Member Info for fleccy

"Despite the lost billions, Höttges vowed he “will get that money back”, saying he had a “clear understanding” of options, including increasing the stake further in the hope that BT’s fortunes would improve or partnering with another big shareholder, without specifying what action they might take."

https://www.ft.com/content/86acc9f6-0468-4b30-b612-e52964236ac5

I've never heard of Uniswap, so I just took a quick look. If I understand it correctly, It's based on Ethereum so appears to use Proof of Stake rather than Proof of Work and appears to instantly facilitate Token, and possibly NFT, transactions using Liquidity Pools . It's reliant on platform users being incentivized to become liquidity providers and receiving trading fee income dependent on the percentage of their contribution to the Liquidity Pool. The value of the token is determined by arbitrage traders trading across multiple exchanges, causing the Token price to find a given level. What use is this outside of Crypto? Who do you complain to if funds in the Liquidity Pools disappear, or clever dishonest developer/hackers do something untoward?
The real problem with anything DeFi, is that it's only useful to clued up people who are interested in the technology. For everyday people to trust the system, they'd need something that's simple to use and someone to complain to when something goes wrong, which would suggest an intuitive simple to use interface and a centralised service provider to give support.
Anything too complicated is absolutely guaranteed to fail, as most people aren't technically minded and are happy to leave the complicated tech side of things to institutions. Even if there's something behind the technology, it wont gain wide spread adoption unless it's useful to Joe Bloggs and super simple to use.
Amazon is a good example of what I'm talking about, they have a simple search to find the goods you're looking for, it's easy to order the goods and have it delivered, and if something goes wrong you're protected, that's why people use their service and the secret of their success. Crypto/DeFi isn't simple to use, it lacks protections, and it trades in things most people have no interest in.

"Heaven forbid ... that you warm to De-Fi ! ;-)"

Decentralised Finance carries a lot of risk and is more complicated than using traditional systems for transferring money. It uses nodes and channels to transfer information, potentially giving third parties access to your transaction data, so less secure than traditional systems. It might be useful for a business, offering a money transfer service, to do money transfers via something like the Bitcoin lightning network, but any reputable business offering a money transfer service would have to be regulated and conform to the law. If you're going to keep your money in Satoshi's, then transferring the tokens is cheap, but for the recipient to spend the Satoshi's they still need to convert to cash at the far end, involving volatility risk and a conversion charge.
As far as day to day paying for things, and doing money transfers, I don't have any issue doing it through my Bank Account, it's free, secure, and safe as long as I make doubly sure the account number, I'm transferring money to, is correct. Since I don't do International money transfers, why would I personally need to use DeFi? Clearly I wouldn't.
Off topic. If you haven't seen the film "In Time", it's well worth watching; It's a dystopian science fiction film, where people stop aging at 25 and the traded currency is time, run out of currency and you die; The rich can live forever and the poor live on the edge. The concept is more interesting than the action in the film, and I found it thought provoking in its portrayal of an alternative to the monetary systems we're all accustomed to.

"Interesting posts Addison / Fleccy , thanks .... nice to see Fleccy being a little positive here ! :-)"

I haven't changed my opinion on Bitcoin and the crypto industry in general. I still think Bitcoin will eventually lose most of its value and see a lot of investors losing their shirts.

"I have said before "why would you sit on something that has the potential to make you money, why just run virtual testing?"

I agree, it would make perfect sense to test with real data; Split your mining operation down the middle and run them as two separate Mining Farms, one Farm running the 30% Algorithm, the other farm without the 30% Algorithm, and then compare the results in real time. One reason they may want to use internal test data, rather than testing on the Bitcoin network, could be due to added external variables tainting their results. Sometimes you have to throw caution to the wind and jump with both feet, taking a leap of faith.
In the end the algorithm either works, or it doesn't, crunching real world data is the only definitive proving ground.

"Many of these DB schemes in 2023 will be actively planning their journey to get to their endgame objective, which complements The Pensions Regulator’s new funding code that is expected to come into force at the end of 2023.

Buyout will be the main endgame solution for most DB schemes, but one issue is whether the insurance industry has the capacity and resources to take on all of this business from these DB schemes and also the surge in individual annuities from DC members over such a short timeframe.
One thing for sure, I expect 2023 will be a record year in relation to pension buyout/annuity business for insurance companies. "

https://www.pensions-expert.com/Special-Features/The-impact-of-rising-gilt-yields-on-pensions

I think you meant institutional investors rather than "big retail"

That's my view too, AHO seemed far more retail friendly.

