Member Info for Treadstone

Thanks. What is most interesting is the global nature of fashion, because it appears to me that making inroads into the American market won't be difficult because the target market is similar to elsewhere in the world in terms of what it likes to buy. I would like to hear Philip Green's experience of opening up shop in New York. In other types of business, many have come a cropper in the USA because they do not understand the market and the nature of consumer demand. The culture is a bit of a learning curve. Hence Tesco's Fresh and Easy stores have battled a bit in California and are not profitable yet. Tesco will hang in there long enough to turn it around I hope. There are more examples. Only Japan conquered the USA successfully with their motor vehicles. Asos appears to be taking the right approach of keeping costs down while they see how it goes. That way they won't take a financial hit whatever happens. God knows how many millions Tesco had to invest in start up costs alone, something that Asos has managed to avoid entirely. Anyway I'm sure this will all be clarified in the Xmas quarterly sales figures. You notice that on a down day in the market and negative comments on Asos p/e of 46, the sp is holding up well and in fact is up a bit. My personal belief is that the market likes a company with strong sales and profit growth especially in a market that is beginning to look dicey for all the reasons we know. I don't know any company showing such high probability of compound growth anywhere in the Footsie. Profits are what counts in business in the end otherwise you don't survive, unless your cash burn is paid for by rights issues or an investment by a third party. Hence the position of the oil explorers in the last week or so. Oil explorers rarely make money or profit and drilling, particularly offshore is incredibly costly. If you find oil, it must be in commercial quantities otherwise the further costs of making them into production wells is unviable. Then comes the issue of how far are you from the marketsetc etc. A lot of people must be nursing losses after RKH rights issue announcement for hundreds of million dollars. A speculative feeding frenzy that had lost sight of the bottom line completely. When I read that their discovery was around 2000 barrels/day, my first thoughts based on location alone told me that was'nt enough. There's no infrastructure on the FI and god knows what the find did to property prices and other speculative activities on the island. Eventually there will likely be mergers to contain the high cost of a port and oil terminal. I'm in a few oilies with small amounts so I'm getting hit as well, but not too severely. Perhaps a little cash will go an oily if the price falls further, but otherwise I am still nervous of the market being overheated. Experience has taught me that it can turn down all too quickly and cash can be king in those circumstances like 2008. Its all about timing is'nt it? Thanks.

Thanks your post. Went to sleep again waiting for a decision to be made. Not surprised at the outcome did'nt look like a comfortable fit at all. HB's culture would have taken over being so much bigger. Ads may want to sit back awhile before looking at other possible partners to grow their business. AS for their recent figures, losses are being reduced, which hopefully will mean they'll break even next year. Investing is still a bit of problem, because of the bid spread (25% today). Until daily volumes increase dramatically mms will keep this spread high, which in itself is deterrent to buyers, who will have to lock in here for quite a while or wait. Anybody else got some input ?

The following Article may be of interest: In order to become a player in the US online fashion market, Robertson has had to overcome some big obstacles. One of the biggest barriers to international sales was the fact that the USA charges duties on purchases over $200. " To make shopping more enticing we are paying those tariffs" says Robertson. The fees usually cost $50 to the retailer on such purchases. Its part of the cost of doing business, one that they choose to absorb or build into the shipping fee. Figuring out the shipping cost structure has been important in the sense that customers want their goods asap. ASOS charges $6.00 for express mail acrooss the atlantic compared to $8-10 for their competitors. "Robertson's tactic is'nt a sustainable one without huge pots of money", says Lisa Pool, co-founder of online jewelry,body and home goods site Hazel & Harlow. "It can cost up to $100 to express ship to Canada from the USA. While he can use the low cost shipping fee as a marketing tool initially, it won't work long term unless the company has long term financial backing. To guarantee that level of shipping is going to cost him millions". Robertson disagrees. "There's no financial incentive to open a warehouse in America, when we have worked out a way to send items at a competitive rate from the UK. Some people think I'm crazy not to have a physical presence here, but look at how much money I am saving." Another problem is sale returns which can account for up to 33% of operations. Robertson plans to hire staff in the USA to deal with it directly. Customer care is handled electronically. " The average 20 year old does'nt want to talk to anyone. They send us an email. We guarantee a reply within the hour." He adds " We believe in our brand but that does not mean that it is going to be easy to break into the market here. We plan to make a quiet entrance and slowly turn up the dial. What's nice is that celebrities like Kate Perry, Scarlet Johannsen & others are already wearing our brand. So we have American resonance." To compete with US retailers Robertson can offer something different in the form of a monthly magazine published since 2007. The brands ASOS sells pay to be in the spread, that makes it cost free to Robertson and its sent out to top buyers.. Looking to the future Robertson says " I'm amazed how the internet has shrunk the world and how fashion is globalising so quickly. We are all inspired by the same clothes and the same celebrities." ( except possibly me). An up beat message from the founder and we'll see how it goes over the next quarter. Should be good leading up to Xmas. Thank you.

