Member Info for OWLS

Trend analysis would tend to suggest these will continue to under perform. Also mega cap stocks such as Barclays, although being relatively safe, do tend to under perform the wider market. I would never recommend shorting however, the risks are far too high. The whole point of the stock market should be to direct funds to companies that will use them to grow the business, create jobs and benefit the economy. It should not enable people to profit from companies that are failing.

Just reading this week's investors chronicle and they have an article on sins that an investor should not commit. These include :- Don't hold on to losing stocks. Don't spend your days trading. Don't look frequently at your portfolio. Anyone we know who commits these sins?

Not currently in TW but I have made good money in the past with TW and also Persimmon. Must agree with TR, all the comments telling us what the current SP is are pretty pointless, especially from posters who are long term holders.

Held these before and certainly had a rollercoaster ride. First bought at �1.65 in March 13, saw them rise to over �6 and then drop relentlessly for the next 2 years, finally sold in July 16 at �2.66. Bought again in December at �3.55 despite all the negative comments in the Investors Chronicle etc., you need balls to invest in this share. Very happy with today's news, my biggest daily � gain on shares, trouble is the wife now wants a new car, tried to explain that shares go down as well as up but fallen on deaf ears I feart!

Fair comment. I suppose there is more than one way to skin a cat. Good luck to all those who hold HOC, hopefully it will take off as it sometimes does.

No problem. The world does seem better after a pint or two. Agree with the comments re. bankers, a set of parasites who are paid billions for moving money from one shoe box to another, they are of no benefit to anybody. Having said that I have shares in Barclays, not sure if that makes me an hypocrite.

gingerT, Perhaps you should give up. It would appear you are only invested in HOC, you have all your eggs in one basket, now that is what I would call stupid. I was once invested in Afren and that went bust, fortunately I always have shares in 12 companies so the damage inflicted by Afren was limited and I still managed to make a positive return for the year. I assume you only invest as an hobby with small amounts. All my income is from my shares so I take a much more cautious approach.

LeedsWedge, Thanks, I think! Yes my rule is to buy at the end of the month and hold for 12 months, this takes any emotion out of the situation. I must admit I haven't always followed my own rules, it is difficult to sell at a loss. I am still holding ITV shares 3 years after purchasing, instead of selling at a loss of 10% I am now sat on a loss of 30%. I was probably influenced by the comments on the ITV board, much to my regret and cost. I will endeavour not to make the same mistake again, hence HOC will go at the end of July, no matter what the price!

But you said that it would be over 175 by close of play today. I have no idea what it will be at the end of the month and neither do you. Such statements are pointless.

Always amazes me how irate and aggressive some people get on these boards. I rank shares each month, the top ranked is rated 10, the bottom rank is rated 0, the median is 5. Therefore anything above 5 is rated better than average (buy) and anything below 5 is rated below average (sell). The top 10 shares are rated 9.5 or above so I would classify these in LSE terms as a strong buy. HOC at 7.5 indicates that I rate 25% of shares better than HOC and 75% worse. I only buy my top rated share each month and then hold it for 12 months. My average return over the last 10 years is 32%. It doesn't always work but around 70% increase in value. I bought HOC in August at �3.16 so currently showing a big loss. HOC was however top of my list in June 16, I bought at �1.35 and sold 12 months later at �2.86. So you win some and lose some. Might seem stupid to you but certainly works for me.

Only a weak buy because as a momentum investor there is a concern that it is down 21% over the last 12 months although it has performed well over the last month. My current score for HOC is 7.5, anything over 5 is a buy, over 9.5 is a strong buy.

Well said TR. I do appreciate your comments and those of Bash (even though most of them are tongue in cheek). I suspect that most on this board don't understand irony (a bit like Alanis Morrisette!) At least you have some reasoned comments unlike most who tend to use the phrases "I hope", "I am sure" or "this share is undervalued" without any evidence to support these phrases. I agree that today was a good day for us long term holders. However the price at the end of 2015 was �2.77 so I am mildly irritated by those saying how great this company is. I salute those that are in profit who have managed to day trade these from �2.77down to �1.40 and made a profit.

What does this comment mean ? Big loss on these but still fairly confident they will recover based on my trend analysis.

Main benefit is if the share price goes down you do not lose any money.

They get all the news, sport and weather etc. on their phones, usually well in advance of anything reported on ITV. Their boyfriends have sky for football etc. Not sure what ITV offers in terms of sport these days, no live football apart from meaningless England friendlies. As for what they watch, this is usually related to what their friends watch or again based on what is recommended on the internet.

I had my two 20 year old daughters home at the weekend, all they watched was Netflix, they say they have no interest in ITV and never watch it. These are the customers of the future, a small sample I must admit, but it does not bode well for ITV. As for McCall, not really sure what she brings to the party, Easyjet's share price has done a lot better since she left while ITV has fallen.

Apologies, didn't mean to offend. Be careful when buying shares, especially with comments made by people on share forums !

Why do you think it has fallen today by the amount of the dividend?

All my investing is based on momentum and generally works out well, on average I make 20% a year return. I buy and hold shares for a year then sell. For what it's worth my rating for Barclays is 34 out of 100 which would indicate it will under perform the market over the next year.

Tom E, A rather rude response. I did not realise that there was a time limit for a response. I do not understand you because you make no sense. You state you had lost �30k when the price was mid 170s, you now state that you are in profit at 150. It is you that stated your losses so why take offence when I ask for clarification? What has a BMW M4 got to do with anything?