NML is due its interrim results now, last year it was the 28th of this month.

They are setting up a new site to explore/research/analyse and all the equipment to do this should be on site now, and drilling should start soon, all this extra news should be covered in the interims.

does anyone have any further positive views on this company ??

Well SD if it goes to a 1 in the next month you are on :-)

At 1 it could even be tanzanite if you want to be dead trendy - I suppose I would then be a blue-collar worker.

Have a nice weekend.

Di, are you into EPD? Been looking at it, thought it might interest you - they're the same stage as NML, but do sound a bit better organised somehow. Take a look. Interested in what you think. Thinking of getting in, now all the hard work's been done.

SD

di and stockdog (mistress and acolyte)

Really enjoyed your little interchange. Definitely 15 love to sd - what else does he love to do? Back home from hols which were great apart from breaking down near Plymouth and arriving home in a rented car. And what a roller coaster week with my CFDs. 8K up on Monday; tiopped up in YOO and withdrew 4K; Urgent call on golf course on Tuesday with instruction to stump up 6K which meant closing several positions - it appears to have been a general mandate to clear any negative positions with the fall in the amrket in case it turned into a collapse. By Thursday I was increasing the SEO stake. Lesson learnt - keep a bit of cash in hand. di - I suspect you are just that bit more careful in your approach and more risk-adverse; I suspect the conclusion is that you may turn out to be better at CFDs than I am.

What do you reckon happened with Healy's visit? Why did he come? It seems it might have been unsuccessful. Probably best to hold on and see what April brings.

Eric

Two reasons spring to mind - a) being called in to explain continuing delays and b) fund-raising to provide more cash in event delays continue. Either or both should be reported in a TA soon, if correct.

Am thinking of topping up on NML at its current depressed price, but can't take my eyes of the low neckline of EPD. Eric - your views please.

Sorry about your clutch.

SD

SD

Given you already have a holding in NML I think I would go for EPD on the evidence from the thread, particularly the industry articles. It seems to be an atractive scenario with the first phase project justifying the existing share price and generating the funds to continue explorations in the second stage Lesotho and Finland. On initial perspective, I would ignore the latter (rounded down to zero) and assume the former (rounded up to 1). As you point out sentiment will improve when mining actually starts. The same applies to NML but there appears to be something of a credibility gap - why should the sp fall when Healy arrives in London? he is positive about a February start when climatic conditions should have pointed to April. There appears to be greater risk with NML. To offset that the cap. is a quarter and the potential revenue appears to be better in the short term. Seems to be one of those cases where one should hedge ones bets and split ones funds.

From previous comments you appear to keep a large spread in your portfolio. I would rarely be over 10 stocks and at present I am on 7. NML is the greatest risk but, with CFP, attractive penny stock plays. Each could n-bag quicker than an SEO!

I'm pleased to say that my clutch is fine and showing no signs of falling away with age! The clutch of the car is another matter! lol! Do dogs understand these things? New Westie arrived today, called Tess, and has snuggled in with Honey for the night - very moving!

Eric

Eric,

Sorry to hear about your breakdown, hope all is well now.

I think Shane Healy was here to raise funds, and that may account for the small drop this week, although to be fair, most AIM miners were down too.

Interesting that you mention EPD, a stock I hold. I feel EPD will commence mining before NML, and my current plan is to rotate out some profit from EPD into NML around the time NML commence mining, provided of course both companies keep to the current timescale, which they may not!

Interestingly, I bought NML last July, when they said they were due to "hit the ground running" in September, and I had planned to rotate out profit from this into EPD when they commenced! Now we have a complete reversal of that scenario.

Rumours regarding a possible bid for AFD by FDI abound on other BB's tonight!

Eric
As ever, good advice. I hope EPD will snuggle up with NML without too much snarling.

Yes, I have a large spread - too large - of 25 stocks which is hard work keeping up. But, jumping in from a standing start late last year, I took the view I would a) learn faster and b) risk less by having so many with each stock holding at a level where 100% loss would not affect my lifestyle. Having had some good luck and some rather more modest good judgement, I now have a 15% profit cushion where I am am happy for each holding to rise to 50% of that cushion - i.e. I now can't lose more than half my realised profits on any one stock, still preserving capital. Apart from some minor ins and outs of trial stocks, I've only had one major tank - DEMG and that was well within above limits.

