms to divert from any implied investment stress disorders; I would find an investment in AIM stocks or crypto stressful, generating no income and solely betting on the price increasing dramatically dependent on speculative outcome's or sentiment.

As far as Bitcoin, my dislike stems from the fact that I see it as a con. I view the online vested interests pumping the product as snake oil salesmen and I see no value in something that's easily replicated, or modified in the future to suit the developer/sector needs. Every narrative supporting Bitcoin's value is easily argued against and dismissible. If Bitcoin is eventually successful it wont be because of any superiority over other monetary systems, it'll be because the powers that be have an ulterior motive for allowing it; I'm cynical by nature, so I'll say something when I see a square peg being hammered into a round hole.

I don't consider myself as having ramped BT. I've always given my honest opinion that I don't see BT being taken over, and that I see the stock as a cost saving play with growth in bottom line Net Profit rather than revenue growth.

Pas If Bitcoin's so good and such a sure thing, why do the vested interests feel the need to pump it 24/7? And why do they feel the need to pull in new cash via ETF backdoor's?

The truth is Bitcoin has gone as stale as an old piece of bread, most of the initial retail investors are disillusioned, as the monetary use cases have fallen away, and many have been burned. As I've said before Bitcoin is just a distributed ledger, in other words a glorified database that's easily replicated and has no intrinsic value, having no real use apart from storing information.

It isn't just Bitcoin that's flawed, the whole decentralised finance narrative is full of holes and will never be able to offer a level of security and ease of use people need. Make a mistake in the traditional finance world and you have a pretty good chance of getting your money back, make a mistake with crypto, or get hacked, and you have to write it off since there's no recourse.

The Halving wont pump the price due to scarcity, as the miners will be forced to sell all there tokens to cover their cost of operations, that is unless the price achieves the dizzy heights the various vested interests say it will.

The scarcity narrative is also false, since they can simply generate other tokens on a keyboard, subdivide exiting tokens through Forks, or basically do whatever they want. How they can describe Crypto tokens as assets is beyond me, it DeFi's common sense; See what I did there 😉

"Thanks Fleccy, interesting."

No problem, the charts will be updated on a daily basis with the previous days volumes; So the updates for the 7th August will show on the charts after midday on the 8th August and so on The comparisons probably not show anything, I'm just doing it out of curiosity.

Nige, I've built another chart using the monthly Google totals, derived from the Google daily volumes, and compared it to the monthly On Exchange volumes shown London Stock Exchange BT.A Trade recap page.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vS4gJMsDAQq9sJ_zHqi_JnoVTryAdb4X64c7Clw12E2sGT3N6dTJfB60O8bc5Ns4burXvSSCVFrLvWC/pubchart?oid=1824278197&format=interactive

You can see the spike in May due to Drahi. August is beginning to look like it may be a high volume month, with Off-Book currently ahead of On-Exchange.

The chart I linked to in the my last but one post is a weekly volume chart, not daily, so the spikes in volume represented full week trades, not daily.

I quite liked that, but this is more me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7e7YnsB9Jc

"I can only think that it's related to Drahi acquiring more shares off weak holders. JMO."

My theory is it's big brokers and big players controlling the On Exchange price by directing volume Off Exchange, that way they can enhance their own returns,

Not showing Off Book vs On Exchange, but here a chart showing total weekly volumes going back to 2020.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vS4gJMsDAQq9sJ_zHqi_JnoVTryAdb4X64c7Clw12E2sGT3N6dTJfB60O8bc5Ns4burXvSSCVFrLvWC/pubchart?oid=1272992480&format=interactive

Anyone got any theories, as to why Off Book trades see the occasional massive leap on certain days?

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vS4gJMsDAQq9sJ_zHqi_JnoVTryAdb4X64c7Clw12E2sGT3N6dTJfB60O8bc5Ns4burXvSSCVFrLvWC/pubchart?oid=457705223&format=interactive