"I cannot believe some investors - moan moan moan.
Investors, take responsibility for your own decisions and stop complaining."

I can't believe some people are incapable of seeing other people's point of view, or take issue with their right to complain if they feel they've been treated shabbily. As I said, we're all entitled to our own opinions.

"As far as I am aware, the dividend policy pre covid was not a progressive dividend policy. The dividend policy pre covid was one that António Horta-Osório introduced which was dividend payout would be 70% of EPS"

Well the easiest way to check is to look at the annual reports pre covid.

The 2018 Annual report:
"An increased ordinary dividend of 3.21 pence per share, in line with our progressive and sustainable dividend policy. In addition, the Board intends to implement a share buyback of up to £1.75 billion."

https://www.lloydsbankinggroup.com/assets/pdfs/investors/financial-performance/lloyds-banking-group-plc/2018/full-year/2018-lbg-annual-report-v2.pdf

The 2017 Annual report:
"In line with our progressive and sustainable ordinary dividend policy, the Board has recommended a final ordinary dividend of 2.05 pence per share, taking the total ordinary dividend for 2017 to 3.05 pence per share, up 20 per cent on 2016. Given our strong capital generation the Board has also announced its intention to implement a share buyback of up to £1 billion, equivalent to up to 1.4 pence per share."

https://www.lloydsbankinggroup.com/assets/pdfs/investors/financial-performance/lloyds-banking-group-plc/archive/2017/full-year/2017-lbg-annual-report-v3.pdf

The 2016 Annual report:
"An increased ordinary dividend of 2.55 pence per share, in line with our progressive and sustainable dividend policy. In addition, the Board has recommended a special dividend of 0.5 pence per share."

https://www.lloydsbankinggroup.com/assets/pdfs/investors/financial-performance/lloyds-banking-group-plc/archive/2016/full-year/2016_lbg_annual_report_v2.pdf

If I'm reading their annual reports correctly, they're indicating a pre covid "progressive and sustainable dividend policy".

"It has never been harder to mine bitcoin (BTC) than it is today, as miners have experienced a 9.95% difficulty increase at block height #778,176. Now and for the next two weeks, or approximately 2,016 blocks, the difficulty will be 43.05 trillion. The network’s average hashrate over the last 2,016 blocks was roughly 305.8 exahash per second (EH/s)."

https://news.bitcoin.com/bitcoin-mining-difficulty-reaches-all-time-high-as-miners-face-second-largest-increase-this-year/

"I have stated the facts of what happened."

The buybacks are having a positive effect on market sentiment. (x)
The share price has reacted positively to the new buyback policy. (x)
Shareholders deserved a resumption of the old progressive dividend policy (Tick)
Everyone's entitled to their own opinion (Tick)

LTI, as I said, you're entitled to your opinion and I'm entitled to mine. We'll have to agree to disagree (Tick)

"If there had not been a Covid 19 pandemic, then then path of share price and indeed the path chosen by the new CEO, regarding allocation of returns to shareholders may have been different."

Not really, the dividend debasement has nothing to do with Covid, except that Covid was used as an opportunity to change policy.
In 2019 Revenue came in at £17.17 Billion and Net income was around £2.93 Billion.
In 2021 Revenue came in at £17.13 Billion and Net income was around £5.78 Billion.
In 2022 Revenue came in at £18.0 Billion and Net income was around £5.6 Billion.

In the scheme of things the new dividend policy is unrelated to Covid, apart from the fact that Covid was used as the excuse for debasement. As I said, I see Lloyds as a good investment, but it doesn't change my view that they should have restarted, and stuck to, the old progressive dividend policy.
We're all entitled to our own opinions; LTI, you have your opinion, I have mine.

"flec
I understand the bitterness of losing the covid dividend and the debasement hits much harder if you rely on this for income. I suppose the advantages I see are that it allows continued diversification and repurchases"

Sam, I haven't relied on the dividends for income and I've been reinvesting dividends as they become available, as well as buying stock with new capital. Nunn, as the new CEO, has been dismissive of the pre covid investors in my opinion. I've also taken advantage of the lower valuations, due to covid and the Ukraine war, so I'm not saying Lloyds is a bad investment and I've added to my holdings in spite of the dividend debasement, but I think Nunn has retired the original progressive dividend policy when he didn't need to.

"The board have been clear on their plans since 2019 to at least 2025 and their predictions on how they think the market will play out"

Can you supply a link supporting that?

