Member Info for JohnLewis79

Starts today in pub comp..Looks about £250-300 to the winner. I'm on WB, go Baggies!!

Investing in? At this early stage by that I mean pre any sales and revenues one has to consider whether Sphere has a 'brand' name product required on a consistent basis that people have to carry to be in business. I think Sphere conforms to that. It has a product that is unique, wears out fast or rather is used up quickly and is more or less guaranteed to have repeat business. Hospitals that use Proxima have to carry the sensors to look after their patients. A point often overlooked is pricing policy. Sphere are the sole provider of this type of bga and so if there are a large number of hospitals requiring P the hospitals have to pay the Sphere price thus giving Sphere the pricing advantage. You could say there is a moat around Proxima or might be in the future if Sphere can turn the device into a brand-name product. McDonald's did it with the a lump of meat which is now renowned for its quality, convenience and affordability. While flipping burgers and blood gas testing are poles apart the basics are the same, used quickly, repetitive service and consistently in need of. We may not be sitting on a jackpot of gold but uniquely situated as we are, high returns for owners is on the cards if we become the only game in town.

Agree this has all the hallmarks of JFK & the Cuban crisis of the 60's. The tubby little squirt needs putting in his place and while Trump talks a good game let's see if he can walk his talk. Appeasing the NK regime will most likely be a waste of time. Best solution would be a putsch ridding his impoverished country of the little oik! The Nikkei has steadied this morning and London is called flat at opening.

Forget what's not happening here.....beginning to think investors are taking money off the table...I would to build up cash reserves if I had any...

Spo wins contract to supply all betting technologies to Denmark... Shares certain to go lower...oh yea they did. Good news always sends your share value lower as does bad news.... fact of the corrupt Lse. I guess ignore the....day to day...the month to month...year to year...jeez why does one bother?

Wonder how many pis left in Sphere at 6? An Insignificant no for sure, even if at one time there was a significant no, perhaps a couple of hundred, now days we are mere hangers on tolerated at best. However the role of a pis has changed dramatically over the years at one time a force for change when bods gave us the time of day and we felt part of the team/business which after all we part owned and now most likely a short term trader with no interest in the health of the company. I guess some would say that's progress in this instant fix world of churning stocks. Boards these days probably do not have the time to cultivate an owner partner of pis more interested in the next Q numbers and to be fair many pis don't recognise themselves as % owners of a business more a casino chip dependent on a lucky spin of the roulette wheel. Most investors don't really have the time to monitor their shares preferring the unit trust / funds route. That way you can blame the fund manager if he underperforms. Perhaps I should have taken that road but it would be long and boring...and i don't see a BB for Jupiter Asset Management! Deffo not for me!

Make you right jolly. Atm investors here are not compensated for the risks via a reasonable div return. Having (x) thousands tied up in a non producing non appreciating asset ain't much of a prospect when you factor in the geo and currency factors. Most of us are only too well aware of this and when you add the market rarely give suckers an even break the delights of investing in Zam casts a spell over ones enthusiasm. At 12.25 any decent upside looks forlorn and I have reduced putting this down to another one of my misguided long term holds. As ever events guide my trades as opposed to small lot sells forcing my hand. Trumpton and NK do not help and stocks at daily highs make me even more nervous. I fully intend to be out of all stocks by Oct 1 accepting my useless blood thing which is on its sare so hardly counts..

Looks like an accelerated book build ie..(not you and me) is the likely outcome...perhaps I should have said the tempered book build as 'discussions' continue! Best stay shtum until sometime in Sept, take your guess...the first or thirty first? Not many will be that bothered apart from a few lonely souls stranded here waiting for the inevitable 100m dilution. Tomorrow I'll try and put a positive spin on the on going delays....maybe! But as of now it looks forlorn in that we will get the cash but another 18 months to produce revenues we can half assess to a DCF model looks pretty impossible. By then the mrkt cap might well be saying who cares about intrinsic value, investors 'gut feelings' rule.

Tough living out in leafy Surrey rugs! Watching the women show the men how to play running rugby (ITV4)...Eng v Spain.

Back from pub...slightly the worse for wear! Trouble in my case is before or after makes no difference. So,....What to do?

Having a pint boosts creativity and productivity. According to a study downing a pint boosted test scores in 132 people who were given a range of creative tasks. In one word association test alcohol increased scores by 40 per cent. Wonder whether stock picking was one or indeed whether a pint or two might help? Did not help WB who is a non drinker. Does not help me a drinker!

11/20 last trades have been sells....just saying....