An excellent update and I hope we will continue to get quarterly sales figures broken down into regional volumes. As I thought it is worldwide sales rather than the Uk that are starting to accelerate. 128% as opposed to 21% in the UK which is still very positive considering our economy. Anybody from any reasonable part of the world can buy from a website. Couple that with websites opening in Europe later this month, it means that the potential for further expansion in sales just has to be there. I was reading a web article last night where Nick Robertson laid heavy emphasis on ASC keeping up with fashion ideas and trends for the future to maintain the interest of his customers. He seems to be getting that right.

Gold is a bit of a wild card is'nt it? What's keeping it going at the moment as you know is inflation combined with economic uncertainties. It was rather dead in the nineties after a rally in 1993. Always worth holding onto in reserve for times when it comes to life. Gordon Brown managed to sell ours at the bottom of the market - around $255 if I remember. I was in South Africa at the time and Goldfields bought several tons for a bargain price at auction and sold for a fat profit a few years later. He must have known that was the bottom of the market, how could he have been so foolish defeats me. Gold earns no interest and there is a cost to storing it, however from time to time it can soar in value and improve any country's balance sheet. So its always worth having. As I recall many countries were dumping gold at the time so GB decided to follow suit, instead of quietly accumulating the stuff at bargain basement prices. Gold's behaviour can be very arbitrary at the best of times and I don't profess to understand it. Mantras like there is too much of it above ground is quickly swapped for gold mines can't find enough of it and production is stagnating. The herd believes one then the other. I normally treat gold as a trade not a hold, but that's not always a correct strategy. I've bought and sold CEY a few times. I should have held it judging by its current sp. However when you misjudge the gold price cycle, you have to cut your losses or hold for a long time. As for currencies backed by the gold standard, that died out I thought in the 1930s. Gold was controlled in some manner until Bretton Woods was scrapped and currencies traded. Gold used to be around $30 an oz and then moved north sharpish particularly in the seventies. I did'nt follow stock markets until around 1980 when gold had climbed to $800 and was starting to fall. I assume the likes of George Soros made his first real killing in gold. I don't thing gold will ever take the place of the US$, but I do believe China wants a seat at the high table of reserve currencies. The dollar will not be on its own in that position forever. America has the debt China owns it. He who pays the piper calls the tune.