From the 2019 Annual Report:
"Outlook
Over 2019, UK economic performance has remained resilient in the face of significant political and economic uncertainty, supported by record employment, low interest rates and rising real wages. Although uncertainty remains given the ongoing negotiation of international trade agreements and the rate outlook remains challenging, there is now a clearer sense of direction and we remain well placed to Help Britain Prosper, support our customers and deliver strong and sustainable returns for shareholders. The Group’s confidence in the business model and future performance is reflected in our guidance for 2020:
Net interest margin of 2.75 to 2.80 per cent
Operating costs to be less than £7.7 billion with the cost: income ratio lower than in 2019
Net asset quality ratio expected to be less than 30 basis points Capital build expected to be within the Group’s ongoing guidance range of 170 to 200 basis points per year and risk-weighted assets to be broadly in line with 2019
Expect increased statutory return on tangible equity of 12 to 13 per cent, driven by resilient underlying profit and lower below the line charges
The Group faces the future with confidence. As a result, we will continue to target a progressive and sustainable ordinary dividend. In 2020, the Group will also commence paying dividends quarterly, accelerating payments to shareholders, with the first dividend being paid in June 2020."

"The final dividend has been increased by 20% over the 2021 final.
Current yield and prospective forward yield is well above the ftse 100 average, so their really is no room for complaint when it comes to dividends"

You'd see no complaints from me if they'd reinstated the dividend at Pre-Covid levels, but they decided to rebase the dividend downward. The cancelled 2019 Final Dividend would have been around 2.24p, taking the full year payout to around 3.36p, or 40% higher than this years 2.4p payout.
I was invested in Lloyds pre-covid and missed out on the 2019 Final Dividend, which I understood at the time and lived with. The dividend restarted with a 0.57p Final Dividend in 2020, 392% below the anticipated 2019 Final of 2.24p, and was then used as the starting point for rebasing the ongoing dividends. At the current rate of dividend increases, the dividend wont catch up with the anticipated 2019 full year dividend level until 2025, and the lost 2019 Final dividend is showing no sign of being compensated for, ever.
To suggest that pre covid investors have nothing to complain about, disregards their reasons for investing in dividend stocks and their lost income due to the rebasing of the dividends. I can only assume you weren't invested in Lloyds pre covid, so take a different view.

"Blimey flakey, what is more hilarious is watching a non invested person (you) absolutely captivated by QBT"

You don't have to be invested to be interested.
Bitcoin is a comedy fest and an ongoing source of entertainment, with constant YouTube content pumping out a wildly optimistic narrative about the token. I enjoy listening to people like Saylor and Woods, as they talk their own book to persuade more believers.
Blockchain technology is interesting too, and does have real world uses, but unbacked crypto currencies isn't one of them in my opinion; The most successful technologies are the easy to use intuitive ones, like buying your shopping and touching your contactless debit card on a sensor, job done, whereas Bitcoin needs complicated off chain workarounds for anything useful. My scepticism around Bitcoin, is because we already have something superior with the current systems. People use Banks, and their services, because they offer a level of ease and are accountable for ensuring the security of peoples savings, whereas "decentralised" Crypto is a shady wild west invention without any service provider protections.
QBT interests me because of their technological aims, I'm really interested to see if there's anything substantive behind their algorithms. Their Quantum algorithm, should it work, is unlikely to be used in actual Bitcoin mining as commercial Quantum computers are many years away. Disregarding the Alternative coins. based on SHA-256, Bitcoin itself has less than 2 million coins left to mine and the rewards at the next halving will reduce by half, meaning diminishing returns for the miners as time goes on. QBT's "30%" algorithm is up against the clock, with the supply and mining rewards of Bitcoin rapidly diminishing. A Google search, demonstrates that people have looked at alternatives to Brute Force Bitcoin mining for at least the last 10 years; Whether, or not, Bitcoin miners currently incorporate any other Algorithms into their operations, I have no idea.
Because of the time constraints, mentioned above, QBT need to get their product to market asap and hope Bitcoin miners will see value in incorporating it into their operations, their success is time dependent in my opinion.

"the UK remains unfashionable among the investment elite"

I would have preferred Lloyds to have increased the dividend, rather than do buybacks, but the low valuations of UK stocks have allowed us to build big holdings in our favoured dividend stocks. We are now pulling in substantial annual dividends of around £22,000 a year, all thanks to "unfashionable" UK stocks. Long may this continue, as we're laughing all the way to the Bank.

"If there isn't at least 1 RNS here next week i'm taking fleccy out to a comedy night to cheer him up !"

I don't need a comedy night out, reading some of the lol ramping comments on here is enough for me.

It mat may well be a approaching a good time to buy, risk on assets are currently taking a knock, as US annual Core PCE inflation has just come in higher than expected.