Blogs

Latest Blogs

More on Sainsbury (SBRY) and Home Retail Group (HOME)

Sainsbury published their Third Quarter Trading Statement this morning (13/1/2016) and they have also published a document arguing the merits of their possible bid for Home Retail Group under the title of "Accelerating our strategy for growth". Home Retail Group previously rejected an approach from Sainsbury on the basis that it undervalued the company. This note discusses the latest news as a follow up to my previous comments on this matter. Now I have previously declared an interest in this subject as ...

Stockbroker Transfers – More Evidence of Unreasonable Delays

Back in November I wrote about the delays that can occur in switching a portfolio of shares from one stockbroker to another. I now have a file of 7 examples contributed by different people where such transfers took several months. This is surely totally unreasonable and unnecessary. On behalf of ShareSoc and our members I have written to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) complaining about this problem and have received a response which provides some more information at least. The FCA does have ...

The Importance of Having a Stock Selection Process

There is a good editorial in this month's edition of the Sharewatch newsletter. As was emphasised by our coverage of stock picking systems in the last ShareSoc newsletter, the key is to have some system, and some discipline, when selecting stocks. This is the time of year when the media are publishing their "naps" for the new year and when many investors are looking to refresh their portfolios by getting rid of last year's duds and picking new ones. This is ...

Sainsbury (SBRY) and Home Retail Group (HOME)

Sainsbury have announced today (5/1/2016) that they may be making an offer for Home Retail Group (the owners of Argos and Homebase) although their first approach in November was rejected. No doubt the publication of this information, and the advantages of such a merger, is intended to bring pressure on Home Retail to talk further. Now I have to declare an interest in this matter have recently purchased a few Sainsbury shares on the basis it looked the best value in a ...

Spotting the Duds

There was a good article in this weeks Investors Chronicle (31/12/2015) by ShareSoc Director Mark Lauber on how to weed out those small cap companies that will prove to be disappointing investments. Here's one quote from it: "If you don't mind throwing some babies out with the bathwater, just eliminate all resource stocks and all foreign stocks from your AIM portfolio - you'll protect yourself from a lot of losses with this simple step." He mentions one resource company he invested in that ...