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Dumb article, journalist recommends selling on the basis that you've made enough money as it is if you got in low even though the person she is referring to is recommending a buy?

Quit while you’re ahead with William Hill
Jill Treanor
Sunday September 27 2020, 12.01am BST, The Sunday Times
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Just after lunchtime on Friday, an announcement sent William Hill’s share price off at a gallop. The FTSE 250 bookmaker confirmed a Bloomberg report and said it was on the receiving end of not just one but two bids.

It was rocket fuel for the stock, which eventually ended the day at 312p — 43% higher on the day and back to where it was in mid-2018.

The bidders — Caesars Entertainment, owner of Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, and private equity firm Apollo — are not so interested in the chain of shops on UK high streets. The £2 limit on fixed-odds betting terminals, cut from £100, led to the closure of 700 William Hill stores, and other rules have also been tightened. Gambling using credit cards was banned in April.

What the bidders really want is exposure to the bookie’s operations in America, where William Hill has a 29% market share, taking one in every four legal sports bets. It has the potential to be a fast-growing market, as sports betting was legalised just two years ago and is being adopted by a number of states. William Hill has partnerships with CBS Sports and casino operator Eldorado — which changed its name to Caesars after buying out the business this summer.

This is likely to be the future growth engine of William Hill, which was founded in 1934 and now employs 12,000 people. Sales last year were £1.6bn — 8% of them generated in the US — resulting in £147m of profits.

A year ago, The Sunday Times revealed that William Hill had held abortive talks about a £6bn merger with Caesars in 2018 — a move interpreted at the time as putting the bookie in play.

William Hill has missed out on merger action in the past. In 2016, rivals Rank and 888 were suitors, while its preferred option, a deal with Amaya of Canada, failed.

London-listed rivals have already got together. Paddy Power and Betfair merged in 2015, while GVC has hoovered up Ladbrokes Coral.

The key question for investors after the share price raced away on Friday is whether there is more to come. Greg Johnson, an analyst at broker Shore Capital who issued a buy recommendation just 24 hours before the bid news, is sceptical about the merits of a private equity takeover.

He sees more merit in the offer from Caesars, putting a price on William Hill’s US operations of about 300p a share — with potentially 100p a share for the rest.

Johnson maintains his buy stance. But for those who backed the £224m fundraising in June at 128p, it might be a nervous wait — and a good opportunity to leave the racecourse with a profit. Sell.

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Shaking here, just found out. Been avoiding the price for 3 weeks

'If anyone is to sell its always worth waiting for US market to open with this share before doing so.'

I guess its easy to say in hindsight, but it could have gone the other way.

I know a well respected long term trader who is still bullish on this and recommending his clients follow the trend on this,

Not at all, all my funds, gold and silver are at all-time highs.

Some options:.
1. Take out your original investment and keep it in cash or put it in an isa into a decent global fund like Scottish mortgage or fundsmith. Keep researching William hill carefully before you decide what to do with the rest.
2. Automatically cash out roughly 4% of your shares every month for 2 years so you get more of an average price of the share for the next 2 years rather than trying to time the best time to cash out. Can adjust the percent and time to suit yourself.

3. Take it all out, do not invest into anything again before you learn properly about investing and do heavy research and be happy that you've done better than the vast majority of first time investors. Do research into fomo as if you do take it all out and it keeps going up you might be tempted to make irrational decisions.

If i were you I would take out the full amount i originally put it in and put it into Scottish mortgage or fundsmith, a fund is investing in 100s of companies and is generally a lot safer than a single share. Scottish mortage is up 1000% in the last ten years but is heavy into tech stocks that some people think are in a bubble. Fundsmith is more an all rounder. Then decide on how long more I want to invest in william hill, for me it would be 3 years as i expect them to meet their potential by this time. Then with the rest take out whatever percent meets this time frame.

Also id advise trying to be very appreciative for the money you have made and that you done this well for the first time investing. I came into a large amount of money (6 figures) betting on Trump to be President. And threw away half of it gambling and investing in crypto. Be wary that a lot of people who come into money easily, lose it easily and do not make the same mistake. Maybe even buy the guy who tipped you off a present?!

Good luck, hope this helps.

Exapt - yeah i couldn't find anything major that was a red flag. I was disappointed that California didnt get the go ahead, but it did seem like a long shot.
Panic can make you do irrational things though, this shares price movement in the last 6 months is a perfect example of that. In the back of my mind i was always worried that there was something majorly wrong that we didn't know about behind the scenes that was tanking the price.
@novice42 yeah like a baby lol, think ill be more mentally prepared if the price goes down heavily again though. I invested in this for the long term as i thought the price i got it at will look laughably low in a few years. What im doing though was/is very irresponsible, but im sticking with it as i believe in the business.
By the way this is the highest the price has been at the end of a trading day since late February!!

I was very close to selling at around 1.15 out of panic , i wasn't sleeping with the stress i had pressed sell and just needed to accept the price but couldn't bring myself to do it.
I sat down and done an analysis of the company and honestly answered questions such as , do i think the company is well run,where do i see the price in 1 year, 2, 3 etc. Do i think the quarterly results will be good. Everything was positive and it settled my mind down,i had then agreed with myself to wait until the quarterly results on the 5th and if the price went below £1 i would sell half and keep the rest for very long term. Luckily all has been amazing since the results.
Really feel for those that have sold low, was so weird that it dropped dramatically for no major reason.

Feel sorry for the guy who sold out a month ago for 888. Patience has definitely been rewarded here. Amazing 3 weeks after a hellish 2 months or so.

I wouldn't recommend it @ novice it was stupid and wreckless of me, but i'm seeing it through for long term, got it at 1.09 then sold a third at 1.59 then brought back in that 1/3rd at 1.43. So not sure on the maths but its probably around 1.05-1.08.
Been a nightmare seeing it drop from 1.62 been on sleeping pills because i couldnt sleep with the anxiety and everything i have a problem lol. Was on the **** friday as i was celebrating. In two years though it'll be flying.

coming back up now!!! WHat a volatile share

need to just sell this bloody thing, 40k on it was mental of me. Thought the nightmare was over after last week. Never a dull day, drops 8% when the market is up . wtf???

ftse250 is up as well, this share will be the death of me.

Investors going dumb again, predictable.

i gave her asss a good auld william hill rimming to say good bye

Been over 2 months since we've seen 4 blue days in a row. Heres a pint to the patient ones who went through hell and didn't sell. Was tough going. Only way is up now. God i love william hill more rhan my **** of a wifel x

Yeah its a solid investment, i wont be selling for a good few years, it nice to see it go up. I'm aiming for £2.50 - £3 before id consider selling,
Give matched betting a try if you haven't, its not as good as it was as a lot more people are doing it and offers are not as good, and they are tighter with security now but still money in it.

I think 1.60 is a fair price now with the constant uncertainty and threat of coronavirus, id have it 2.10 otherwise. bank of England said ftse100 wont get back to pre Corona levels until late next year?!