ASOS have dropped quite significantly in the past week for no particular reason and I view this as the perfect opportunity to invest as I can see them bouncing right back up to the 5.50p mark in the next 2-3 weeks. STRONG BUY!!

seadog ASOS is still very much in a nice consistant uptrend. Look carefully at the angle of the MA. Be aware that retracements are extremely good in a trend

Hi SEADOG, Marconi was an entirely different case than ASOS and at the time of its troubles had an entirely different price chart...as I recall it was only heading one way...down. You need to look at the trend of ASOS over 3 months at least, as posted by SNIP, and make your own decision as suggested by WOODIE. Your own analysis was over too short a timeframe, unless you really are a bear in hiding! You can expect some consolidation around this price before another leap up. The Annual Report should be posted today and I expect it will be available in Acrobat format on their Investor Relation page in due course. The content and supporting statements from the Chairman etc may also help the price before the AGM, otherwise that news flow will be the 'kicker'. Of course the markets are suffering from some summer madness at the moment, plus we have some turbulence on the world news scene so don't expect too much overnight!

Gentlemen,
Thank you all for your words of experience, I guess that I'm trying to be a day trader instead of an investor???. My longer term charts (march onwards) do indeed confirm that ASOS is in an uptrend, albeit a shallower one than previous to mid june when acceleration took off. I thought the retracement a bit steep. From 70.5 to 40.5 almost 50%, that i think is more than a retracement. However gentlemen I will perservere and thank you for your timely advice.
johngtudor. Marconi was different , I thought that the govt would not let such an important defence supplier go bust, as they had rescued so many companies before, but they did. I am a novice on a learning curve. tks

SEADOG, if you are trying to be a day trader you should be running much tighter stop losses than you had on your purchase of this stock at 70p. As you are still holding the stock I assumed, clearly wrongly, that you are a position trader?

johngtudor, I am not trying to be a day trader. What is a position trader?? I thought there was only day traders and Investors. I was trying to make a profit on an ascending share taken at random from the investors room by going into ASOS but it seems i have a knack of buying at the top and selling at the bottom. I am rather fed up and can't seem to have put a foot right for the last 2 years.

Hi SEADOG, I am sorry to hear of your trading problems. To be clear a Day Trader never has an overnight position, full stop. All trades are cleared at the end of the trading day, reverting to a full cash position at the end of trading. So lets assume you are not in that category, which leaves Short, Medium and Long Term investing. Long Term investing i.e buy and hold, is now fully discounted, Marconi et al. So that leaves Short and Medium term investing, don't think of it on a time basis. Positive trading, is where you take a position in a stock and have a pre-determined strategy for achieving gains and losses before you enter the trade. Myself I work on a ratio of at least 1 to 3 e.g. I am prepared to lose 1 if the upside is at least 3, more is better. Trading in small caps has a greater degree of risk but the upside is potentially greater, hence all our interest in ASOS. So as I understand it you bought some stock in ASOS at 70p and the price went down and tested a moving average and found support....(again a 50 day m.a is a good stop loss to use). My advice to you, and I would do the same myself, is to hold your position. I believe this stock over time will go back up through the 70p and beyond, probably after the AGM in September. If you are confident in your own anaylsis, and this is a stock that is still firmly in an uptrend, I would also consider averaging down by buying more stock at this relatively 'cheap' price. Remember the Financial Director purchased some stock at 57p and this company is his life! So on that basis any price under say 60p is a good buy. If you are of a nervous disposition I suggest you also take a look at Burren Energy which is now a FTSE250 stock, is pumping Oil and using its own tankers to deliver the stuff. This is not an explore and hope company but the real thing. Short term price target 4.0 It has a great management team that knows what it is doing, and in the current environment who knows where the price of Oil will go. By the way a recent Analyst report put a price of 425p on the company. Hope this helps, and stay with the investment game because your experience will continue to grow. It is not easy to get your timings of buys and sells right we all have that problem, but choose your companies and study it's price chart. You will then see a good buy/sell price for the stock, once you have identified your targets stick to them. It's all about when to pull the trigger! Good luck.

