Member Info for mark-expat

good for you , it is a pitty you did not do it on the lows on mon/tues prior to ex-div , did try to flag it without being accused of ramping , fingures crossed , news should be out in an hour or so , certainly over the weekend. Regardless of bid , FP is ripe for the picking by others and has many disposals up its sleeve to get this towards the £2 in short order , imo.

Went ex-div wed 16.04 so that is indeed why the sp fell and if you were holding the shares at close on 15.04 you qualify for div. Obviously if you were shorting via a cfd , you would pay the div out but if on a long , you would receive the div , hope this helps , byeeee

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/investing-and-markets/tips-and-tactics/article.html?in_article_id=440272&in_page_id=23&ito=1565

-hope you got out heyhey,gl

I thought I may have read somewhere that FP may have ammended their ex-div date from 16.04 to a another date , I may be wrong and cannot find any ammend notes so guess goes ex-div as noted ,ie. 16.04. I know that Flowers have warned FP that if they pay the dividend that the price offered will drop , presumambly pro-rata , and that alll deals are meant to be off if FP do not want to open talks by end of play Friday. If anyone has the ex-div date different than 16.04 , please advise, thanks

... as a day trader , i will see what happens with the ftse and dow over monday , tuesday and how rto sp sits. I think that with the recent shakeup and bounce in sp as a result and recent profit take that their should be a reasonable level of support after it goes ex divi to justify buying in on any weakness monday / tuesday taking the divi wednesday and then either selling first thing wednesday or holding on if the ftse/dow decides that it wants to regain some of its recent losses. I agree with you , a likely earner over the next week but like all stocks , subject to the ftse/dow softening or bouncing back off recent lows. I posted on AAA re a plan of action that may be of interest to you , I will post on this having talked this through with my banks next week , have a good weekend , mark

how did the pizza go? Well done on your gain on the DOW, great news. It would be good for allnew to have alternatives so thanks for your posting re the post office. I will also mention both these to friends who travel for their hols to the states. I am thankfull that I set myself up with a bank account in the USA years ago and shuffle dollars into it when the dollar shows weakness. I have had a few thoughts on me living in france and having to my income from the UK to Europe , a cunning plan , need to stress test it next week having met up with my banks here in France , but might well save significant monies for those with a high euro spend and income derrived from uk..keep u posted , enjoy the weekend..

Just in case you feel that I may be deramping BA , I respect the views of others and would wish my views to be read openly and with respect. I currently short BA. The likes of Goldman Sachs has BA as a sell with a target price of 200. Oil is continuing its rise. BA have postponed their move to T5.BAA who operate the terminals at Heathrow are likely to have their debts reduced to Junk status. Several small-medium sized airtlines went into bankcruptcy last week. Tourist traffic from the states to europe will probably be at an all time low due to the weak dollar and the lowest recorded consumer sentiment figures released for 25 years. Nobody knows how the OpenSkies agreements will effect BA traffic. BA is having to write off millions from the T5 fiasco. Moral within BA is at an alltime low with calls for senior management changes. The DOW is on a slide dragging down the FTSE 100 , if this continues over the next 3 trading sessions , with BA going ex-div on Wednesday , their shares are likely to drop 3% before wednesday and a further 3% on Wednesday , as noted , if the next 3 sessions are weak , which is looking more likely than not. I do not think that a recovery for BA will take effect this year , jimo , and the SP , as stated continually , will be closer to 200 than 250.

http://www.caxtonfxcard.com/home.asp

Hi allnew , I have looked into this for you and the best I can suggest is that you apply for a caxton fx pre pay card. It works as if it is a credit card and atm card. The difference is that you do not suffer any charges over and beyond a 3 dollar / £1.50 cash point withdrawl , nothing for payments such as fuel / hotels / supermarkets , etc. As it is not a credit card you will not be refused as you have to transfer cleared funds into it. The advantage here is that you can go to the likes of Currency UK , http://www.currencyuk.co.uk/private-clients/ , or any other specialist currency dealer who will give you a far better dollar conversion rate than any high street bank , etc. You simply transfer what you expect to spend in dollars , or more if you want to hold dollars at a good rate but I doubt that they pay interest , and hey presto you have a working card for dollars. The card costs a deposit of £10 / dollars to set up which they then credit to your card when you transfer funds onto it. In addition you can simply transfer sterling directly to them and ask them to convert it themselves , currently at 1.94 , as I say you may get cheaper by going to a specialist currrency company as noted , but still this is a good rate. You can also have additional cards at £5 a throw. I think this should help you , mark.

never heard that motorhead one before , great one liners

I am a bit of an old rocker and planet rock uk over the internet is great to listen to in between bloomburg , etc , motorhead really going for it right now..

