Member Info for MarketViking

I dunno, Convb. Sometimes things just go against us! I recently came away from what was supposed to be a routine visit to the car workshop feeling pretty much like I'd been whacked over the head with a tyre-iron and body slammed into a vehicle inspection pit! :-0 As for the VLS...well heck...it's only one position, isn't it? And it was always going to be a medium-to-longterm play, as far as I was (and am) concerned. So...y'know...

I'd say there is a balance to be struck here Jzchat. I agree (of course) that extortionate and wasteful spending is a bad thing. But equally, if an early stage technology company were understaffed with third-raters and operating on a damned shoestring budget, then...well...that company probably isn't going places. So we have to take a balanced view, IMO. Perhaps you are right that they could reduce spending to some degree. But I doubt whether they are being _massively_ profligate.

Thing is Jzchat, you and me and (the other shareholders) are capitalists, who hope to get a nice little return on (let's be perfectly blunt) other folks' sweat and toil. The only way this is morally justifiable is if we are also assuming some risk...right?? If (heaven forbid) it crashes and burns, then we take a loss. But if it succeeds, then we get a nice little pile of money - merely in exchange for a new clicks on our computers!

As for the travel expenses and whatnot...well...maybe they are going on riotous booze fuelled jollies to Las Vegas at our expense? But then again, maybe not? Maybe they really ARE working flat-out to build a big profitable enterprise on (so far) three continents? Maybe they are spending a lot of time on their laptops in hotel rooms and airport lounges, working like absolute troopers towards an end goal which will put some nice money into OUR pockets - while all we are doing is sitting on sun loungers sipping cold beer!!

I take your point, Garry. I understand the frustration. But, as a long term value investor, I honestly think I would feel more concerned if a company at this critical stage had a rickety skeleton crew of monkeys who were being paid peanuts!

(But again, I totally agree that we want to see progress! The timing of this stuff also has a political hinter-ground, IMO.)

@Garry: "...we don't have any strategy..."

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I mean, they might possibly beg to differ to differ about this...? :-)

But why not write Henrik Wareborn a good old stiff letter and tell him how disappointed you are to see him drawing a salary while you are still a-waiting to see a return on your investment? Actually I already kind of know what his reply to this point would be, because he was asked something similar at an investor's meeting a couple of years back. I think what he would say is: "in the end our investors should make a lot of money". (And hey, he might even be right...)

For me, the question today isn't whether to sell. It is whether to BUY.

@Russel

You are precisely right - people are driven by emotion. And sadly, this is how retail investors sometimes get really badly burned! They panic, and sell at a horrible loss. Then someone else gobbles up the cheap shares and ultimately makes a killing! (Of course, nothing is certain. Sometimes things do go bad. But as I've said, people should not be overexposed to any one single position to begin with.)

My point is that people shouldn't have been overexposed to the point where they have to react precipitously to "alarm bells". Nothing is certain - ever. Any single stock could plunge. That's the nature of the game. It's also a fact that the folks who buy in the basement sometimes end up making an absolute killing in the long run! Unless I HAD TO sell, I would be disinclined to sell at a 40% discount to another investor - just to see him being potentially 1500% up in 2 or 3 years time...

Not a good day at the office for sure. But right now I'm (very seriously) considering some buying :-)

Fortune is, after all, to the brave...

The bit I genuinely can't fathom is why folks are selling out big at this level?? Unless someone was "all-in" (and you'd be mad to be overexposed with ANY one stock) it doesn't seem to make sense. This is (and always was) a medium-long term play. You have to be able to weather the storm, so to speak. Of course, what will be will be. Maybe the naysayers will, after all, prove to be right? I don't think so. In 2 or 3 years I think it will be a very different story. But selling out now for a 40% loss or whatever!? That seems like crazy panicky behaviour to me :-0

Drax77: "...I dip in and out of this chat and am puzzled why the user "Expatbrat" constantly bashes the stock. Surely if he hates it so much he won't be invested. So why is he posting constantly?..."

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One thing I have noticed (not just here but in various investment discussions online) there is very often an Expatbrat type figure. In other words, there is nearly always someone who claims not to be invested in a particular stock, and yet who almost obsessively posts about it; someone who pointedly ignores any positives and grossly exaggerates/amplifies the negatives. 'Why this is?' is an intriguing question. I basically see the following possibilities:

1.) They are old-style internet trolls looking for an emotional reaction, trying to stir up heated arguments, etc.

2.) They have a short position and are naive enough to suppose they can influence the market.

3.) They are cranks with a weird personal agenda - maybe disgruntled former employees, or the like.

Either way, they are ultimately a harmless irritant and can simply be ignored.

"...My Aunt Doreen could’ve made profit in that market, in fact it was harder to lose than it was to win!..."
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Well, perhaps. But then again, it may be that your Auntie D is a crafty old bird, who is in the habit of buying 'em low and selling 'em high? :-)

"...Today’s buys quite clearly just the Hargreaves Lansdown retail crowd. Sadly it’s that very crowd that often get stung..."
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I'm an HL dude myself. About a year and half ago I made 30K on this stock within about 3 trading days. If that's 'getting stung', then by all means bring on the wasps :-D

The media & general public in the UK is still largely in the dark about SAF, and certainly hasn't grasped that the current government (and Labour opposition too for that matter) are very strongly committed to developing a SAF industry here in the UK. And VLS are, indeed, one of the companies that has been singled out for development support.
In my humble opinion there is 10x upside potential (within a short-to-medium term) from where the SP is at the time of writing this.

I've got a feeling. It could be wrong - sure. But I've got a gut feeling. I think today COULD be a very good day, gentlemen.
Happy hunting!

@Spot7 The markets owe me their daughters, cattle and corn! :-D

Meh, I dunno 2phevs, I was just being tongue-in-cheek really. But (as has been pointed out) it feels slightly unusual that they are keeping the name under wraps, and yet still dropping an announcement... Time'll tell, I guess.
(As for my position in VLS, I wish the heck I had more available liquid funds right now! While the SP is in the toilet is the exact time to be loading up the truck to point where the axles sag!)

I hope it wasn't....ehrm....Silicon Vally Bank (UK)...? :-0
(I guess it doesn't take an investment-Einstein to see why right now might not be a brilliantly great time to go public on that one...)

Since end of 2019 the region of 4p has been a pretty hard support, wouldn't you say MM? If it holds, I guess we should expect to see a bit of a rally - even in the absence of fresh news...?

There are various theories. Some say he was fired for reversing into a tree while parking the CEO's car. Personally, I suspect he got burned in the past for undisciplined buying.
The time to be buying VLS is on days like...well...TODAY. (I just picked up a tranche at under 4p!)