Yes its all lunacy really is'nt it. I did my house up in Hackney with a small council grant of £3,000 and stripped it down, windows, roof ,plaster, doors and did it up slowly over 3 or 4 years. Never again but I learned a lot doing it. The joint was furnished with aged hand me down stuff but it was fine. Lots of people are doing the same sort of thing, its hard soul destroying work but you do come out the other side understanding what makes a house tick and what mistakes not to make next time. This is a country obsessed by house prices and when I was young the only way I could afford one was to buy a run down joint and do it up. I certainly remember inflation being worse in the seventies than now, but that tended to fuel rising house prices as it always will continue to do. Yet I do not believe inflation is as low as any govt tries to pretend it is. Govts like to leave food inflation and other factors out of the CPI to try and fool the gullible. Yes inflation is 3% if you don't eat, pay a gas bill, a season ticket on the train or your council tax. As for outstanding household debt, first I got inundated with ads for platinum credit cards through the letter box and today its public awareness phone calls every week telling me they can help me avoid paying my debts if I ring their number. I've never ever had a credit card in my life nor been in serious debt, but I have been close to financial ground zero on losing a job once or twice. What really angers me is going to my HSBC deposit account and look at what those ****** are payin me in interest on my account. Bank rate is 0.5%, and they charge exhorbitant interest on loans earning substantial margins for themselves. You'd think they could offer more to attract savers to their bank. They've always been solvent and never called on govt help. I can only assume they are raising extensive funds on the wholesale markets and they charging heavily for the privilege. It seems that the BOE rate is effectively an irrelevance. savers and the responsible in this country are being sold down the river to rescue the profligate. Couple that with the middle classes being squeezed, you wonder how any body saves these days. Throughout the last say 40 years or more everybody's wealth has been in property. All my father's annuities and savings were wrecked by inflation and perhaps poor management of the funds, but he did well with property along with the rest. So did I for a while. But not in my time did meet anyone with a buy to let mortgage they did'nt exist. After the dotcom collapse and the stock market taking a beating, nobody can be blamed for sticking to property that continued to climb. THe fact that there were up 125% mortgages was something the government shoud have stamped on from day one. In fact if mortgages were restricted to say 80% I think it would calm things down a bit. You can't have something for nothing can you !

Another of you interesting posts. Perhaps we are reaping the real results of what Thatcherism meant.The markets are always right and there's no such thing as society. As we have discovered to our cost markets cannot be trusted. They work as they have always done on panic, ignorance and greed, something we have witnessed plenty of in the last few years. The sad thing is that until now, nobody under 40 has seen a recession the last one being 1989-92 and fell for all the mantras and the bull the market experts were using. It did'nt help with Mr Brown making comments like he had defeated boom and bust. Like the Emperor Nero declaring that economic cycle known to the world for 200 years and more was just a figment of the imagination. As you say up until 2003 debt was manageable but then Brown just started borrowing and spending like crazy to keep labour's voters happy. Remember New Labour is a product Mrs Thatcher thought she had brought about and in fact there was little difference between the two parties. Aside from the political situation, a far too complicated financial architecture started to grow around the world starting as early as the late 1970's and has become a global leviathan beyond the control of any government. If we don't fix the debt Cameron knows that the markets will send our economy into a tailspin. Back in 1992 George Soros made a billion betting against the pound. Its created a dangerous mix of volatility and instability in our lives that I for one am not happy with. Mainly because it becomes a political tool for America to force others to do what they want. The dollar is still the world's reserve currency though weakening and holds sway over most currencies even though America is somewhat bust. Nothing like the US threatening another country for its currency to go into retreat. I witnessed it in South Africa myself Do what they want or else. What can be more ludicrous than reading about Warren Buffett looking after derivative positions that have 100 years to unwind. Derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction, so complicated in the many ways they can be structured that they are out of control. Perhaps it would not matter if the wider economy could be protected from the city gamblers but it can't. We have swung from domination by the Unions and strikes in the seventies to free market insanity. We need to be in a bit more in the center ground. I like your point about interest rates. I could only borrow up to 3 X my meagre salary for a house and I remember rates being 7-14% most of the time. Yet todays young are being saddled with ridiculous university debts and face house prices that are ludicrous compared to South Africa. I had 5 acres, a 4 bedroom house with a few hundred fruit trees, borehole water and sold out for £80,000. Came home to look after my mother now 89yrs. Like it here but its crowded though don't need a gun to survive. Will see if I can find more stuff on ASC. Thanks all for your work here.

