Member Info for nickyg

Fair comment, Intergalactic, and I have been with FTO since the very early 90s as well, but was always aware of it's shortcomings but was young enough to anticipate a huge windfall over a 20 year period. Well, it hasn't happened. I remember investing in a company called Tamaris many years ago, and becoming infuriated by the casual way in which the shareholders were treated when it went belly up, and although the situation with FTO is bit different of course, the irritation is similar. The initial investment was tiny, and there were a few returns along the way but we all thought that it was a shabby job. I am not belittling those who feel strongly enough about the situation with FTO, that they want to do something about it, but I really feel that it is a waste of time. One would prefer more money per share, and if it does happen on account of disgruntled shareholders swaying the FTO board, I shall sing their praises.

I suspect that those shareholders, who had in the back of their minds an idea that they were going to pump money into a fighting fund to oppose the "shameless" way they believed FTO had treated them, are now rather more relaxed about the whole situation, and gradually coming round to the not ungenerous 10 p,(maybe a little more)per share. To those who have to take a loss, it won't have been the first time, and if it is, then they have been very fortunate indeed. FTO was a gamble from the start, but very few will have lost all, unlike some other forms of gambling I can think of, where the whole lot goes and depression really sets in!

I pressed the wrong button to select FTO, and came up with Sefton resources in error. It makes FTO look like a dream, and all the same old lame postings, expecting a windfall some day in the future. many will have been fortunate to have made money on FTO. Bewareshadows is quite right.. Not very much, but on a regular basis, at least, and for a modest investment, unless a wild gambling streak suddenly crept into the psyche and one bought millions at 14p. God forbid!

Agree, and planned for ages, I suspect.

I know that my views on FTO are a little in the "Take it or leave it" frame of mind, and that a good number of share holders are infuriated by the prospect of not making a fortune from Fortune Oil, and have in the back of their minds a thought, that the FT board have pulled a fast one, but is al this searching for an answer from a company that has always been short on answers going anywhere? I suggest that most of us have made some money, unless we bought at the top,(which would be sad but fairly common) and that would be some kind of result. I found that I still have 78000 shares,which I purchased around 1999, at 2 or 3p, and am delighted by the prospect of making 7 or 8p profit, and probably had in the back of my mind the idea that the shares would reach £1 by now, even though stockbroker friends shook their heads. I knew it was a punt. Most of us did, and aren't pulling our hair out.

What on earth am I doing worrying about Fto at this time of night? Well, I am not really, but it is a funny old time between Christmas and the New Year, and I have to wait a few minutes to have a bath, after a jolly evening, but what are so many of you doing, getting all het up? I love all the serious chat, but is it really going to come to something. Take 10p, if that is a serious offer and stop all the hype. There must be more to life than blasted FTO!. Going to have a quiet night.

What a thoroughly pleasant note to finish the year on, and I wish the same to one and all. It sounds as if you will be fine even at 10p, and please don't let all the other stuff ruin any part of the New Year for you. Life is quite short and far to precious to eat away at oneself on account of FTO.

Well Intergalactic, the FTO SP dipped to 6.5ish and I bought my usual quota at that price and the price is now at 9.6 and I sold before Christmas, and made Skiing money. It is a fairly regular thing with FTO, and the only reason I have kept an eye on them since the early 90s. It has required very little forsight of the Markets and seems better than the GGs, where one can lose one's pants. I am a small time player and have always been happy with small regular profits, but if FTO shareholders do hit it rich by some bizarre twist of fate, god luck to them, and I might feel a mutt for not holding on and fighting the Chinese for a few more pennies. I really do not think that FTO will stump up any extra cash for shareholders, but that is only a view based on nearly 25years of holding on to some vague feeling that one day I will strike it rich. Fortune Oil, what a great name!

I think you are all in some kind of mid christmas influenced timewarp, if you really believe that FTO are going to pay you some real profit. Ten pence is as good as we get, and be grateful, or suffer and get less! FTO have planned this moment for eons and don't give a damn about losers. We all know it is worth more, but but it means nothing.

It is a dead donkey as far as us shareholders are concerned. It always was, 20 years or more ago, and anyone who had any sense knew that it was. The woo family firm are long time planners who don't give a s.... for pathetic small timers such as us, so forget any big bonus. Take the steak knives and run!

Anyone might lose a fiver on some silly bit of chinese electronics, and lose a few hundred quid on some silly chinese oil and gas company, or maybe even more, but as we are all meant to be grown up and understand it is pretty much a gamble on such stocks, isn't it time to throw in the towel, count our blessings and move on, unless of course, one has nothing better to do in life than thrash a dead donkey.

