Thank goodness that Christmas is over. It is an absurdly long compulsory break. As Christopher Fildes pointed out thirty years ago banks do not need holidays even if people do. ***** Pantheon (LON:PANR) came up with more drilling results last week. I am told that they are very bullish and I am therefore inclined to…
MP Evans (LON:MPE) surprises me. It was always known that KLK would fail at the first acceptances stage with their 740p bid where the major shareholders (55%) had in mind perhaps 840p. So when the failure was announced and KLK said that its offer would lapse, one might have expected the price to settle at…
I got an unusual telephone call from a longstanding contact in the market yesterday evening. He drew my attention to the piece that now follows. It was written by Robert Lea in yesterday’s Times: “These odd outsourcing companies present an interesting post-Brexit conundrum. But there is nothing so strange about these businesses as their accounting.…
It’s the way you sell ’em: some readers may recall my remarking that Duckers, 6 The Turl, Oxford and shoemakers to the gentry is closing. Well, I mentioned this to my father who then disclosed that the BBC are coming to interview him on this momentous event. I recalled sitting alone in the front of…
Since the chairman had told me to go short the Euro (this is an emotional, if sound, twitch of his) I had sold at 1.07. It was therefore concerning to see 1.085 race into view but the price turned over with all the accommodating speedy athleticism of a supremely fit hooker (I here draw upon…
After the great spreadbettor sector slump I stayed short of Plus500 (LON:PLUS) since I decided long ago that they are absolute rotters. However, I bought IG (LON:IGG) at 495p since it is an astonishingly well run business to which no hint of scandal has been attached by anybody I have encountered. I see that Odey…
Initially this morning, I saw Plus500 (LON:PLUS) collapse. The accompanying RNS covered a disposal of 6m+ shares by JP Morgan. This struck me as strange given that the underlying trade seemed unaffected. However, a few minutes later it transpired that IG (LON:IGG) itself along with CMC Markets (LON:CMCX) had collapsed by roughly the same percentage.…
I got spifflicated at Richmond. I only note it by way of completeness. However, we can all make mistakes as did for instance HH Munro, who wrote as Saki (if you have not read his stuff you have missed out) who found himself in 1916 instructing some soldier to “put that bloody cigarette out”. For…
Pantheon (LON:PANR) has slid on this morning’s dampening news. Some will fancy buying right now. I do not. ***** Churchill (LON:CHL) was indicating a decision over its ROI spat by this morning. Nothing has emerged. So it also sinks. I have got enough. However, it is fair to speculate that if the decision were adverse…
It’s all very well Phil Bentley laying out £3.6m on his Mitie (LON:MTO) bet but he is not in post until 12th December. He will then, I think, be able to see contracts which are front-end loaded as regards profits. This will grind hard. ***** I had absolutely decided to leave Cadiz (NASDAQ:CDZI) alone since…