Another excellent post. The only reason the market is rising today is literally expectation that the US govt will provide more liquidity. Unemployment stubbornly remaining high is terrifying the Obama administration. It fears that if it does'nt try and do something, it faces electoral defeat in congress and finally at the end of its 4 year term. All it has achieved is to pump up the debt to staggering proportions by flooding the market with money to keep things afloat. Personally I feel a bit sorry for Obama in the sense that this is'nt his mess and his choices are limited. He is like a plumber trying to stick plaster over leaking holes a certain texas cowboy left in the house and he can't stop the water. The American attitude that anybody can be president of the USA can sometimes mean that you wind up with just that. When you realise that person is supposed to be the leader of the free world, that can be worrying. Apart from Dubbya we have the prospect of Sarah Palin on the Republican horizon. Can you believe that someone like her even exists as a politician let alone as a presidential prospect. We need people of serious financial ability to run the Western democracies not cowboys, media stars, showmen and unqualified fools. The latest in this line up in the UK is Alan Johnson as Labours shadow chancellor. He has no ability in this regard even by his own jokey admission. So what does Ed Miliband think he's doing. I don't know. Its just politically patrimony. Give your mates a nice job with a title whether they know what they are doing. The political circus just carries on. Ed himself is'nt married and has children. I'm afraid being the son of married parents I do not agree that that is acceptable. If you set yourself up to be a future prime minister you have to set an example and that is'nt one. Funnily enough I quite like our coalition, who I think will stick it out together and force us to take the medicine to help get us out of trouble. It might even be the making of George Osborne who I initially thought was'nt up to it. Politics turned into a money grubbing racket under Blair, it would be nice if it became a more sober responsible pursuit to reflect the times that are coming. I think what would stop the waste and chicanery would be to able to hold these people to true account and not just by election. Too many people are paying the price for the ineptitude of politicians, while they go on to become wealthy beyond the dreams of many. They are greedy, arrogant and they never apologise or admit to error. Prosecution and jail would serve as a warning. Funnily enough they do this in America what with Nixon and others in the past. No problem. But here never. Cash for honours, illegal (?) war in Iraq etc and nothing happens. A commission of enquiry is held, but no government holds such an enquiry without knowing the outcome. The establishment rallies around to protect its own. This has got to change. People in power are simply not held to account

I would say that the Bank of England controls interest rates rather than the govt. Something Gordon Brown did earlier on. It does'nt mean that the BOE is'nt being lobbied by the govt to keep rates low. Inflation alone is putting upward pressure on rates, but we all aware that that any increase could tip the cart over with the economy teetering the way it is.. You are hearing that votes in the monetary policy committee within the BOE are not all in favour of keeping interest rates at 0.50%, but they all know just how weak things are. This has been going on for 18 months. As long as the USA does'nt chase rates up we will keep ours low. Its a global economy and we get dragged around in the tide along with everybody else.. So if inflation rises a little I dont thing the BOE will panic. The crazy thing for me is that China owns all Americas debts in the form of bonds in a sort of faustian pact, whereby China wants to flood America with cheap exports using its cheap currency and America needs its debts financed. A dangerous political/financial arrangements with inhent dangers. I f China starts to sell its US assetts it could tip the dollar off a cliff. It also creates a bad trade imbalance with too many imports for the USA. You notice there is a bit of a war of competitivecurrency devaluations going on to encourage everybody's exports. America does make me think about the Roman Empire. Flooded with illegal immigrants, its debts almost unpayable, fighting expensive unwinnable wars based on half truths and its business ethics highly questionable. It reminds me of reading Alistair Cooke's comment on President Kennedy's speech in Berlin, where he said something along the lines of America being ready to do everything in defence of liberty around the world. Cooke privately reckoned he would need 300million men under arms and it would likely bankrupt the country. It was'nt realistic as an ambition however well meant. We are now probably in a slow drift of a power shift going East. They have the money we have debt. They own the debt. Its hard to believe that California one of the richest places on earth in the 1960s is now bankrupt and cannot pay its public servants. Its strange that America, a country founded on self reliance and small government has found itself in the opposite position entirely - mostly in the last 30 years. Governments always in the end want to expand their role, influence and spending. It does'nt matter where you live. Its a bit like work fills its allotted time. In the UK we are ruled by a nanny state that removes individual freedoms and by far the biggest example is the Common Market whereby Brussels wants to take over our laws and anything else you can think of. The dead hand of bureaucracy. Anyway genlleman thanks for your posts and nice to have an informative discussion.

