Member Info for fleccy

"Dangerous to assume NATO has technical superiority over Russian forces! I'm sure they are as well equipped as NATO forces."

It isn't an assumption, the US could defeat the Russians on their own, just look at the statistics. Iraq and Iran were at war for nearly 8 years, with well over a million dead, the US defeated Iraq in as many days. Obviously Russia is far more powerful than Iraq, but the US would still defeat Russia in a conventional war, Nato would defeat Russia even easier.

"Furthermore, if he can acquire more stake rather keep the stake he has now - over the years as you know - he has that choice (if he wants) to takeover BT; sell it on; or just keep it running"

Maybe he tinks it's dirt cheap and figured it would be a good investment. Even if acquires a larger holding and gets a seat on the board, he would still only be 1 vote. Even if he managed to persuade the board to put a vote to shareholders, on selling Openreach, and the vote passed, there's no guarentee that he'd be able to outbid other interested parties, if it's Openreach he's eyeing. He might continue building his stake, acquiring more stock, but it would only be useful to him if the BOD is on his side. The most likely scenario is that he see's value, and will become active at some point, but it's anyone's guess what his masterplan is.

"I pay £10.50p per quarter total, to have my ISA and investment accounts with HSBC."

That's still dearer than I'm paying in the Halifax, £10.50p per quarter adds up to £42 a year, so for me and my wife the total would be £84 a year.

"Tax rate on dividends for a basic rate tax payer is 7.5%"

Indeed, I forgot about that. It isn't an issue for us, as my wife is a non earner and qualifies for the full tax free allowances anyway, plus a good percentage of our dividends are in ISA's anyway. We aim to ensure that all our dividend income is tax free, and have already looked at Bed and ISA of the shares in my wife's share dealing account.

Just to add to my last entry, when the Halifax changed the fee structure, I initially balked at it, but when you compare it to the charges of some others, it isn't bad at all; For example Hargreaves Lansdown charge 0.45% up to £250,000 on Fund Portfolio value, capped at £45 for share portfolio's, so HL would cost me and my wife a total of £90 a year, rather than £72 with the Halifax.

"All my Lloyds shares are held in my stocks and shares isa which would ensure that should I ever actually make any profit I won’t be taxed on it"

The conversation around Dividends and income tax, in relation to needing an ISA, doesn't take account of the tax free capital gain advantages of ISA's. I'm with Halifax sharedealing, and they've now done away with free share dealing accounts, and the £12 ISA annual fee, and replaced it with a £36 asministration charge, so it costs you the same whatever type of account you have.
The bestthing about an ISA is you can trade in and out of the same stock, different stocks, or combinations, in minutes, hourly, or daily without any tax implications at all, so if you're that way inclined, you can trade without worrying about the tax man. Another reason to use ISA's is that most people will qualify eventually for the state pension, currently £9,339.20 a year, which means your dividends may be pushed into the 20% bracket at some point. If you're with a company like the Halifax, you may aswell bed and ISA leading up to your state retirement age, as there's no advantage to using a standard sharedealing account.

"Are you saying I could receive total £14,500 in Dividend income next year and don't need to inform the Tax Man if I dont have any other income in the UK"

That's correct, if you don't recieve any other income you can earn £14,571 tax free in dividends.

"Exited BT at last, omg relief. Basically a giant pension deficit with a telecoms attached. Open reach worth 2 quid a share, the rest doesnt even have a value that matches the debt."

If that's what you really think, I'm surprised you invested in the first place. No doubt you won't have much to say when BT soon breaks through £2, on its way to £3.

"Well the Olympics has finished - seems the vodafone ski slopes are back in force"

I view it as a game, with the market shaking out the weak holders. Look at BT, currently down 2.3%, possibly a delayed reaction to VMO2's Deja Vu announcements around looking for investors in new FTTP, how many times will they repeat that one over the next 5 years? I remember speculation about that in 2019, they seem to be taking a long time to find investors who are interested; If I was a Fund manager and they approached me, my first question would be, whay aren't you funding it yourself? Lie Openreach/BT are.

"fleccy holding lloyds vod/bt over the last two years must have been a nightmare for you"

I didn't lose a wink of sleep due to the valuations of my holdings during Covid, in fact I ploughed a lot of cash into them as prices dropped. I topped up BT at 106p and 112p, Vodafone at 109p/119p, and Lloyds at 36p. The reason I haven't worried, is because I never believed my capital was/is at risk, since I only invest in what I consider "safe" stocks. I also still view my holdings as historically undervalued at current prices, and easily see increases from here, of 50% for VOD/BT, and 36% for Lloyds. Even if valuations exceed my targets, there's a good chance I'll continue to hold, as I view dividends as an important component of our income, especially in this inflationary environment.

