Evil Knievil: Expensive regulation in practice
2 mins. to read
The madness continues to descend upon us all. I tried to buy Golden Prospect Subscription Shares (GPSS) for my elder daughter who has, if I may say so, been a successful investor this last ten years – for instance her SIPP has gone up by 700%.
I placed the order only to learn a few minutes later that the agency broker through whom I wished to deal advised that I could not do so on my daughter’s account since subscription shares are deemed to be complex investments. As readers of this column know they could hardly be simpler. All that happens is that the investor acquires GPSS and pays 46.2p by the end of November and receives a fully paid ordinary share.
I add that I went through all this about four years ago at Charles Stanley. Fortunately my brother-in-law was then a judge and he was not prepared to tolerate this drivel on the part of Charles Stanley. And nor was my elder daughter’s husband, a chartered accountant. So, eventually, after about fourteen months Charles Stanley paid us £7,000 odd by way of compensation. I will not bother readers with the facts that here applied but the investment in question was devoid of complexity and was categorised as complex by a simpleton regulator who had not updated his files for changes at the company in question. These regulators think that they are frightfully clever and authoritative. They are in fact stupid time-wasters.
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Incidentally, this probably explains why GPSS are at a discount to the ordinaries. Private investors are excluded from buying.
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N.Brown (LON:BWNG) are, I understand, doing well – they are major beneficiaries of the switch to online shopping as a result of the lockdown. I originally paid 41p, saw them up to 64p and now reside at 51p. This strikes me as a buying opportunity which should not be missed..
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I am still short of Tesla (TSLA) and it hurts. But, last Sunday, my younger daughter’s husband who is an automotive engineer and runs an engineering design firm in India informed me that TSLA will face real difficulties as its sales expand since its batteries are massively heavy and in any event require a supply of lithium which simply is not there. TSLA is capitalised at $400bn. This is completely and utterly mad.
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I have opened a short in the December long gilt at 135.19. I now await the news that inflation is returning.
My sister-in-law’s chambermaid’s second cousin twice removed, a well known psychic
in the Norwich area reckoned that Astra Zeneca were a dead cert back in February.
So we piled in.
A Swedish farmer told me that Astra Zeneca was a Swedish company
originally and bound to be a golden goose. He claimed to have golden geese on his
farm, oh come on, I said…
I bought some gpss from HL and had to to the online assessment, it’s no problem except that I am now 10% down but lets wait until November.
whilst not a fan of TESLA I have considered a Lithium investment where demand should be rocketing, but then why are companies mothballing their Lithium mining?
Lithium is hugely abundant, and despite the name, lithium ion batteries contain less than 5% (by volume) lithium.
Just did a dummy trade with HL on GPSS for £2500 and it would have gone through -after completing the silly questionnaire.
Don’t most execution-only brokers permit dealing once a “Warrants and Other Complex Instruments” (or similar) declaration has been signed?