Member Info for Hexam

*simpler

I cannot put in any simply than I have already done.

If you cannot see this and just admit that you are wrong then so be it. No wonder you cannot accept proof of man made climate change if you cannot even accept proof of, as you put it, pre-school maths.

No - he said 142 to 300 is a rise of 111%. The rise is 300 - 142 = 158.

158 is 111% of 142.

The rise is therefore 111%.

You've got to be kidding me. Are you being serious????????

er...142p to 300p is a rise of 111% NOT 211%. One point to VP as this is what he said. 300p is 211% of 142p but that is something different.

"Wow this guy is a narcissist. Not even reading that post. Hilarious lack of self awareness."

I was thinking exactly the same thing. Except probably about someone else.

"That numbers are since Christmas Eve mate check the news again ."

No, they're not. I think this was only true for Northern Ireland though there is probably some catching up for the other UK nations too. Today's figure is 203. Personally I don't think there should be or will be any more lockdowns but the virus (including Omicron) is still killing people and not sure why Gazzleberry is getting grief for showing a bit of compassion.

Jtan - The figures that Fugazi quotes for the amount of cash IAG are burning through each week are (close to) those reported in the last two quarterly accounts - but they are figures for costs only and so ignore any revenue. So pretty meaningless.

Ford - I didn’t say it could be stopped. Lockdowns slow it down which was required before, pre-vaccine, but I don’t think so now with vaccines now in place and a milder variant dominant. So I agree.

Yes some of the cases currently being reported are due to the extra testing going as they wouldn't have been picked up before - especially among the asymptomatic. But one of the reasons there is more testing is that there ARE more cases and so more people need to be tested. So a bit of both.

Thanks for such a sensible, balanced post @notaflipper in amongst all the daft ones making claims like lockdowns don't reduce spreading. Of course they do - including for Omicron. The less people mix the slower a virus spreads and the lockdowns were needed when there wasn't a vaccine to bring down the large numbers of hospitalisations and deaths. Now I don't think lockdowns are likely (unless the numbers do play out as you suggest they might) and certainly travel bans came too late in the day to stop Omicron spreading - and only a full travel ban could have stopped it anyway - and only temporarily.

Personally where, like the UK, there have been large numbers vaccinated I think any lockdown now will do much more harm than good and if the numbers of hospitalisations remain relatively low then would expect current restrictions/testing requirements to begin to be eased quite soon.

@Chuz - Unless something's changed I thought the first machines (i.e. those in title of this thread) were due in Texas Q2 2022 as per 30/9 RNS:

"Argo Blockchain, a global leader in cryptocurrency mining (LSE: ARB; NASDAQ: ARBK), is pleased to announce that it has executed a purchase agreement for 20,000 Bitmain Antminer S19J Pro machines, to be paid in periodic installments before final shipment. The initial deposit is currently being funded by the Company's cash reserves. The machines are expected to increase Argo's hashrate by over 2 Exahash and are expected to be delivered and installed at the Company's future Texas facility in monthly batches from Q2 2022 through Q3 2022."

I think this uses about a third of the initial 200mW capacity so plenty more machines and funding required to fill it out (including any outstanding funding needed for these initial machines) but it's a start.

K3 - "I thought PW said his machines had already paid for themselves. Not so?"

Partly so. The old miners probably have paid for themselves now but obviously those just installed haven't.

In any event what I think we're talking about here is reported profits not return on investment. The cost of machines is spread over 3 years to avoid very lumpy costs distorting the profits - and doing this will also make the profits generally look higher whilst the company is growing.

Suggesting ARB is break-even at $5-10k is disingenuous at best but I don't think PW was suggesting this but was just responding to a question and gave the 'marginal' cost of producing BTC. Other people do take it as the full cost though and it is simply wrong to do so. If BTC falls to $10k ARB will report losses (at least until other revenues come into play).

ARB cost per BTC is roughly:

$5-10k if include just hosting and electricity
$10-15k if also include cost of machines
$15-20k if include everything

Take your pick…

Afternoon FP!

Yes it helps but, speaking of Tesco, agree that these metrics can be misleading as it's like a supermarket quoting the profit on sausages but only including the cost of the ingredients. Such metrics are useful but as always need to be treated with caution especially when evaluating overall profit or comparing different companies. Sadly though, many don't get past the headlines...

Agree Flowerpot though I think there is still another 100PH or so to be added.

"Sweden - cumulative excess deaths during 2021 - 33% lower than Norway and 40% lower than Finland. 70% lower than UK.
Lowest in Europe."

And if you include 2020 when the virus began? Funny how including all the data gives a very different picture. But you probably already knew that.

I don't think you can say that the Swedes "totally won Covid" as their death rate is over 5x higher than that of neighbouring Finland and Norway.

Having said that I don't disagree with their approach though I don't think it would have worked so well in the UK.

In any event it looks like the tide has turned with the less severe Omicron dominating infections. I really don't buy any of this government control stuff, media running governments or conspiracy theories generally. Democratic governments tend to all have one thing on their mind and that is getting re-elected and surely opening up the economy is better way of achieving that than keeping it locked down. They are also responsible though for the lives of their citizens so I don't blame them for being cautious. Given half a chance though I think they will all start relaxing the rules should the hospitalisation numbers stay under control and once someone starts the ball rolling among the leading nations with the UK and US being the current frontrunners. Looking far more promising than it has been for a long time. Hopefully it stays that way.

"We’ve got to let something in Pluto go otherwise if everyone else felt the same there would be nothing to IPO."

Hi Wolf - sorry, I don't get this comment. Are you implying that the IPO will consist of existing private shares being offered to the public? I may be wrong but I thought the IPO would consist of the issue of new shares on top of the existing private shares. The private shares would simply convert to public shares and so existing shareholders would then have the opportunity to sell on the public market when it begins trading.

So if argo want to retain their 25% holding they would need to buy a quarter of the new shares. Or they could not take part, keep their existing holding and just see their % drop or sell some/all when the stock starts trading.

Apologies if I have misunderstood your comment.

"I would put money on a RI and anybody invested should have made provision for buying a full allocation".

Why? I'm invested and if I don't have the spare cash at the time then I'll simply sell the rights - this will have the same value at the time as taking up the rights will - that's the way it works. Or I could sell some of the rights to purchase the rest. Even if I do have the spare cash then, I can't decide now whether I would take up the rights at some unknown point in the future as it will depend on the sp at the time and whether I think this represents a value investment. If they did it today I probably would take up the rights but tomorrow, who knows? I'm certainly not going to hold money back now for something that may never happen and even if it does I can't be sure now whether I would want to partake or not.

I don't think there will be an RI so probably all academic anyway!

It was Smithy back posting under a new name - but quickly meeting the same fate it seems…