Member Info for HarChris

That is not the point I was making - most shares fell as the world entered the pandemic but some far more than others. In general companies with a high debt to equity ratio saw the steepest declines as they were at a little more risk of collapsing (see the likes of cineworld for example).

Seeing as even last year the company was able to reduce its net debt I'm very very optimistic here...

The biggest risk to Stagecoach and the reason it fell so dramatically last year at the start of the pandemic from ~145p to a low of~ 35p was the debt - and yet in the last twelve months they've actually been able to make a profit and reduce net debt.

That surely bodes well for a recovery to 100p once the broader markets look stronger again?

Larry, it was more to do with the fact that motley fool never ever gives novacyt a buy rating. We've done the comparison on here with EKF many times and the difference seems pretty stark...

https://www.fool.co.uk/investing/2021/07/14/3-of-the-best-penny-stocks-to-buy-now/

Novacyt? No they've gone for EKF - f*** off!

In a sense it's undervalued OWLS and in another it isn't. Of course it's only worth what people are willing to pay for it but share prices usually revert to the level commanded by the fundamentals - and the fundamentals are very strong.

Once sentiment turns back in our favour investors will look ahead to what the company should look like in a post pandemic world - prior to covid profit was increasing year on year and during this time the balance sheet has been strengthened and the company have picked up more business.

More recent broker targets are unanimous in their valuation, that this is worth 340p-360p in time.

I think it was just bombastic Boris wanting a more symbolic end of restrictions 'freedom day' and a narrative of 'we've kicked the pandemic into touch' whereas the scientists wanted restrictions to stay in place.

In the end it's a sort of compromise.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/covid-uk-antibodies-herd-immunity-b1879643.html

Dan, the restrictions last winter led to record low numbers of flu as a side effect. The ideal scenario is a new way of life where we introduce masks during the winter to protect the vulnerable against both flu and covid. Eventually that should be possible without it reinforcing fear in the minds of the average person.

We also need to understand relative risk. Every death is sad but knowing that during a bad flu season as many as 500 people die a day (over the three month winter period) does help put things in context.

The current limbo is 'will the rapidly increasing case numbers lead to a significant rise in hospitalisation or not?'

If in a few weeks the data looks positive the narrative will switch to a more positive one and stocks like NEX will start to look very attractive to investors again...

CHRI55 herd immunity is arguably already here...It's worth remembering that around 90% of the UK now has coronavirus antibodies, with that predicted to be above 95% by the end of July - we know the vaccine/infection doesn't provide 100% protection against severe disease but even against the delta variant protection is high...

Comparisons with Far as well as Largo are insightful...
Share price as of today: FAR..BMN..........................................................LGO
Where they should be? :FAR.......................BMN................................ LGO

Fair?

Let's not forget that catching covid also provides relative immunity and around 35 million americans have had confirmation of positive test with the real figure estimated closer to 100 million. When you add that (allowing for a huge overlap) to the vaccine numbers that's a pretty large proportion of the country with immunity...

It's probably the gambler and competitor in me, I like to mix it up on AIM and try to see if I can make it out alive.

Whether you call it rigged or whatever of course powerful entities with the most money and insight are going to have an edge - I accept and understand that I am taking my chances by investing in companies on AIM and have no one but myself to blame if I blow it.

What the miners do with their bitcoin plays an important role in forecasting - Argo alongside many of the other large miners switched to a HODL strategy earlier in the year as, amongst other things, a signal to the market of how bullish they were in the short term. It's backfired somewhat now but that's the point of investing in Argo vs bitcoin, you are backing a team of people to get those decisions right more often than not...

What's particularly funny is the couple of small time day traders who end up chatting to themselves all morning and seemingly predicting the price movement wrong far more commonly than they predict right!

Obviously as the Argo share price falls the projected PE goes lower alongside...

K3VMC, let's move on now. The 269 figure was just pure stupidity and obviously related to last year's PE (when bitcoin was below $10k all year pretty much). At the same time I was also pointing that Argo are also not trading at a PE of 4, that is itself wrong.

We meet in the middle and find that they are currently commanding a not so high PE of something in the range of 10 to 15.

Hexam, I did add 'this does offer up a buying opportunity no doubt about it' not 'this is expensive and you should sell!'

Hence I'm implicitly agreeing with what you just said.

A dip in online spending but that won't likely be Boohoo who have the marketing budget and savvy to keep attracting shoppers back in a way that other online retailers aren't able to.

Well there's even more confirmation of it today Kitty...