Over the remainder of this year, I should plan to reduce to about 15 stocks, building up more concentrated holdings in those with surest prospects (e.g. SEO where I am fourfold overweight) as I realise (or abandon!) the more capricious choices. But I'm such a tart I can't let new ideas (like EPD) pass me by!

I am currently into five sectors - oil, goldmines (might switch into pure gold, GBS is very interesting), other mines, E. Europe and the rest which in retrospect all have a common theme across a wide diversity of actual sectors which is companies that have a winning innovative product applied to an existing essential market with hopefully other applications potential - SEO, ARX, PSG etc.

I also (like you I believe) have a tuck away and forget dividend fund in my wife's name which I intend to feed with profits from my own fund for the long term.

I've had such a lot of fun researching stocks and meeting dog-lovers on line (with or without the offer of a bejewelled collar), I am seriously tempted into a life of full-time trading. Just think, capital of 25k traded for 200 days p.a at a profit margin of 1% each deal tax free is not a bad way to net 50k pa for 3-4 hours work a day.

Do I talk too much for a dog?

SD

Don't forget SD you can be rung up on the golf course to top up your trades and that can seriously put you off your stroke!! Like you I have far too many stocks which I can't resist buying but then find I'm forced to hold as I buy in too late such as ASC. Not that I worry too much as it's only a loss if you sell it but I couldn't stand the strain of trading!!
perhaps we should have a new thread--all the stocks we hold including the dogs!
cheers hope you had a good Easter MP

MP, I guess a thread called dogstocks would be a novelty. But seriously, a thread devoted to portfolio structure could be interesting. Sectors, weighting, total number, balance, risk management, capital protection, stopping losers, running winners etc. on a truth or dare basis - no concealment allowed.

SD

Interesting chat, SD and MP. My own view is, if you formalise it to a set of rules or portfolio structure, your performance will probably deteriorate. You are better off swimming against the tide or, probably better, beating the tide to the shore! I am aware that my own trading is too active; if you jumpt in when you are first attracted to a share, your timing is often far from the best. Some of my best trades have come from watching a share for some time, researching it and getting to know its characteristics really well. I know that both of you do that, too. But I am then likely to build the position because I start to compare the prospects for the stock with some of my other holdings and decide to switch. When you say, SD, that you have four times the weight in SEO, I assume that means the equivalent of 4 stocks out of 35, or some 12%. I was up to 50% in ASC last year and am up there again with SEO this year. OK, the risk is higher, buit if you have much greater confidence in that share than many of your other holdings, why not go seriously overweight.

Not being DOGmatic, or DOGtrinaire, or DOGdgy, or DOGged! Made a new year resolution to time the purchase on the charts; have done that occasionally but not often enough. My most frequent expletive when timing is wrong yet again is DOGgone!

Eric, DDL.

Eric

Agreed being too rule-bound results in an average performance, but even your brief comments above make interesting food for thought for those of us less experienced - I also try to be patient on when to buy into a new prospect - I also fail! (Write five hundred times - buy low, sell high; buy low, sell high . . .)

Glad to see you using your honorary degree after your name - DOGtor of Letters (or is it Litter of Dogs or simply Dedicated Dog Lover?)

SD

SD: Doting DL so you pretty well got it - BAT! Not sure about the Honorary though - I do a lot of work for the pleasure. Not sure about the experience either. You, as MP and Di, do your homework thoroughly: essentially, determining for yourselves the value of the company and then comparing the actual value on the market. NML is an interesting case. The geologists have proven the diamond resources by appropriate sampling techniques; the risk all seems to be around the management of the extraction process, together with an appropriate level of funding. There's a bit of a gamble there (noting your post on GMC!). A mimimum upside of 4 times against a potential loss of funds - compare SEO where the downside is marginal against a similar upside. Its not an argument against the NML investment because you are spreading the risk over many stocks: like you my holding is around 4% of portfolio; the superior SEO scenario is reflected in my weighting there being more like 50%.