WB has $100bn sitting in cash. Is it that he cannot find anything that fits his investment criteria? Perhaps he's being ultra cautious waiting for a sell off in stocks or worse? There might be a tip there if this bull rum which started back in '09 comes to an abrupt end. I remember the '87 crash which came out of the blue costing me most of my cash (caught in account trading) and heavy losses in shares I owned in cert form. Nobody rang a bell back then and nobody will now so WB position might be a pointer if you are nervous that stocks are hitting record highs almost daily. I had a lot more invested back in '87 so any losses I might incur in another crash will be much less.....anyway I intend to hold only one stock come Oct, well thats the plan. Guess which one?

Woodford acquired his shares at over 300 back in '15 and later supported a placing at 290 not long after. Currently some 80% down on the placing. After a call to management in July (sp 110) Woodford said they were reassured but would be monitoring the situation. Wonder if he's off loaded some of his shares?

Hits highest level (1002) since 2008 and up from 2009 lows of 475. Ytd Aim has advanced 19% outstripping the All Share, ftse 100 & 250 indices. Pity we didn't join in!

Would be proud of the ponzi scheme that is UBER. Did you see the BBC 2 prog on Silicon Valley last night? They cloak themselves in "were for the little guy" bullthis unlike the oil, Pharma & banks who look after No1. Of course we know different. Take UBER, in India it was great for early comers when Delhi had 100 drivers but UBER heavilly promoted the riches you could earn that soon Delhi had 10.000 UBER drivers chasing their tales earning zilch and landed with debts they could not repay, so they stayed at home the sheer nos of newcomers killed them. Simple economics tell you the bigger you grow making the nos become more and more difficult unless you are a Buffett and even he says you eventually run up against the laws of diminishing returns, you cannot escape that simple fact however many Billions of $ the market says you are worth.. Once UBER run out of new territories they are done. No one knows how the disruptive technologies of SV will impact on world economies and what the consequences will be but it won't be good for the earning power of the majoriry of workers. Automation will make a 3 day week like you winning the lottery and that's before artificial intelligence takes over everything, when there will be a Utopian no-day week for most as tech is exponentially improving so fast that we should be afraid, very afraid. How long before P becomes voice activated or even programmed to take 27 tests on an hourly basis leaving the staff free for other duties? There are people in the US who are so worried about the coming tech revolution that they are planning lives in remotest parts of America so as to survive the upheavals of the future and where the most important currency will be the 6 gun and the bullet. That might be far fetched but it's happening.

My father taught me many things but one I particularly remember was "stay out of hospitals after 65." So far so good. I have been lucky. He also leant me £10 for my first investment. That turned out unlucky. However the investment bug was born. So far so so. I kept meticulous records of all dealings up to the crash of '87 (did very well), thereafter for about 10 years I never bothered. Recovering my losses (a lot) took that long because I was so fearful of losing and was starting from a very low base that I missed many opportunities that I knew in my gut were good buys (Next at 10p) for instance. I swore that should I ever come across a cigar butt that had more than one puff left I would commit most of my available resources to buy the stock come what may. So here I am doing my brains in....on the last puff! Unless the sp recovers smartly I will be on soggy panatellas for the rest of my life.

Zimbabwe has filed a court application to enforce previous notices to seize more than half of platinum producer Zimplats mining land. This is an attempt by Mugabe's Govt to compulsory acquire 27948 hectares of its mining land.... (Reuters 2/8/17)..

Good post rev. Luckily my holding here is my least in terms of cash invested so am prepared to accept a higher risk quotient, namely the political number. That being so 60 looks way off for the foreseeable and I would be more than happy for 30 and even that looks doubtful short term....(next year). Your analysis is well reasoned but backing African Govt's to do the right thing?....I don't know. As ever like many o....lies the geo political stuff holds back the intrinsic value of many businesses and that is a terrible situation for an investor to battle against however good the underlying business may be. I am holding with an eye to folding as after 3 or so years I'm losing money here albeit only a penny or so. My other blood thing is a disaster the only ray of sunshine is my leisure stock which I have held since the early 80's and has shown me healthy gains. We know a stock can be moribund for years and then out of the blue it takes off....Zam could well be this type of stock so i'm hoping to see a big re-rate before my 5 year stretch is up! Current mrk cap makes little sense on the known knowns but then again it ain't written this will change for the better. I think it's healthy to be sceptical about stocks and their values after all its your financial wealth at stake but if you don't take risks you may as well buy Gilts. If I apportion % values to my tiny portfolio it would be (100+) (0/0) and (-70). If it wasn't for the 100+ I'd be down Carey st.

A reality check...how have u done v the ftse? 0ver one year the ftse is up 11.5% (with div +15%). Over 3 years +12.5% (+26%). Over 5 years +30% (+56%). Over 10 years +21% (+75%). (Source ST)..