Member Info for ODONNELL

With the drop in the markets there will be opportunity to add to your holdings in china / asia / asia small / euro small companies. Especially if there is a big sell off. Small miners may also be of interest.

We are certainly not a manipulator, we buy when we think a stock is lower than it should be. As we have said on other share chats we now mainly invest world wide in small companies, frontier markets, VCTs through Investment trusts. We do select the trusts carefully and buy those with a good 5 yr record, evenly spread. Been in stock market over 50 yrs and probably know less now than when we started. A lot of remarks about us are negative and we are silly what we buy and say, but we keep making a profit. Any way while people take the micky out of us They leave others alone. In these sectors we cannot very easily buy in to directly, Investment trusts give us the variety and range we cannot afford to do ourselves.These specialised sectors show on average 20% pa. We are very much against day traders and manipulators along with short sellers. Oh we forgot to mention we have done well selling put and call options. Options we do continue to sell while we only dabble in individual stocks. To be honest we have had a better return from investment trusts than we get from our selections, mainly because we cannot buy the wide range that they do. However every one to their own way.

Bought more but still not shown in share trades, this often happens with small companies, but why?

Bought more but still not shown in share trades, this often happens with small companies, but why?

St Mowden nice to see them involved as we hold quite a few of them, well worth buying more StModwen
MCS looks cheap and should always be popular with OAP We infact are looking at similar but MCS are a bit pricey along with th extras.
Added a few more today for the offspring!!!!!!!!!!!!!

we are adding another 1000 or so to level out the holding after the rights issue. paid 52.6
may add more if it stays around this level

Should read TEST the market, but we are old and ancient!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The borrowings are half the cash in the bank, p/e is only 5 so worth adding to our holdings.which we will do. This share could double. No problems getting a quote within the quoted range. Bought a small amount at 7.5964 to rest the market makers, and had no problems.

NOT SURPRISED THEY ARE NOT PAYING A DIV, HOWEVER ONE SITE WE GLANCED AT STILL HAD THEM PAYING ONE. YOU GET THIS A LOT, WERE ONE SITE IS OUT OF DATE. TRIED TO LOOK AT LONDON SOUTH EAST SITE LAST WEEK BUT THERE WAS NO ACCESS TO IT.
NO HOLDINGS IN COUNTRYWIDE NOW BUT NOTE WE HAVE MADE A PROFIT FROM THIS COMPANY IN THE PAST. WE DO NOT BUY MANY STOCKS THESES DAYS (WE HAVE BEEN TRADING FOR OVER 50 YEARS) BUT STILL LIKE TO DABBLE IN COMPANIES OUT OF FAVOUR, THAT IS WHY COUNTRYWIDE CAUGHT OUR ATTENTION. THE MAJORITY OF OUR INVESTMENTS ARE IN SMALL,COMPANIES (UK AND ABROAD), FRONTIER COUNTRIES AND VCTs ALL VIA QUALITY INVESTMENT TRUSTS, (LET THEM DO THE WORK) ALONG WITH SELLING OPTIONS, WHICH GIVES US AN INTEREST AND KEEPS THE OLD GREY MATTER TICKING OVER.
ALL THIS SHORT SELLING AND DAY TRADERS HAVE SPOILT THE MARKET, IT IS A GAMBLERS MARKET IN PARTS THESE DAYS RATHER THAN AN INVESTMENT MARKET BUT WE ARE OLD AND PAST IT. SO IF WE MAKE 10-15% PA THAT SUITS US. GONE ARE THE ANNUAL PROFITS OF 15-25%. COUNTRY WIDE AT 50P MAY BE WORTH A SHOT. THE PRICE STANDING AROUND 80P IS TOO HIGH. WAIT AND SEE IF TRADE IMPROVES.

Not sure why but our comments appear to have gone on twice. Not in to modern tecknology, but still buy the shares!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Like Foxtons this is one to buy in to for recovery. However these are losing money and have debt above their cash. We sold at around 130p and the current price has just caught our eye, however not so keen on them as we are on Foxtons. Losing money have debt above cash not a happy company . We will keep a regular watch so we can come back in but not at this price. Foxtons a better bet to go in to in the future as we said in their chat. 50 years of share dealing and we do buy in to out of favour companies, but Countrywide not yet. Think they need to cut the dividend and repay the borrowings. They could be a disaster waiting to happen.

We prefer Foxtons to Countrwide. Online estate agents are causing a problem but they are only interested in a quick sale at a low price. We asked Purple bricks when we decided to sell, and they said we do not cover your part of the country. So much for a UK wide online estate agent. Yopa came and as she entered the property her first words were " You know these properties have dropped 25% in the last month". It took us an hour to get her out. Wanted us to sell the 3 bedroom bungalow with disabled facilities, about 17 new windows, new oil boiler plus other new items situated in about 3/4 acre with building prospects if you wanted to build a couple of places. Her price £125,000, with others in the area (none are exactly the same) going for £150k plus. On leaving she asked "Do you have a garage" Goodbye we said. We do have a garage and virtually unlimited parking, if you want to use the north side which is stoned. Parking for 4 beside the garage. One agent has just mailed us to say they have sold a similar property for £165k. So these online agents are selling under the price, but when you ask them to find you a place we were told "You know prices in that area have gone up 25% in the last month" We are marketing the property with a local agent for 0.9% commission if sold They advertise on Twitter. The local newspaper used to have 3 pages of properties for sale, now none are advertised as they charge too much. Times are changing and High street agents must use the internet as well. However we do see people stopping to look in the window of estate agents. Like shopping people still like to have a proper look.
So not going to buy in to Countrywide yet but will watch as things for a turnaround. With Foxtons being our first choice to buy. We have traded shares for over 50 years and the old adage of buy when the blood is running down the gutter still applies.

