The Evil Diaries: “I am staying short Trinity Mirror”

The chairman of Burnbrae Media Limited, better known as The Debonair One, has been on this morning about the bond rout. It’s definitely going on and, if persisted with (it will be), means equities are under pressure in the near future. I nicked £10,000 on daily FTSE and, as I now recount, came across something else:

I sold FTSE at GFT on Tuesday and was surprised to see the quote, which was identical to that of ETX on Tuesday, open up 4 points higher on Wednesday morning and then go on to be 9 points higher in the afternoon. Wacko or what?

So I got on to GFT’s agent who explained to me that FTSE would go ex-divs that evening. It sure did and I got debited about 5 points. I then expected GFT’s price, apparently generally virtually identical to that of IG Index, to come into line with ETX. It remains this morning at 4pts variance. I checked with ETX who advised that “this can happen”. Well, clearly it can. But it is not obvious as to why or how. As the man at ETX said, albeit in a jocular manner, “we cannot be having arbitrage, can we!”. Please would a reader elucidate if he/she can. Contact details are at the end.

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I am told that it costs £3m to apply for a banking licence. This in effect means nothing other than that the holder can take deposits or borrow money from the public. And now Tungsten (TUNG) can’t/doesn’t operate its licence. I do not know why. But given that Tungsten paid £40m for this “bank” one has to wonder what its residual value will prove to be. I cannot see how the bank can be sold off for £40m or anything like.

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Trinity Mirror (TNI) this morning advise that they are seeking permission to appeal the scale of damages awarded against them in the High Court in respect of breach of privacy activities through phone hacking. I am told the judgement will not be overturned. The would be appellant is MGN Limited. How insolvency of this company would be treated by the parent company is not yet disclosed. I am staying short Trinity Mirror.

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Apparently, crowd-funding is all the rage right now. Here thousands of moths (private investors) fly to a red hot flame operated by the promoters of seriously incompletely described propositions. This amazes me since I was under the impression that, above twenty punters, a prospectus is compelled. As I think I need hardly remind readers a prospectus issue is a really serious document in that professionals for the vendors and the directors really must disclose everything and failure to do so can be a criminal offence. So I not unreasonably ask myself as to how crowd-funding can get under way. Again, can any reader oblige?

My telephone number remains 020 7835 0868 and my emal address remains cawkwell@btinternet.com.