I'd say again you've got it basically right. I don't however believe that banks simply create loans out of nothing. What has been happening is banks borrow billions on the wholesale markets around the world at low interest rates and loan the money to home owners,businesses etc. at a higher rate. For years the Japanese economy was flat and interest rates low with a stable currency. This meant banks and hedge funds gorged on the Yen Carry trade as it was called and as long as interest rates and the yen exchange rate held stable, it looked like a sure fire idiot proof way of making money; and it was. Then everybody got reckless and mantras were chanted all over the place. First it was the dot com boom. Only turnover mattered, shares shot up in price until it dawned on the markets that making profits actually did the trick and the market melted. Next mantra. Money will always be cheap to borrow, so stock up on debt you can always refinance later, don't worry about having to pay it back. This fuelled a housing boom and caused firms to pay ludicrously overvalued prices for businesses, believing they could always refinance and spread the debt repayment over a longer period. When the music stopped in 2008 as the yen stared to rise not a lot of people had chairs to sit on. To complicate matters some smart arse in the USA developed a method of securitising mortgages, whereby banks no longer held them for say 20 years, but sold them in packages called CDOs (collateral debt obligations) around the world. This enabled the banks to keep writing more and more of them. The CDOs were given 100A1 ratings by agencies like Moodys, who could not have understood them because nobody could. They were later described as toxic waste and passed from one bank to another at high prices like a bomb about to go off. Those left with the most were badly burnt with worthless paper. Add to this mix the world of shadow banking in the Cayman Islands and elsewhere involving murky deals, fraud and tax evasion it ain't a pretty sight. It was just cowboy capitalism with America leading the way. Fancy conning a poor black into a mortgage with a teaser rate of 2% and then he finds he is paying 9%within 3 months. This is what they were doing. Until they went bust some mortgage brokers were earning individually $100,000 a month swindling the poor. America is corrupt and dishonest imo. If you read about Enron and how they removed debt off their balance sheet, used their power to threaten any naysayers and wrecked the lives of pensioners. Then comes Bernie Madoff who was head of Nasdaq for god's sake and managed to run that con for 30 plus years also putting many into penury. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Like the Roman Empire will this this one also disappear. With all its unnecessary wars as well and the lies that go on this dept. Back to the banks. They are facing walls of loan maturities on their borrowings in the next few years. Its been an expensive lesson.

There is often a lot of aggression and animosity on boards which quite frankly is neither helpful nor useful in trying analyse a stock going forward. My advice is to either leave them alone, or present what you have to say politely and reply to aggressive posters that they have'nt produced any worthwhile counter arguments. You can often win over people by keeping polite and trying to stick to your line of discussion. Some people seem to spend all day on boards like GKP and woe betide anyone crossing their posters. So I stick here from time to time or maybe AEX and BMR a little. All this stuff about ramping and deramping I ignore. Its a waste of space. All emotion and no reasoned thought backed up by insight or actual information. This is not to say that there are'nt good analysts of the technical kind on boards. Riddler on AFC,Tinci, ACTA and others is a technical chart follower and gets my plaudits for a number of successful stock picks. There are others who seem to pick winners based on instinct and have done equally well. I might well go for AFC and KAH because governments are going to have to deal with cleaner energy solutions soon and they know it. Maybe some in ASC but the sp is perhaps a little high. No reflection on the company which appears to be doing well. Nevertheless I am worried that Wall Streets recent rise on expectation of more govt money being pumped in, is only building up the debt into an even larger problem. All this funny money has to be paid back. It can't be conjured away and things can still reverse very suddenly like 2008. The US economy is not giving great signals. I don't know what you think.

