Transactions are only recorded as buys if they are at a price above the mid price, and sells if below. For someone to sell, someone else bought them! (I have sold shares many times which got recorded as buys because I managed to get a really good price!)
The bid & offer prices of a share is the SETS prices. If the order book for sets buy's (this is based on our sell/bid price, as they want shares)is better than the sets sells (based on our buy/offer price) the price should drop. (You need L2 to see this) This is not 100% foolproof because the prices are sometimes manipulated. Also if there is not enough dealing the prices may lowered to encourage buying, or rise to encourage selling. The SETS dealers only make money on the spread, so need to encourage trading.
Works is changing to fortnightly payment. In addition they are giving a two weekly pay (gross) as a loan, which I do not have to pay until I leave the company. Current thinking is to put that into LLOY. Only worry is I might end up being too exposed, given about 28% of my current portfolio is in LLOY.
I did not realise that the dividend cover is so low. Even if the dividend is reduced, it is still a good investment.
Rising well today so far along with the other banks - after the last couple of poor days this is good to see!! Broker comment today that the dividend worries are overplayed useful.
Hang in there you guys.
The dividend will apparently not be reduced according to qualified sources (i.e. broker briefings etc.) which on an average rating puts the fair value somewhere in the region of 650p - IMHO of course and always DYOR.
This has got to be the most fustrating share out there! It is currently one of the highest yielding shares in the market, because the share price is so low in relation to the dividend. (So it can afford to cut dividend and still provide a good yield!)
Trading statement announced this morning - appears slightly positive imho in that they expect " to deliver a satisfactory trading performance in line with expectations". there appears to be no reference to the full yr dividend (disappointing) and they are now meeting with the analysts before end of Dec. Shares have bounced 9p by 8.30am, though in light of Saddam, this is nothing to write home about. it will be interesting to see whether any analysts change their stance after their meetings.