May we all prosper together! Eric

Agreed Eric. SD I'll dig out the papers and list my dogs and losses but it's not a pretty sight! After following this BB I sold many I had sat on since the dotcom bubble and took my losses of 27000 -ouch and that's just this year!
Now I'm pleased to say I'm back to losses of 14000 which I'll carry over to next year and if all the helpful advice continues on this site I hope to break even. If I sold my NLR I could be in profit this year but I feel they could be my pot of gold and also GMC and SEO! no sales there! Hindsight is a wonderful thing too---I sold 4000 SBT at 25p for a big loss and 3000 MMG also at a big loss---look where they are today!

MP hang in there girl...it's gotta get better. NML may not be making us a profit at the mo but the potential is huge ...you just need patience :-)
I suppose I am lucky that I did not get into this game until way after the dotcom bubble; well except for a FTSE tracker fund I still have but that is now well in profit again.I have lots of goodies in my portfolio including SEO, GMC, KMR, NOP, GFM, YOO and NML, NML, NML oh did I mention NML. I still have two dogs, PTG ( so few I don';t bother with them)and TGN which needs patience and will come good again. I did have DDD and was sitting on a 70% loss and then one day mad buying for no reason, I bought more averaged down and got out at breakeven; it's gone back down since so I was well happy.
I firmly believe that NML will make us all a packet but as to when that is another story so I try not to worry about the price and spread too much.
Di

Glad to see such courage MP - don't give up, you're in good company listening to Eric and Di. (Used to be Hugh and I in the old days, didn't it!)

V. interesting Di - no comment from you on EPD (yet).

Is it a legitimate strategy to "straddle" two very similar shares as a hedge or is this just a cop out? e.g. I hold BFC and DOO as a pair equal weight. They have pretty well trakced each other with mild difference in timing. I see NML and EPD as another pair, also EEN and SEY in the oil sector. So that one has a stock spread within a sector spread - which probably accounts for why I have more holdings than most.

Any views?

SD

Well SD EPD looks very interesting...I could be tempted if I had any spare cash; which I don't at the mo. It's a good idea to have more than one stock in a sector and I have three miners, NML, KMR and GFM It is difficult to do this in all sectors as I usually only carry 10 stocks or there abouts.
Di

Thanks Di, very helpful. I'm getting used to the idea that my 25 stocks need a bit of a prune (spring for the early flowerers and autumn for the late ones, isn't it?).

SD

Well SD I started off putting 10% of my portfolio into each share or therabouts...5% if I thought they were really risky. As my portfolio has risen I had still kept to this pretty much although at one stage SEO was 40% of it due to going up so much. NML currently has 13% of my portfolio and KMR has 25% as I think it is a sure bet in the long term ( well as much as any share can be)plus it has gone up alot.
Di

Good dialogue, friends. 'Clever dog' again, SD. A good argument for holding parallel shares, apart from spreading the risk, is that one acts as a benchmark for the other. Recall Andy's debate; he's playing a nicce little game that should appeal to dogs: held out a carrot, sorry bone, and then decided that EPD had beaten NML to the dig and will then use some profits from EPD to but his tranche of NML. Great theory. Problem is when everyone else is thinking the same way and you would be better with a 'contra' policy.

Number of holdings is a key point. I agree a 10% norm, which may be irrespective of size of portfolio. Some will become overweight by growth in sp as others will become underweight. Run the profits; cut the losses is the maxim. Not always, but here you need to be careful, I kept buying CFP to keep it at 10% which gives a real whack (sorry, SD) when the share recovers. The argument is, I think, that if the price falls you should either be selling or buying more and not just holding; no real point in keeping a share underweight. Mind, I have done that also, before everyone embarrasses me by saying 'well done', with ASC and YOO; sensible - we'll wait and see! But it is worth repeating the maxim that profits should be run until momentum has gone (or is going); the most important maxim in the game?

Eric