Well said if I may say so and struck the nail on the head like a true carpenter. Share prices are maintained by confidence and that's it (sounds like Jackie Mason). One day Wall St takes a dive and then the world's markets retreat. Few shares go against the trend KAH was one in 2008 and tipped to improve by The Investors Chronicle today as their operations start to take off. World governments are turning their attention to nuclear energy and their need for Uranium. Their shares have pulled back alot. Another winner in hard times maybe AFC with clean coal energy. We have plenty of idle coal mines that could use their processes to create cheap domestic energy, which would help us get away from Russia - no country for honest businessmen. Just ask BP if you question that statement. Re your pension comments I could not agree more. I saw last monday' panorama program and that was horrifying. It just proved what I have always believed that its a big racket that few pension contributors have the time to understand. You pay in and your firm pays in and you forget about it until its too late. I could'nt believe how pension funds are moved about from one fund management company to another each taking a commission. A nice game with billions of pounds swirling around fancy office suites in the city and canary wharf, enriching themselves and stuff the pensioner, who wakes up to what's happening a few years before retirement and finds it too late to do anything. Most fund managers appear to do worse than the market. You would think that they cared but they are'nt really held to account are they. It was pointed out that they take 1.50% pa.commission plus to manage funds, it does'nt sound much but overtime this can amount to a sizeable sum of money. They quoted someone with a pension pot of £90,000 and £25,000 odd had gone in fees. Poor performing markets don't help, but clever investors like Buffett have worked the market quite well and looked after the shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway. How come if our fund managers are so poor, why are'nt they losing business to a better performer. Pensioners in Holland receive 50% higher pensions than in the UK. My pension went up in smoke in 1983, when I joined another firm. There were no portable pensions then and I lost my previous firms contributions. Decimated and then I lost my job. Nobody and I mean nobody explained my pension situation or gave any advice when I asked about it. Young and dumb I got burnt. That's why I am very cynical as my aged mother says. I trust nobody very easily anymore. The so called financial gurus and experts have screwed up everything so why should I believe them. They were out to enrich themselves and took down loads of innocent hard working people into penury, while they get rescued with taxpayers money. How do we get rid of the debt mountain is the real question as you say. Crunch time may be soon and we're running two useless unwinnable expensive wars as well. It does'nt help.

My apologies for not spotting your gender correctly - so much for intuition. Its interesting to meet one of ASCs' customers. 18-35 year old ladies with spending power. You're one of them and the reason this company appears to be powering ahead. The ASC research you are doing on the web has served you well by the sound of it. Good luck in looking up other prospects. Let me know if you find any other inexpensive stocks that look attractive propositions - acorns that may make it to oak trees ie not chewed up by squirrels. Check out ADS. Its a small investment house reducing its losses and currently in negotiation to purchase Hoodless Brennan. A poor bid offer spread and last traded at 0.45p. Its not clear if the deal will take place.Worth a keeping an eye on it imo if nothing else.

Fair comment Mr Tomo. We all miss opportunities when we can't understand what we are looking at, but that's life is'nt it? I,ve missed many others like Polly Peck 8p to £35 in a few years before it collapsed and Asil Nadir fled to Turkish Cyprus, the dotcom boom etc etc. At 58 years of age with a few health knocks with middle ear balance problems, I've come to agree with my deceased father that good health is the most important thing and at the moment its not with me. So most of my money is still in cash, because I sold out of GKP last december at a 9 times profit. Not feeling at all well this year I cannot think straight and make sensible decisions. I hold some oilies and miners with small amounts of money that are down. So until my health gets better I'm nervous about the future and tend to want to hold on to my cash for the moment. Ear balance problems makes you feel pretty rough and I hope it never ever happens to you or anyone else on this board. It can go on for years and Im only 10 months in. So I do not mind missing a few boats, in the sum of things it is'nt the end of the world. Thank you. You are probably right and I should just put it in ASC and be done with it. Well I used to be indecisive but now I'm not so sure.

