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I have recently placed some buy orders for VSL but find the liquidity extremely tight. Does anybody want to share some insights into their experiences trading this share?? Thanks!

It should surely has been deposited into your brokerage account?? If not ask them.

I don't expect LBG to be a take-over target. Too big and too difficult to integrate in a European or global strategy. The best we can hope for is a return to stable high dividends and no new disasters. The commercial bank has been tamed down and is really only doing loans and some (expensive) payments and the Private Bank will never get fixed as long as Lorenzo runs it with Insurance. Ive banked with the private bank for about 20 years and they are very nice but have no products. Retail business and continued cost cutting may lead to a higher share price via dividends over time. I would not expect bank index beating share price however. It's not a revenue or product development hungry culture and they really have focused away from meritocracy via endless "diversity programs" with metrics to be achieved by every manager. There is upside but one has to be very patient. UNLESS there is a change of strategy.....

Having worked at LBG for 6 years as an MD "excessive" compensation is not an issue a shareholder need to worry about. Competence however is...

I have been a client of Lloyds Private Bank for about 20 years. Very nice people and great at lending money to people!
BUT there is nothing that fills me with any confidence that they will be able to grow the Wealth business. They have no products and even if they did they have no systems, culture or competence in place to be able to identify opportunities with clients and harvest the gold mine they have been passively sitting on for decades.
This purchase appears totally random as they have no strategy where this unit will fit into. The only reason, for now, to own LBG is for the future potential dividend coming from the massive cash generating capability of the balance sheet. I.e. Lending to British clients and taking deposits from British clients. Not a bad business but to believe there is a top line growth story here is probably an illusion. They would be better off selling/closing the commercial bank, the wealth and insurance unit and focus exclusively on mortgages and deposits.

More a general dollar weakness due to crap employment/unemployment numbers on Friday.

I agree with the more positive sentiment for LBG as UK real estate is rising, the economy improves due to vaccines and the general outlook for Lloyds is improving with better dividends and the departure of the ghastly duo of Chairman & CEO. Ultimately the benefits of leaving the EU will materialise despite a politically unreliable Government.
At the moment two significant macro risks hang over the markets; 1. Very stretched valuations for stocks 2. Much bigger risk for military conflict due to Bumbling Woke Biden with Russia, China and Iran actively advancing their aggressions.

Massive changes to come at CS. The problem is that I am not sure AHO is the right dude for the job. CS domestic retail is a small part and all the other areas such as Private Banking, Investment Banking and Markets are area AHO either killed at LBG or has never dealt with. I still bought some shares at CHF 10.70 last week.......

Well... The gentlemen's club has spoken. Sir Win Bischoff is the chairman who can be credited with Lloyds turnaround.
Since Blackwell took over the share prices has done nothing else than tank.
Especially egregious in his unsuccessful tenor at LBG was when, despite internal analysis of how bad Brexit would be for LBG, Blackwell promoted Brexit publicly. That, in my view, was an unacceptable and hypocritical betrayal of staff and shareholders.
He had two choices: 1. Resign as an honourable gentleman to give clarity to shareholders to promote his cause freely. A cause I agree with. 2. Re-design the strategy to be less vulnerable to the negative consequences. He did neither and as such share price, profitability and dividends went south. A disgraceful tenor as LBG chairman.

Thanks for this article. Perhaps the article is best reading for an investor in Credit Suisse as a heads-up for what's coming there.
AHO's comment about diversification is pertinent as CS has little scar in anything apart from domestic retail banking/wealth management. The puzzling part to me is why AHO was chosen by CS. CS's retail banking is already well digitalised and AHO has limited experience / success from Wealth Management, Investment Banking and even Corporate Banking.

Tom8080 is 100 pct right! Lloyds reduced return targets when Andrew Bester left the Commercial Bank so now it would be prudent to hand capital back to share holders. With the existing highly restrictive strategy in terms of target market, geography and product range, Lloyds can not grow significantly or increase returns. Efficiency is the only way forward and that can be done with much less Capital.