What is wrong with 10p? A good many shareholders ought to be delighted to take a decent profit, even at such a low level, and those who bought at the top ought to have known better. The owners of FTO were never in it for our benefit right from the start, and most of us knew it, and the big boys kept out of it because if something sounds too good to be true, it invariably is. It seems a great waste of time trying to get some extra penny or so out of the company. I remember complaining bitterly to some electronics company in China, and receiving copious e.mails back, offering everything but a refund. The product was cheap for a reason, and I took a punt. So did we all with FTO. I am sorry to be so negative and thoughtless at this time of year, and wish that everyone here could get out with huge profits, but it ain't going to happen. A New Year beckons, and there are other companies like FTO to invest in, should one wish.

A new year is approaching fast, and it is time to move on and take what is offered. It has been a basket case from the start, though I was working it out during an idle moment that over 20 years I am some £20000 up on account of regular ups and downs in the share price. There must be tens of thousands who have done OK, and it would have been hard not to have done so. Like everyone else, I was hoping to bank a huge sum when the share price hit £1, and retire. Didn't happen.

I don't think that there is any point worrying yourself about all this. Go and enjoy your break and be thankful that you don't have a larger exposure to the ups and downs of the Stockmarket.

FTO has been a bit of fun, I agree, and I also thought that it would come right big time. I still have shares which cost very little just in case something does occur, which is unlikely. The Dickension gloom aside, it may still come right for you, for as you would know, having been there from the start, FTO plays peculiar games, and has almost died the death on several occasions. A friend of mine, rather like you, is a one share man, and put his pension into a Drug company calles GW Pharma, which went from a few pence to several pounds and back again, and then up again. He just waits and hopes, so maybe the new year will bring some good news. Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy a very happy christmas!

I really do feel for Roger, who seems to have taken all this business with FTO to heart. Why cannot he sell his shares now and make a profit, if he has been buying since the start. They have been very cheap over the years, and never soared, so unless he bought right at the top, he ought to have made a profit somewhere down the line. FTO was never to be taken seriously, so for Roger to have so dedicatedly spent a good part of his life concerned with FTO, this is indeed a tragic tale, just before the season of good cheer. As for contributing to the BB, he has as much to say as anyone else, and possibly more. I,for one would love to hear more about his love affair with FTO. So many of us fell under the spell, and were rewarded from time to time, and on one occasion quite well, by way of a large one off dividend. Anyway, a happy christmas to one and all, and thank you Dell, for explaining things to us...

I don't think that there is any chance in hell taking on this lot, who are beginning to give the impression of characters out of one of Sax Rohmer's stories, though I am not suggesting that there is anything other than "clever stuff" afoot. Like Confluence, I am out of FTO now save for 80000 shares, which I found that I had from years ago, and didn't cost very much anyway. They may come right. I seem to have missed all the fun, with people running about seeking legal advice. I never expected anything to come of FTO, and neither does a Stockbroker friend. It seems to be a running joke, and a running sore, the latter for a good number of investors, but there is often a rally with FTO, when all seems doom laden.

Sorry Del44, and I wasn't intending my post as a form of smugness. I have made substantial losses with Tesco, Balfour Beatty and several others so know the feeling of doom, and was only showing the pattern which has emerged over many years with FTO, but seems to have been missed by newer investors, who are seduced by the vision of big bucks. It would have been tempting to buy back in over 10p, expecting the share to soar, but it never has, and probably never will. I am not really much of an investor, and tend to take punts, some of which work out. Even clever investors don't get FTO. For those who paid a little more than 10p, I don't think they will lose much, as long as they didn't put in big money. If they did, they were playing a dangerous game and just plain gambling. I will cease with the boring mantra. I was a younger man when I first heard of FTO, but am now prematurely grey, and have become like the Ancient Mariner, who bangs on and on......Sorry.

Here we are again, but sooner than expected. Buy at 6.50p and sell around 10p has been my mantra for years, and I gave up worrying about the BOD, and Mr Woo's plans for the company. I wasn't expecting a double whammy this year, but not only has FT paid for a good Summer holiday, but also a good Christmas and two weeks Skiing. However, this pattern cannot last, as there must be countless numbers of shareholders who have the same views as me and have got used to making 5 or 6 thousand pounds each year, and I imagine that the Chinese BOD hates the idea of having no control over such a simple process. I really don't give a damn about FT as a company, but it has been a good run over the past twenty years, and provided much amusement, as well as frustration.

I remember a dividend last year, but cannot recall any dividend before that and I have had fto shares for 20 years. I must have missed out!