I just thought I'd throw in something else. Assuming you are a young man, you have time to hold onto investments if you choose to do so. We all have the habit of jumping in and out of oil and commodity stocks for example and lets face it, good profits can be made if it comes right. Take for example EO and RKH. However if you hit a duster or two its expensive and that can kill the sp. With timing you can still profit from buying the dips etc.. I've had this habit for years and not made any real money. Winnings offset by cashed in losses elsewhere. I'm still hooked on it mind you but that is not necessarily a successful way to invest. Few oil explorers and junior miners make a profit. RKH may claim its Sea Lion find is commercial, but just look where its located and the logistics of moving the stuff from the Falklands to a suitable market. ASC on the other hand has had strong growth in sales turnover and profit for its entire existence as a quoted company. This means compound growth in sales and profits year in year out and with more to come under its expansionary plans. This engine of growth is what makes long term investing so good if you can spot a company that can offer this possibility. I had an opportunity to buy this at 17p back in 2003. Think today that means I could have grown my money sixty four times in 7 years. I did'nt because I got a non commital reply from a stockbroker who did'nt know what the company did, too small to be on his radar. I'm of a nervous disposition and let it go when it reached 25p. I had no computer and just used the FT to follow prices as I did when younger. The two points I'm trying to make is that good advice is difficult to find. The only person who cares where you invest is yourself. The other point is to look for other acorns with long term potential that can grow bigger over time. I believe there is plenty of upside in ASC but the real potential lay back in 2003 when it was tiny and off most analyst' radar. Finally please go and buy the following book: The Snowball, Warren Buffett and the Business Of Life by Alice Schroeder. Shorlisted for a business book of the year prize. Nobody has made more money from long term investing than WB. Its a good read and not dry or dull. So give ASC time and I think you'll see my point. Ignore the day to day volatility in the sp and let time do the work. Good luck !!

You used to find ASC in the aim listing in the FT. That is supposed to be the financial newspaper of record. Others like the Telegraph or Evening Standard just put in a variety of stocks under each sector that are widely known to the Investing Public. So to keep track of ASC use this site and you'll be able to follow the smaller stocks as well. If you want to keep up to date its best to use the net for prices and instant news releases. Newspapers are simply not fast enough in printed form. I hope you are in this stock because its a winner. Checkout the past posts here and stuff on the web. Good luck.

Thanks for your last post and will checkout the two companies you mention. XEL has gone up a lot and Goo has a bad bid offer spread, which can quickly disappear of course with increasing volumes traded. Its EO and MATD that have made the running this year with maybe more to come. MATD's involvement in Mongolia is interesting as that country is stuffed with minerals but remote with no banking system but maybe politically safe. I was in pol or prl as it was, which had coal interests there. It traded at around 3p at a 50% discount to assett value. V. complicated intertwined shareholdings in KAH Extract etc- a Stephen Dattels outfit. I got bored with its sp being eternally trapped in a narrow trading range and sold it. It later paid a 3p dividend, a prompt doubling of the sp etc. Always the same for me. I never get my timing right. Its always difficult. Thanks for your help anyway and good luck. Will keep watching ASC.

Now I see that ADS may be making an offer for HB and the terms will be cash only. No mention of supposed reverse takeover. If that is correct then that would appear to change everything. Interesting.

Good to see a non executive director buying stock. That I assume may be behind the tick up in the sp today. Was unaware of this when I wrote the last post. RadDad glad your oilies are doing well. I've at last entered the market by putting a little in RRR otherwise waiting to find something to invest in that has'nt run away. Everything rather volatile especially in the Falklands. RKH and EO were the one's I should have tried but they've already run away long ago. I have a feeling that ASC apart its going to still be commodity stocks that make the running. Small gold plays attracting interest as the gold price looks to climb further. Maybe RRR will prove another good long term hold. Got in late as usual but its still cheap if their future plans produce fruit. One must have faith and patience.

Could today's rise in the sp in an adverse market be a signal for a slow but steady improvement? or is an RNS expected. Nothing has come out in the open to counter the positive outlook for ASC, though a week or so ago a negative outlook was given by a major analyst saying that ASC's P/E was way ahead of rival internet etailers. This is an old brickbat I have mentioned before that has been thrown at this company from almost day one. It appears as usual to be having little effect. Nothing has been brought to anyone's attention to say the positive outlook has changed in any way, so the steamroller will continue to roll on towards the newly planned roads, nevermind the odd warning signs about possible slippery conditions ahead. Interesting times for those who like this company' business profile.