The Business/Finance/Economics Thread | Page 2 | Vital Football

The Business/Finance/Economics Thread

I make a reasonable amount of money on the stock market in my spare time which I have plenty of. Quick tip for vital villans. A company called VAST resources. Likely to be up to 1p a share by Christmas and then onwards. Not guaranteed but I got into this at 0.12 a share (now 0.44) Check it out on the LSE site. Very likely to break through the 0.5 barrier Monday

Why do you like them? Their share prices was £20+ in the mid 2000s.
 
Why do you like them? Their share prices was £20+ in the mid 2000s.

Have a look at the recent history
announcements/funding agreements and also the wrangling over diamonds which seems to have been rectified in their favour And also that operations outside of Africa. I got in when the price is very low because a lot of what is happening now was unclear but worth a punt, the fog is certainly clearing and should clear even more in the next few weeks
 
To add more meat to the bone I don't think it will drop below 0.4, now it there and the next leg up will be next week with signing of the JV, and then after that news confirming the terms of the 13.5m USD loan facility to fund both Romania and Zimbabwe operations. There is also news due on the specifics of historic claim to diamond assets which has recently been announced. This was claim on loss of mining rights which they were stripped of, and physical diamond assets which were confiscated, valuing several millons. Short term I see this recovering to at least last year's high's around 0.6 and perhaps double that. Mid to long term based on current mcap, 5 to 10x
 
HL is an expensive platform but considering I’ve transferred a pension I’m alright with paying a decent fee so that they don’t vanish overnight! I find the platform slick and provides me with useful short, sharp news articles. Just buy shares in Hargreaves Landsdown to hedge the fee downside ?

The L&G funds have really low annual charges, they’re worth a look at and do all the hedging for you.

As for taking punts on shares, have a look at ASOS. The share price has plunged to around £25 however have regularly got to £60-70 if you can hold out on a relatively bad year of figures. They’ve mastered online retail - which is no mean feat - and are expanding across Europe and the US. They’re also relatively protected against the beast that is Amazon, I don’t think amazon will take over their space in the market segment as long as they can get product to customers as quickly as them - and they’re already pretty quick.
 
A lot of the charges are from the fund manager. They would actually charge you more for going direct. HL get a big discount, because of their buying power.

Go to Old Mutual or Transact to see that HL aren't too bad, if you want a basket of funds.
 
When I used to work for a huge PLC in the UK which you’ll all know if I said but I won’t, what I used to find funny at the time being young and naive, was when we announced decent results the share price sometimes went down the trading day after, or bad results and the share price sometimes went up.

I figured that at these big companies the CFO’s, the hedge fund managers and big investors must be talking. A lot is built into price in the run up to results whether good or bad. Even the average employee may not have as good a gauge as a big external investor. I’m not accusing CFO’s of insider trading, my point is that it’s very hard to make money by just looking at what millions of other people can look at in the short term.

As Heathfield says, stick your money in some low cost index funds, with a direct debit to buy a few more shares each money and review it once per year. These companies spend hundreds of thousands on paying professional managers to do the hard work! L&G US index, L&G international index, L&G emerging markets government bonds etc

Or if you prefer higher risk, go for those which are actively managed (the manager chooses stocks within the funds objectives) though this is a much higher cost. I like Stewart Investors Asia Pacific Leaders for example
 
Moving the conversation in a different direction, I'd be interested in knowing people's view on the euro, particularly how it's been designed and whether it has a future.
 
Absolutely right, Dan. Trying to pick individual stocks is tough. Trying to time when to buy and sell even more so. The trick is not to get greedy. Second quartile over rolling 3 and 5 year periods is far more attractive to me than top decile over the last year.

I did run design portfolios for clients for 25 years, so I do know a little about it.
 
Moving the conversation in a different direction, I'd be interested in knowing people's view on the euro, particularly how it's been designed and whether it has a future.

The Euro was badly designed or perhaps was well designed to favour German manufacturing over the peripheral economies. Still, even the most Euro-sceptic (ba-dum-tish) country, Italy, will have a hard time disentangling itself from the currency. I think it will persist without ever really overcoming its shortfalls, perhaps like the EU itself.
 
The uncapped charging at HL at 0.45% makes them expensive on funds (regardless of their discounts unless compared to going direct) but makes little difference I guess for smaller pots or if you're happy to pay for their UI/csutomer service. I've used them and still have one small sipp with them (for now)

monevator has a handy comparison table for costs:

https://monevator.com/compare-uk-cheapest-online-brokers/
 
Last edited:
To add more meat to the bone I don't think it will drop below 0.4, now it there and the next leg up will be next week with signing of the JV, and then after that news confirming the terms of the 13.5m USD loan facility to fund both Romania and Zimbabwe operations. There is also news due on the specifics of historic claim to diamond assets which has recently been announced. This was claim on loss of mining rights which they were stripped of, and physical diamond assets which were confiscated, valuing several millons. Short term I see this recovering to at least last year's high's around 0.6 and perhaps double that. Mid to long term based on current mcap, 5 to 10x

They’re a tiny company in terms of market cap, how did you come across them if you don’t me asking?

The definition of a penny stock, all seems hinged in this Zimbabwean deal (not the most reliable to do business in) but that’s already seen the share price uptick. Is the Romanian business stable?
 
The Euro was badly designed or perhaps was well designed to favour German manufacturing over the peripheral economies. Still, even the most Euro-sceptic (ba-dum-tish) country, Italy, will have a hard time disentangling itself from the currency. I think it will persist without ever really overcoming its shortfalls, perhaps like the EU itself.

Yes, the one size fits all approach doesn't suit all the Eurozone countries. Giving up our monetary policy was detrimental to Ireland at a time when the economy here was overheating whilst those of the big players were slowing down. At a time when classic economics would have suggested increasing interest rates, those in the Eurozone were dropping.
As regards the Italians, their model for a long time was to depreciate the lira every so often. That can't be done now. Likewise, the deutchmark, if it still existed would have appreciated considerably.
So I think the euro has been better for Germany than other countries (Italy and, of course, Greece, come to mind).
I think Ireland might have been better to have done what Denmark has done by holding onto the punt in the same way as they still have the kroner whilst still staying in the exchange rate mechanism but still having control of monetary policy.
 
They’re a tiny company in terms of market cap, how did you come across them if you don’t me asking?

The definition of a penny stock, all seems hinged in this Zimbabwean deal (not the most reliable to do business in) but that’s already seen the share price uptick. Is the Romanian business stable?

I like low value low cap minerals/mining within volatile territory with a bit of a back story to add a bit of spice to my portfolio. I like Greatland gold as well at the moment as it fits my criteria
 
Last edited:
Anyone heard of Totally PLC? Have a look chaps if you’ve 5 mins spare, interested to get your thoughts.

I came across them on an article as they have won another contract, it’s quite an interesting, new business given the inevitable way the NHS is going - they provide out of hours services for the NHS. That said, the opposite is true as the NHS is always looking to reduce its budget.

They’re a relatively cheap share around £1.54, market cap £20m and still relatively new. They’ve got huge top line growth but have struggled with the bottom line, though if they can keep growing their top line and gross profit that’ll pay the overheads in time.

The balance sheet to me looks a bit challenged as they struggle to generate cash which is one of the things I look at personally. Bit of a punt however the share price is cheap if they can deliver a bottom of £2-3m in time. I’m tempted for a bit of a punt but it is just that - punt