LBG loves to virtue signal like this when all they do is simply lend money. Meaningless verbiage such as all their goals of "diversity and inclusion" when all they do is to create internal politics. This is another example of risk concentration that may get them in trouble later. Their commercial bank is underinvested, poorly run and has no ability to innovate or build coherent competitive client propositions. I agree with 2Daman that these type of "looking good" strategies can get the Bank and shareholders into hot water. With a poor culture, mediocre management and a self- restrictive client and product strategy it feels like all they do is to chase their own tail.

or if you are Bernie Maddoff

Lloyds is perpetually lagging other bank stocks because 1. Poor dividend. 2. Topped out UK retail market share (both mortgage and current accounts) in a strategy that is only UK. 3. Covid related risks in mortgages and credit cards. 4. The areas where significant potential exists such as Private Banking and Commercial Banking are not being harvested due to constrained strategy and investment in combination with seriously poor management. The Company has incredible cash generating capabilities but unless dividends are restored there is hardly any reason to be optimistic about Lloyds positively correlating with Bank indexes.

normally higher highs is an indication of an upward trend....

It's a good observation. I've been a client of the nice but incompetent Private Bank for about 20 years and while they are happy to lend you money they have no products (literally) nor do they have any investment expertise. It's quite remarkable. But they are very nice people. It would make more sense to sell whatever remains of the PB and have lending agreements with whoever buys it.

I agree the cash generating capability of LBG is very impressive which I guess is not fully reflected in the share price. But the strategy, if maintained, provides no further upside due to maxed out market shares in retail, consumer finance and insurance. The areas where there is still upside (wealth management and corporate banking) remains elusive. I have been a client of Lloyds Private Banking for 20 years and they are nice people who will lend you money but they have no products, no systems and extremely poor management. I worked in the commercial Banking division in a fairly senior position for more than five years and AHO totally gutted the best managers, took away most products and never supported a strategy that would harvest market share advances in SME and mid market corporates. All they want to do is to lend money, cut costs and play gender politics when they don't play office politics.

I agree with Wenglishboy. I was ok with AHO getting the state its money back and stabilising the ship when he started. But his strategy since has been abysmal with too much concentration of risk to UK consumers and a systemic destruction of the Commercial Bank which is plagued by extremely poor management. There is nobody in the CB management team that have a track record of success and they never were able to move market share north in SME and mid Market segments. They might as well get rid of the commercial bank as well as the Private Bank and refocus as a pure UK retail bank. Then perhaps someone will buy them. The last 5 years Lloyds has been an AHO piggybank where he has passively and autocratically ruled. I was there in a middle management role and never saw him break a sweat nor motivate anybody to perform. Everybody was scared of him. The culture was internal, anti-client, political and focused on gender and race. Not clients or share holders. There is no reason to believe that this share will perform better than any European Bank index.

There is nothing Devine about AHO apart from perhaps in his own arrogant narcissistic mind. So while he deserves kudos for getting the Government its money back and restoring some dividends after that, his strategy for the company, especially in the light of Brexit, was a disaster. The share price is lower than when he took over and he has subjected the company to a highly risky UK centric strategy. He could next expand the retail business, just cut cost. He originally hired a great head of the Commercial Bank but didn't given him full support so he left. Their market share in the critical SME and Mid Market segment never expanded (they are 3/4 out of 4 UK Banks) and they built an expensive and cumbersome response to MiFid. Insurance never went anywhere. So what are investors buying if not a proxy for the health of the UK. Very risky strategy indeed. In the meantime the culture of the company is not focused on performance, just costs and gender politics. There is a slight hope that a bigger bank might buy them but there is absolutely no reason to believe that this stock will outperform any European Banking Index. God riddance to AHO and his arrogant lofty aristocratic leadership, his body guards and his fleet of German limos outside the head office. To Credit Suisse share holders, you know what's coming...

Forgot to say that since AHO is joining Credit Suisse, another horrible stock, it may be time to sell that one too.