I seem to have the same buying luck as you do Seadog--don't worry if the growth is there the price bounces back, as this one is doing quite quickly. I would like to buy this and have tried a couple of times but each time Hoodless Brennan tells me to phone an order to purchase this stock. This puts me off, can anyone tell me why you cannot purchase online?

moneyplus you can purchase ASC online with comdirect

The chances of added value are greater if trading with the trend. Always put a trend line underneath an uptrend and try to buy in as near to the trend line as possible. The chart I last posted does pretty well show a trend line (I can`t draw one on moneyam). Check that the direction of the MA is up and that the company is no airy-fairy fly by night and you should be away. I recently bought ASC. Have a look at their website. If you like it so will others

A retracement offers an A1 chance of getting into a stock. If worried by any stock then put a stop loss in and go away and enjoy life while the stock looks after itself. Every so often raise the stop loss or do what I did with HSD. ie sell half at profit and put a SL at entry point. You cannot lose

Morning Gentlemen,
johngtudor,
Many thanks for your patience and your time explaning the trading standards now employed, I didnt know that buy and hold was out, as this is what I have done all my life especialy when at sea. I shall have to re-appraise my portfolio and bring myself up to date for the short to medium term. It was also very interesting to learn of your strategy (mine was buy and pray it went up!!). I shall take your advice and hold, remembering that the FD is also in the market, and perhaps after selling the dogs in my portfolio will purchase more of ASC. Also thanks for the reference to Burren Energy, being an old shell tanker man I do keep an eye on the oil stocks, shell being the first share I ever owned, but being away meant missing some of the cycles that shell seemed to be following, hence the buy and hold strategy.
I am glad and sad that moneyplus suffers from the same complaint as me, glad not to be alone, and sad for him that he has the same affliction, which i am sure will be helped by all the good advice we have recieved. I take onboard Snip's good advice to purchase close to the trend line as I had not heard that one before
Once again thank you, and i look forward to next week to see messages and hopefully the price of ASC moving northward.

seadog buy and hold is not out,most of my stocks i have had for over a year most are showing over 100% profit some are losing the portfolio over a year is 117% UP.WHAT snip said should apply to EVER INVESTOR SHORT OR MEDIUM,LONG TERM.there is always another stock or day to fight the idea is to preserve your capital sometimes it is painful to take a loss but it has to be done in some cases ,this stock is not one of them at the moment.cheers woodie

WOODIE, Holding for a year to me is in my spectrum very short term, up till now the kind of buy and hold I have been doing is Hanson 28years, Shell 30 yrs, etc all FTSE 100 stocks, and I see now, since being retired and able to monitor the portfolio daily, the opportunities missed or rather the opportunities I have turned my back on perhaps through lack of knowledge or courage or both. It has been an eye opener to me to come into a forum like the Investors room where people are willing to share their experiences and do their best to help others with good advice (whether heeded or not). Thank you woodie I shall try and implement the advice. I thought I was an experienced investor but I am begining to see what a novice I really am.

seadog i have been investing in the stock market for over 25 years and iam still learning and make mistakes anyone who says differant is telling porkies regardless of how long they have been in the market take newpaper and mag tipsters do they get it right ever single time?GOOD LUCK IN YOUR QUEST FOR THE SHINING STAR.cheers woodie

SEADOG, Snip, JohngTudor
Reckon this has been a very helpful dilogue. Three points.
1. From my previous note it is clear that I see ASOS as a buy with potential for a 1 price in the Autumn. I have got to know the share very well: the sales, cash flow and profits trend lines are turning further up - you could describe it as an exponential period of growth. At present they do not have physical limitations to volume (new warehouse advanced to next year because of accelrated growth). I have switched from the dogs in my portfolio to buid up the ASC investment. That is my recommendation, sell the dogs NOW and switch into ASC. Strong likelihood of buying ahead of AGM in September.
2. The comparisons with the Moving Average trendlines are very interesting. Ten and 20 days are really too short; 39 or 50 days give a much better reading.
3. I discovered myself tending to buy on the newsflow - that means that you probably buy at the top. The price then comes back as profit takers come in. I suggest that is where we are at the moment with ASOS. Fresh buying in the last week or so. Probably a good time to buy. Note that the price is quite volatile and can vay quite a bit during the day. Recently, price has been quite ggod around 8.30, particularly if marked down overnight. Then comes a rise as buying builds up from 9a.m. starters before reacting later in the day, perhaps wioth profit taking by day traders. Suggest watching the price stream on MoneyAM plus graph over a few days. Do others agree?

ew agree with you if this stock is not a pound by xmas something has gone wrong that is why i topped up a few weeks ago.

Hi EWRobson
I do agree with your analysis, both today and your earlier msg re Market Capitalisation figures. A 1 target in the autumn though looks a little ambitious, but that is not to say it won't get there between now and Xmas.... well like you I hope so! As I have said before you do have to undertake your own research, and I have found the company's advisors to be helpful on that front. Ultimately you have to back your own judgement and then carefully monitor the stock. Easier to do when you are only following a few stocks.

Down another 10% today. Isuspect MM shorting still??

freefall, novelty over??? hope not, this share thing is so frustrating, rich one minute, skint the next.

kivver, your lucky to be rich for one minute with this one !!

last time to buy , shorters out the way , agm soon, also a 3%big buy, but you dont spend that sort of money without doing your homework.

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