Member Info for phoenixchi

An interesting discussion. Each to their own and a strategy of being content with regular, smaller profits, is certainly not to be dismissed. It is rare for those who trade shares to hit the fabled 'ten bagged', so a more realistic approach is definitely sensible. But surely the amount of profit taken should be a reflection of risk against reward? A quick 10% on Vodafone is realistic because it is pretty safe share with a good dividend as a bonus should a holding cover that period. Indeed, I have a strategy for looking for shares which pay a reasonable divi and which look to have recently begun an uptrend - I gave up trying to catch falling knives a long time ago! However, 10% on, say, an AIM company which has wildly fluctuating profits would not be enough reward. Hence, risk and reward should be the by word. Also, it took me a long while to learn my lesson about taking quick profits, say at 10%. Nowadays I will aim for an initial 7.5% but then run a stop loss up behind that figure should it be achieved. Too many times I have seen shares go on to rise much further after I have got out, so now I stop loss in a 7.5% profit and let the share keep running upward if I am lucky enough to have picked a winner. Knowing a profit has been locked in is a comfortable way to check the daily prices! Lastly, I don't agree that 90% of share buyers do so on gut instinct. A lot do but not 90%. If that were the case then the market would be an even bigger casino than it is now! BTW, I recent,y bought in to VOD at 202p so the drop after that to 188p was taking me pretty close to my stop loss figure. Now, though, with the divi factored in, I am pretty close to moving my stop loss to the point where I lock in my 7.5% profit. Thai one is bit different, though, because if it were to hit 230p before I was stopped out along the way, I would cut and run. I currently don't see higher than 230p under any circumstances.

A few days ago I asked on here what someone meant when they said the shorts had slightly decreased. I wasn't quite sure what the drop from around 5.3 to 5.11 per cent meant. Nobody answered but from the further discussions I can see that the 5.11% must represent the amount of open share trades currently on this company. So, my next question is what percentage of currently open share trades would be shorts in the normal course of events, both historically and compared to other companies of a similar size? If the 5.11% is now back to a usual level, or is the same as others, surely hopes of a rise when the shorters close their position are misplaced somewhat? Of course, the opposite will be true if that 5.11% is much bigger than normal. However, surely those who did the majority of the shorting have already closed their positions now? After all, roughly 400p down to 220p would have been enough for the shorters and the rise back up must have been mostly fuelled by them closing their positions. I first bought OPAY at 90p and, along with many others I'm sure, they have been my best ever stock market play. I've be in and out since and had just got back in at 390p when the crash took place. I took advantage and came in some more at 307p to now average at about 350p for my current largeish play. So, I want these shares to fly as much as others do but I am always wary about hopes for a rise being based on false reasoning. Hence, is this the case here with the shorters closing out? Personally I think the trading update will be the catalyst for the next up or down. If memory serves me correctly, the last update did not produce any fireworks - a rarity - because the market took it a little negatively. Hence, if 5.11% of currently open trades being shorts is nothing exceptional - I did say IF - then the next trading update is the most important thing on the horizon by far. Lastly, I have said it before again and again, but the current share buyback is, to me, a sad way for PAYS to be forced to spend their money. Yes, it will end up improving the EPS etc etc but I would have rather seen it reinvested elsewhere. Hence, a sad way for the stock market to function when a company is forced to combat shorting operations to the extent PAYS has been.

Save me looking it up, how does this 'short tracker work'? If a shorter is selling shares they don't yet own what is the 5.11% a measure of? What i mean is, how can there be a measure of something which hasn't happened yet? Does it mean that 5.11% of the share transactions in a given period were sells?

Regardless of where the SP may or not be in the near future, am I alone in thinking that something is badly wrong with a stock market where the kind of manipulated fluctuations we have recently seen here are allowed to happen? I keep saying it but will repeat. Stock Markets are not supposed to be like casinos. Of course, there is risk involved but this violent movement up and down, resulting in Paysafe themselves having to intervene with a buy back, is not what the markets are for. I am concerned at the buyback. Yes, PAYS have the ammo to fight back the current shorters but they should not have to be spending money this way. Also, there are probably more dubious hedge funds than PAYS can keep up with. A stock market so badly regulated that a company could have its future prospects harmed by what is barely legal, and certainly immoral, behavior is not working correctly. It might seem great fun to the short-term traders but they, along with everyone else, will eventually suffer if the markets stop functioning normally and become subject to constant manipulation. This is not good enough and Wolfhound was right last week. A big class action against the shorters is needed. But these shorters are too fast and loose to be pinned down for long. Hence, what we need is much,much better regulation about shorting. I'm only 56 but can remember the old days when shorting was simply about selling before buying in the same accounting period. A useful tool but not for the unaware. However, now shorting seems a complex and manipulative device that could ruin hitherto well run and profitable companies.

