Member Info for MrMath

"then buy 70% more shares back for the same investment"

If you sold before the 70% drop, ignoring stamp duty and dealing costs, you could buy back about 233% more shares for the same investment.

"I can't understand why it is trading at such a high P/E"

If you read the last few RNS's you will realise that the high P/E means the expectation for future earnings growth is high. Sometimes a high P/E does indicate a company is overvalued but the P/E ratio is only an indicator, so this is definitely not the case with AZN. Expecting the SP to zig-zag its way to £73 over the next 2 months. Good share to short if you're a masochist.

Difficult to go wrong with this share: trade or hold it always reaches new highs.

Still looking very good for £18 by September.

"I know someone who bought heavily into sxx when the price was 30p."

Can beat that, bought £40k's worth at 38p. Not my best investment - so far ...

"I sold 40000 @135p It was very hard and sickening losing all that money my average was 270p"

The phrase, "It's only a loss when you sell," is total BS. Yes, the tax man views it that way, but any serious investor should not.
One knows one's lost, even before the sale. The value of your portfolio is as it stands right now, not what it could be.

"I'm going to keep my direct share holding which is considerable for me, but going to try trade the swings in the sp"

Exactly what I am trying, but not so easy as my buy price of 12.1p for additional shares was too greedy so watched it rise back from 13.5p to over 16p without any extra. Also, difficult to know when to sell: one gets tempted to hold the additional shares when we see the price rising strongly. In principle should be easy as price will probably bob around the 13 to 16p range until September but in practice it will almost certainly not be so simple.

We've had to wait a while, but the renewed steady inexorable rise that was long overdue has begun.

" If I do decide to buy in at 13-14p, I will be setting a stop loss at 10p."

10p is less than 26% down on Friday's UT of 13.47p. Not a fan of Stop Losses as after my first two years of trading was thinking that a better name for them would be Create Losses. However, that said, SXX is my one share that could have benefited.

Had the right to buy 41,000 shares at 15p in the 1 for every 22 you own offer, but decided not to as I was already in too deep and had the feeling (thanks Stage 1) that it would drop well below 15p. So if I was going to risk buying even more the averaging down had to be significant and therefore put in a chunky buy order at 12.1p, which I've now cancelled as the SP dropped faster than expected. I make money on approximately 80% of my purchases but this share is really really hard to call!

Is there a point at which the SP could be so low that it might impact the construction schedule?

"I really wasn’t going to buy anymore ... if ... it hits singles I’ll have to do it."

Bellers, feeling the same way! (even though I'm down well into six figures already)

"Why don’t you just divide the total paid by the number of shares to get your average? It’s pretty fool proof."

That is essentially the way I look at my average, with

total paid = total debits (for buys) - total credits (for sells)

taken over one's entire history with a given share. Then divide by the number of shares you currently hold.

You can end up with a negative average if you have traded very successfully.

"what is left of the value wont make a difference to me"

Feeling the same way ...

" if only I'd sold off at 37p"

Lots of us are thinking the same.

Said I wouldn't buy more, but I've cracked and put in a chunky buy order at 12p. Believe in this share long term, but short term just cannot predict it, so worth a shot. Got to recoup those losses somehow!

"The scrip reference share price for those who are, or who will elect to become, participants in the Programme in respect of the Final Dividend is 94.44 pence."

That's more than the current price. What's going on?

"So if an entity were to offer to sell many small packets of shares."

Sounds a bit like High Frequency Trading. One could get into a spot of bother for that.

Good luck.
Was considering doing the same when it dropped to near 15p but already owned sufficient, so didn't want to add, and my timing is rubbish!

"Fellow Barclays clients - the ham-fisted way they've dealt with the OO - which they incorrectly call a "rights issue" - doesn't leave one with much confidence in their ability to get things right."

Totally agree. Just shows you don't need to be good at what you do to be in business, just believing you are good seems to be sufficient.

"Mr Fraser once told me that possibility of even 5 billion shares was ridiculous."

One could argue that he was right :-(

"I am with Barclays and heard nothing from them."

Par for the course for Barclays, unfortunately. Their system hangs about 40% of the time when one wants to trade - usually when it's VERY important. Needless to say I am closing my account with them.