..this link should be a must read. I can see all the market makers sniffing and agreeing at the same time! Maybe Gordon should apoint a drug zsar on the board of economic policy to give some other technical data input! LOL..great post.

I went in on lsb when we were last talking about buys not showing , I CFD'd if you remember. We were also talking about price being held back , etc. I was in at 5.1 and sold when the sell price hit 5.3 as I was , frankly , unsure about LSB in general as the more closer I looked at them , ie. when I realised that I was holding more shares than some of the LSB directors and that they what were holding was less in value than what they paid 2 minimum wage employees. The fact they were also clearly not confident enough to buy in themselves at these values is , to me , a statement in itself. I then went to sell my holding and could not in a lump so had to sell in tranches. I came out just ahead with a small profit but only because the window was opened for an hour or so at 5.3 to sell. I also did not like the continued , to me , wide spread , so when it closed in my favour I grabbed my opportunity.

I shudder to think what would happen if the pound levels out at 1.25 or less and then joins the euro currency at 1.25 or less to the pound and in the meantime the dollar has strengthened. That puts my biggest assets , ie. the values on my care home business in the Uk into real question.

..I have been buying the dollar recently as I have property in the bahamas that needs developing , one day , and see the last few months and now as a buying opportunity.

... it could well prove a nice move on CFM's part....I will list to you of a few other significant plays going on in Zimbawe. Whilst exporters from the us must love the dollar right now and those waching over trade defos remain on watch , now doubt the dollar could well strengthen given time but I personally believe that the us government wants to maintain these lows right now. For me , I see the US turning things around in the mid term and in the mid term the uk economy slowing further with an eventual drag factor hitting europe last,jimo. I also see strengthening arguements for the UK joining the Euro currency should the UK economy continue to weaken further. A strugle in economic power is always in play , but I think we are overdue a big balancing act and I have to best position myself in where I think these shifts will best work for me. I am lucky in that I have a good assets both in the UK and Europe but wish to start reducing this exposure , capitalising upon from a position of strength , and start entering into what I perceive as recovery markets. From a lifestyle point of view , europe has also become grey in so much as everything is becoming, well eurofied , and many nice quirks that individual countries once had are no longer retained as countries bow to their european political masters.

I think such a move would also best place us for any recovery signs in the US as I see a worsening situation developing in the UK , certainly over the next few years , and as we remain flexible about where we live , as long as we can retain the french language and education for our children , it would seem the most seisible thing to do. Looked at Montreal and the likes , but having done a months tour with the family , it was a majority vote to keep south for the warmth alone.

I cannot see the pound recovering against the euro in any meaningful way and also the pounds weakness as a gathering of momentum to push out the pound all together. This is also of concern to me as I have pretty substantial property interests in the UK and see these devaluing rapidly if the Euro comes into play. For those , like me , who derive income from the UK , I am pretty much seeing my cost of living increasing by 20% , just through the exchange rates and I can capitalise nicely by the cashing in of my property portfolio and taking advantage of placing the euro cash rescources either into the UK or indeed the USA as I have business and personal accounts over in the USA as we were to live in California having scourced a business that would work for us. We decided against going through due to the Iraq war kicking off and our then opinion that the American economy might well struggle. As the dollar is now at it's lows and euro at is highest , I consider that renting a nice property for six months in Louisiana for us will satisfy both the realisation of assets tied up in Europe whilst they have , imo , reached their highs , and reduce substantially our cost of living by enjoying the lows of the dollar against our UK income.

...purely property and the aquisition of key small business players. I am ready to launch into Zimbabwe at a drop of a hat and consider that Zimbabwe has pretty much bottomed out and that it just needs Mugabe to hand over power and good control mechs introduced via MDC to encourage stronger investment. I have trades going through through the Joburg Exchange re rescource companies and stocks are showing recovery , once stabilty and infaltion are under control , Zimbabwe will be one of the recovery stories of this century. I would certainly not consider moving with my family as there are still many who look at whites with contempt , regardless of who's in power. I have no problems with such a risk whilst doing business on the ground as I would always have private security alongside , a neccessary business ex in my view. If , I were to seriously consider a move with the family it would be to louisiana in the USA as they follow the french education system and have strong french routes and great cajun food. I would stay away from the gulf of mexico coastal towns for risk of flooding , but I am winding up various properties I have in France and will be sending the monies to the UK to profit from the the recent fall of the pound against the euro and simply place all funds in deposit as you get a great interest rate and I want the cash to be on hand to be able to invest quickly.