Yes, agree. NT can't afford to look like a loser because of how s seminars and it is a bit convenient how he came out of this so well. BUT, lets not forget how any of us who are sitting tight through this stromy spell have only seen paper losses. Nobody wins or loses with shares until they press the sell button, or buy button if they happen to be shorters!

Way back in 1986 in 1987 I was seconded to NatWest Markets for the 'big bang' stock market changes. I was a mainframe computer man - the only machines in use back then - and I played a substantial role in setting up the back office systems to process the dealers wok during market hours. For a lot of the time I ended up out on the trading floors with the dealers so that we could see the best way to give them the information they wanted about positions etc. Back then it was so crude compared to now and the dealers were often often flying by the seat of their pants. There is a whole book to be written about how the stock markets changed almost overnight with the big bang and then some more still with electronic trading systems. But the one thing that I learned the most was how the market-makers had many massive advantages over private investors and traders. The biggest and most obvious advantage, though, was that they were not using their own money! Under the big bang changes the world of 'jobbing' became thrown open to all and the big banks thoughts it a licence to print money. However, they soon realised that being a market maker meant sometimes holding losing positions for a while. In the early days they hated this and stock was dumped after being bought on the tiniest fall. Hence, the FTSE100, not that old anyway in 1986, became more and more erratic compared to measures used before 1986. It really was daft because the MM's couldn't care less half the time and would have held negative positions much longer because, as they used to chant, 'it's not our money' but their bank bosses went into a tailspin if a losing position was extended. Today it is all so much more sophisticated and programme driven but the fact still remains that the MM's are not using their own money while us poor saps are! This is surely the biggest handicap of all. As for a bid from Worldpay. Well, if you were CEO of that outfit would you really want to bid at the moment just in case there is a tiny, tiny bit of truth in the issues raised by that outrageous research document yesterday? We know it is rubbish and so do Worldpay but very few executives today will take even the most remote chance with anything. Hence, I suspect they would rather pay more per share and be certain that PAYS are whiter than white.

This blatant manipulation of the SP today just about sums up the useless way the UK is run nowadays. It is little wonder that so many pension schemes are in the doldrums given they have spent years and years doing their projections based on a stock market rising gradually in the long term. But now the stock market is simply a Wild West casino full of dubious and morally wrong practises. How on earth can a FTSE250 outfit be subject to this kind of shorting operation? The research note is nonsense but has clearly done its job. It seems unbelievable that such things can happen and this whole episode should be investigated thoroughly with punishment to follow. But it won't because the useless UK regulators simply do not understand these kind of sharp practises. We cannot have a stock market which allows such things to happen. Stock market investments carry risk but cannot be like a giant casino. The irony is that casinos would be shut down immediately if found to be allowing manipulation like this. After years of following PAYS I got back in at 390p three weeks ago and am dismayed at today's events. But I believe they will bounce back, as this isn't the first time shorters have made a play here. But it must be the last, otherwise market credibility reaches gutter levels. I won't be panicked into selling and, not for the first time, thank the Lord I do not use stop losses because they are too vulnerable to wild swings like this. Instead I buy in amounts I can afford to lose and then sit tight through thick and thin unless damage looks beyond repair. I certainly don't think PAYS is in the latter category but there is always that little bit of doubt when something like happens!

You do get a distinct feeling the market is over-valued here and in US. However, let's not forget that with interest rates remaining so low (misguidedly so IMO) money doesn't have much choice where to go. I doubt if a bull market has ever been accompanied by such a lengthy spell of tiny, tiny interest rates. Yes, the markets could reverse massively but low interest rates must surely be driving more and money to Wall St and beyond?

That is a very good post. I don't track technicals to any great extent but lately keep making the error of trying to catch 'falling knives'. My best returns have mostly through following the very simple strategy of buying a share that has a good dividend and has established an uptrend after breaking away from 30 on the RSI. In 30 years of share trading I have yet to hear a better maxim than 'the trend is your friend'. But lately I have been stupid enough to buy shares that seem to have hit a price where a downtrend seems about to turn. Hence, VOD at 202p just before x divi. That was wrong. Trying to trap a turnaround is too much like hard work. No, wait until a trend is established then ride it for while. Naturally, doesn't always work - far from it - but is a better way of going tha my recent efforts!

What was the size of the spread, boschfridge?

I see the non exec chairman has bought £36k of shares here for around 364p. Good news that one of the top guns is backing his company with hard cash but am I right in thinking this rules out either a bid or acquisition in the near future because would he not be in lock- down? If that is the case, these continued falls must be the shorters, or the MMs. If it is the shorters, why have they landed on PAYS as a target? Do they know something, or do they it was over-valued, or are they covering some very long-term long positions? This is not far off the price where it looks too good to be true. Trouble is, life has often taught me that if it looks too god to be true it almost always is!