"Fleccy sometimes you end up drip feeding by accident.
You make your initial purchase then few weeks later it’s went down"

It depends on your reasons for investing in a particular stock. If you invest purely on the basis that the price will rise, without believing in the company you're investing in, then you might be inclined to sell at the first sign of trouble. I have high hopes for the Telecom sector, and never bought into the negative narratives directed at the sector, so I viewed the price falls as an opportunity and topped up. If BT hits around 270p, VOD 200p, and Lloyds 65p, I'll be up around £150,000; And since I believe those figures are historically feasible, I expect I'll do ok.

"Hi Fleccy, 3 dealing charges over say 15k surely that's peanuts compared to what you can lose if you buy in at too high a price in one go"

The thing is, no one invests thinking a stock is going to drop in value, and the driving sentiment behind investing large is the bet that the price will go up. Had I forseen that prices would drop dramatically, then I would have invested differently, but I can't see into the future unfortunately. As it stands, I'm now in profit on Lloyds and BT, with Vodafone my only investment showing a paper loss. Because of the size of my investments, penny changes alter my Gain/Loss by thousands of pounds. In the case of my Lloyd's holdings, 1p either way is nearly £3000, and BT/VOD each making a difference of over £700 per penny change.

"Are you saying, when US invades other countries the world Is the same place?"

Nope, the US pull the western strings with a combination of soft and hard power. What the US can get away with, China and Russia wont, just my opinion.

"China is eyeing up Taiwan.
NATO will be spread quite thinly.
The Indians are not very happy either as it seems a lot of the munitions left by the US in Afghanistan are being used against their forces at the line of control."

If China decide to invade Taiwan, then it will be much the same scenario as Russia invading Ukraine, no external forces will get directly involved. What it will do is cause a tectonic shift in Geopolitics, with Japan becoming more militarily capable, and AUKUS submarines becoming Nuclear armed, rather than just capable. If China invades Taiwan, then the World will become a different place.

"If Russia attack it will be swift and brutal. Iskander can do a lot of damage in the softening up phase."

The Ukranian military commanders aren't stupid, they'll know fighting the Russians head on will be futile. I suspect the Ukranians will fight in small units, targetting armoured vehicles and infantry using various weapons and tactics. If you know you can't win, then you inflict as much damage as you can on the enemy. My personal view is that the Russians wont invade, as I don't see what they'll gain in the long run, Boris pretty much summed it up in his security council briefings and interviews.
I suppose the big questions will be, will Russia want to potentially sustain thousands of casualties, capturing a country that'll be a constant thorn in their side, changing the World order leading to increasing threat levels internally and externally, with no upside I can see.
Anyone doing a superficial analysis can see there's no gain for Russia in taking over Ukraine. Don't get me wrong, the US are no better, with my guess being they invaded Iraq because US oil companies were eyeing the oilfields there, and the rumour that Iraq was planning to trade oil in Euro's, rather than the US Dollar.
If Russia do invade Ukraine, then Putin will have to hope that the Ukranians don't inflict heavily casualties on the Russian's as they advance, as even authoritarian regimes have accountability to their people.

"Thanks robleo, & good luck. Many advocate drip feeding, but isn't it very expensive? Sorry but I don't get it?. Buying regular small amounts of shares, costs a lot more than buying a load in one go?"

I'm in your camp on that Dan, in that I've tended to buy large amounts in one go, but with hindsight I would have done better if I'd bought in £10,000 chunks from early on. BT and Vodafone dropped far lower than I expected, when I made my initial investments, and although I've considerably lowered my average costs per share, through top ups, I wouldn't have initially invested so heavily had I forseen the drops. If you're only buying really small amounts of shares, then drip feeding costs can add up, since a £10 dealing charge on a £100 investment is 10%, but only 1% on £1000 investment, and stamp duty is fixed a 0.5% so adds up to the same irrespective of the number of investments making the total. For example, if you bought £1000 of shares in one go, the dealing charge would be £10 + £5 stamp duty, whereas if you bought them as 10 lots of £100 each, it would add up £100 dealing charge's, but the total stamp duty would still be £5. Apart from dividend reinvestment, I personally wouldn't top up for less than £10,000 a go.

"And was it a buy, or a sell?"

You can't define an off exhange trade in terms of Bid and Asking price; It's a negotiated trade between two parties, usually based on the On Exchange price, but not always.

"Typical - last half hour it has started dropping to the lows of the day"

It isn't surprising, since it's a Friday and the Ukraine Russia debacle is ongoing. The pro's wont want to locked into positions over the weekend, just in case.

"God this dividend stuff has been a terror ride, in the time the likes of amazon have 4xd their shares buying U.K. dividends has cost most people half their capital. Buy growth"

Isn't that contrarian in the current inflationary environment? You're advising to buy Growth, just as there's a rotation into value.

"I must admit that autocorrect always catches me out with your username too, Fleccy. (I kept a special eye on that one, though ;) )"

There are a few, I've filtered, who just use it to take the pi55