Just noticed the price, we sold last year at around 95p and the current price attracted us. Profit 66% down on 2016 and 84% down on 2015. The reason appears to be simple the transactions have dropped. and to be honest there is not a lot they can do about that. so long as they keep making a profit while things are bad that is ok.. This is the time we usually buy in to companies. Waiting for the turnaround in business. We will keep an eye on it daily, with eps at 2.6p 26p per share would be correct share price, if there was not the possibility of people wanting to buy places in London. Ok maybe London prices will drop and if so then buy a place in London. All sectors get their bad times and that is when to buy in to them if the company is sound. 50 odd years of trading has shown us that. So it looks like it is still falling so we will hold fire. but we will come in when it steadies. Just over 4 years ago it was about 390p, pity those who bought and held. So it could drop to 26p giving another 30p loss, which is more probable than a 30p increase to 90p Therefore we will hold fire and wait for a continued drop or the London market picks up. Certainly one to buy for recovery. But when.

Whilst we appreciate what 5h4k35p34r3 says we still feel the spread does mater because you have to have the share increase by that amount just to break even. if the buy price was 15p would you still buy respectively if the spread was 10p to sell meaning you have to increase by 33.33% to break even. We feel we can find better purchases elsewhere with a small spread.. However any one dealing in any thing has to price it so they attract buyers as well as sellers, but when buying as 5h4k35p34r3 says you must think the price is cheap. Probably we are better off avoiding such stocks with wide spreads as there are so many others more tempting and giving a quicker profit when they rise. We do buy a few specialised ITs with very wide spreads as the potential to give excellent returns over the years is there. However even these we do not invest a great deal in and prefer those with traditional spreads. If our memories serve us correctly we do think spreads were much wider over 40 years ago. With ftse 100 stocks having a price of 100-103 in the past where as now they are 101-101.25. Again it all boils down to an individuals feeling for a stock. Is it good value over the long term and will we make a profit when buying at the current price. BT was 202p not long ago and did look cheap, which it now appears to correct as it ticks up at 214p. Are we investing or are we gambling? At least with stocks if you pick a loser you do get most of your money back. For poor value you just have to look at some of the spread betting prices. We do admire those who are day traders, they have to have a specific mind set to do this. vary rarely do we see a price in the morning and think we can make a good profit on this today. We had a few practice runs at this and the one thing it did show was that if we thought a stock would go up or down, do the opposite to us and you will make money!!!!!. Yet we sell options, which scare a lot of people and we make a monthly profit by selling a specific period of time. Every one to their own and after 50 years of trading we still are leaning.

Following our criticism of the wide spread (mentioned by others as well) we note that on looking again the spread has changed from 12.5% to 18.75%. 16p sell 19p buy. No wonder there are few trades. Looked at another minnow we own, (SEE), where the spread is 10.9p to 11.25p. About 3.21%. Loads of trades there. We keep reading comments from stock holders of DFX who reckon there is manipulation with the price to allow purchases on the cheap by big buyers to get the whole company very cheaply. However the market maker still has to attract stock sellers to supply the so called big buyers. They are correct in saying when there are buyers the price rises slowly but when the sellers take over the price drops quickly. Quite possibly there is NO manipulation just a very poorly traded stock where the market maker has to ensure they have no large losses so keeps a wide spread. However we still think the spread should be similar to other companies, when the trades will increase and a fair buy/sell ratio is sustainable. We do not hold a big amount but would still buy in again if the spread was reasonable. There was one very sensible comment where it was said that a potential buyer of the company wanted the yearly average to drop to assist in a bid for the whole company later in the year. Have to wait and see if the price does drop again as suggested elsewhere on here.

Who do you all think the best on line broker is when trading on line. We use a phone broker paying £12 a deal and it enables us to limit the price we can sell and buy at for the day or until filled. As we trade options not sure if on line brokers trade them.

Who do you all think the best on line broker is when trading on line. We use a phone broker paying £12 a deal and it enables us to limit the price we can sell and buy at for the day or until filled. As we trade options not sure if on line brokers trade them.

We would like to buy more DFX but not with the spread of 2p, which makes the buy price 12.5% more than the sell price with quotes of 16p to 18p. if it drops to 10p to buy with a 2p spread we may then double our holding. We appreciate there are only a few trades daily but a 12.5% spread is rather over the top. 16.5p-17.5p is about 6.25% but would be acceptable. The market maker is very cautious about getting caught short of stock is our guess.

We appear to have received a lot of extra shares which we had forgotten we had asked for. Not sure how they calculated the excess shares but we now have 378% more than we did own and are in profit. think we will sell.

Well just looked at DFX again and do wonder if buying more stock is throwing good money after bad. we are still 50% down. this is one of our worst companies, if you exclude BNN (suspended). Our other loss making companies have recovered and we sold out at a profit on most whilst still holding others at around cost. As we said months ago we are at our age (late 70s) happy to just invest in good returns from specific investment trusts (something they have done for us for nearly 50 yrs) Most are in small and foreign trusts as well as unquoted. We will still dabble in companies that have dropped a lot or appear to be out of favour. Whilst we still have had good wins with our selections over the years we also had a lot of heavy losses, while the investment trusts along with selling options gives us 18% pa over the last few yrs. We would normally increase our stake in DFX but have little confidence in them, If they drop to 6 or 7p then we might just take a chance to try and even out.