Completely correct about the government and that idiot Cameron, Pokerkerchips. It still beggars belief that an experienced PM could get something so massively wrong. The incoming ministers after idiot boy jumped ship now have a terrible problem. I watched a lot of the Brexit Appeal today, including one hour while on the running machine at the gym. The legal argument so took my mind off my running and how bad I usually feel I did a recent personal best! Seriously, though, the government QC did not look too convincing, at least to my untrained eye. At times I felt that anyone viewing proceedings with no prior knowledge of what had happened would have thought he was arguing for MP's to be allowed a vote. There was one moment when one of the Supreme Court pulled him up a bit about a sub- section of something that did mention article 50. The government guy looked slightly bemused and admitted he had missed it. I also felt the governments argument was occasionally just a little desperate, referring back to 1972 and relying on how article 50 was not included in some pretty old legislation. Experience of being a court reporter 20 years ago tells me that things can appear very clear cut in any court case up until the other side puts their argument and is questioned on it. Then it can all look very different, but from what I saw today I would have a smallish bet - at the right price of course - that the superme court will uphold the high court decision. Then our MP's will get a vote on Brxit and that may well end as the most vicious debate Parliament has ever had! Interesting times.

Disappointing late drop but my recollection of this share is how the MMs were often keen to shake out sellers in an effort to accumulate stock prior to a northwards jump. Indeed, I had always had the view that the MMs did not really behave like that until I bought in here and enjoyed the many big moves forward. I used to watch the SP daily and it became pretty clear that some of the rises were preceded by unexpected drops. In the end I had to change my mind about how MMs behaved. Not saying today's fall is anything to do with MMs but I made my best money here through sitting on my hands and doing nothing, even in the face of some erratic moves. As always, though, DYOR.

I've been in and out of these boys since 2012 and made some good profits. Got out at £4.20 and then watched them hit £4.69 but got back in yesterday at £3.91. I did so because of their fundamentals but also because a good friend of mine who works in the electronic payments industry as a CFO told me there was a rumour going around PAYS were about to announce something big, either a bid or an acquisition. This guy knows his stuff but is the world's worst tipster so whether there is anything to what he has heard remains to be seen. He has, though, punted £10k himself so fingers crossed!

Thanks guys. Apart from great fundamentals, something I also noted about this company was how there was always something to look forward to with it. in no particular order, we had the Skrill takeover, the fttse250 listing, great results, great updates and so on. I did think, though, that the really big events were going to slow down because the company was achieving so much. So, I took my money and ran. Now there is a possible Nasdaq listing which could drive the price upwards. Of course, further Skrill type buys, or a takeover, could also do the same. But eventually there will be a period when PAYS will be traded solely on performance and not promise of more big stuff. As the markets opened today I thought the Trump thing - perhaps the US has reclaimed the most stupid nation on earth title from us - might see a really big buying opportunity on PAYS but after 45 minis now perhaps not. Still worth a punt this one but the days of OPAY and the fabulous rises of 2012 and 2013 could be consigned to history?

All, I was a fairly big holder of these shares for almost 5 years until mid-summer. I had bought in at 90p and taken profits a good few times but in the summer I got out having reached my ultimate target. But if felt like cutting off an arm and I have missed the excitement of watching this baby go up and up. I also missed the rise from £4.20 odd to £4.69 on 19th October!!!!! But, since that date they have been falling back and I am wondering if it is just the normal profit-taking or if I have missed something? I suspect, and hope, it is just profit taking and the wax and wane of the markets because I am very tempted to go back now at sub-£4.25. Anyone who has stuck with it throughout got any views?

Been watching this one fo a while but is the spread usually as big on it? 7%+ is pretty big on a £1 odd share... Does the spread lessen at times?

I see some UK bookies, plus National Lottery, are blaming payment delays this week on Worldpay. I wonder if this continues whether any market fall out will drag PAYS down or, perhaps, benefit us? Given the general madness in the world as a whole, I would not like to guess!

I sold two-thirds of my holding last week in this but retain an interest because the company still looks so promising. The EU referendum appears to be affecting everything but does IN / OUT matter that much to PAYS? OK, there would be a case for saying that a downturn in our economy will affect them but what we don't hear much about now is the agreements OPAY as was had in place with US states to provide 'wallet' software if online gambling ever becomes legal in the US. Are those agreements still there or is PAYS now much more retail focused? Either way, it appears this has become a share to trade between £3.60 - £3.70 and £4.15 - £4.20, while still retaining a core holding for when the upper end of that range is probably breached.

Goldman Sachs reiterated their sell today, so may well partly explain drop. Also, news that the London property market is stagnating ahead of Euro vote. But what can you believe nowadays? According to the Broker Ratings on this site, Goldman have reiterated their sell at a target price of £8.50. Their first sell recommendation was a £7.82. But with a price of £7.63 last night I find it hard to understand what the broker means. Surely, surely, a sell recommendation at £8.50 when the price is £7.63 is really a buy? Broker recommendations are useless anyway, but when it is likely they are incorrectly reported they become even more worthless.