Invest? If not.........What are your reasons? Lack of liquidity? Fear of a 'different' marketplace? Perhaps you feel wary as you feel you don't yet understand how it works, or your broker is either negative, or doesn't trade Ofex shares.
(Don't worry, most people have never heard of Ofex - perhaps that in itself is a reason!).
Are you then a 'lurker' who'd like to give it a go but aren't sure?

What is it that would convince you to finally give it a go, to buy your first ever ofex share? Or would you never do it?

Do tell! And do ask any questions you have. They don't bite!

Oops kayak, did your pick "sink"? It happens! Bosley more and more do, eg TD Waterhouse by phone, Seymour Pierce also and Barclays online. It is exactly the same as trading any other share, though anything much over a grand can be tricky to sell quickly, but with competitive mms coming in that should change in the next few months.

The problem with Ofex is the low liquidity particularly if you are trading against the market. You try to get rid of a holding when it's going down and you'll see what I mean. Not for widows and orphans.

As much as I prefer to do things myself, with OFEX etc, I stick to
a fund (close brothers beacon fund) it gives me more 'shelter' being
in a pool of investors in dealing with OFEX, AIM etc - yes I have a
yellow streak I'm afraid! The fund has performed pretty well recently
although it did drop in the general down
trend a couple of years back, but all in all it's recovering well.
Leaves me to do my own thing on the various FTSE indices, which I
prefer.

kayak, I had eight Ofex shares at one time, so i take your point but new mms should improve things, a bit. And stockbunny yep that's one way certainly to get balanced exposure. I tend to prefer picking my own and have been building up one big position (GSC) and I like Millbrook.
Can i be rude Bosley! Which stock are you interested in?

it was tipped in sgares mag, printing .com, i think it was called .they gave it a very good write up , could only see an upside and it had plenty of potential . they also re tipped it saying it would be joining the aim very soon , so i thought it would be a good idea to get in early . what do you think ?

Comdirect will trade OFEX.

Bosley they reported 8 weeks of buoyant trading before Xmas, so we could be looking at 600,000 profit for the full year. Against a market cap of 11.5 million i wonder if they might be fully valued for now? Only my ramblings!

wonderful, so how do you buy the damn shares?????

Just like any other share as long as you find a broker (several mentioned above) who will deal.

Britannia Finance easily the best buy on Ofex.


Interims up 229%

Don't take profits up front like their peers...it's keep the tax charge down.


Tipped by Michael Walters & UK-Unquoted Analyst.


Plus fixed costs mean profits will fall to the bottom line when their loan book reaches 12m......& it's now 13m.



Furthermore profits are virtually in the bag for the next 3 years as that is the average time a loan is lent.



Profit Record to date:

2000 67,000
2001 107,000
2002 179,000
2003 308,000
2004 700,000 Estimate by M Walters........Results announced in about 15 weeks.

And the boss as just sold 700,000 quids worth of shares.

gf.

No, I can think of easier ways of losing money

Up 300% from float & the boss refused a bid at 24p, as he knows there is growth to come.

Paid off his mortgage, as he only takes a small salary...who can blame him.


+ the sales have now finished.


A task.....


Find me better compound growth....85% at the moment & it's due to get better :-)

And the boss as just sold 700,000 quids worth of shares, plus his wife has been dipping in aswell. Sorry but smaller companies like this market cap circa 9 million are greatly exposed when we have the geopolitical events going off at the moment plus theres the much talked about consumer bubble burst about to happen any day now, and interest rates on the rise.(interest rate rises affect all financial firms adversley ive worked in the Banking Industry, dont let anyone tell you any different).

No there not for me, no liquidity, hardly budge. Go for days and weeks on end without moving. Sorry doesnt interest me I prefer a little more excitement.

And of course you will have heard of the problems that have hit ofex over the last few weeks, losing out on the regional exchanges, Luke Johnsone leaving after only a few weeks with Ofex, the new MMS put back at least 2 months, share price of ofex stock fallen.

Good luck to holders though, you must be very very patient people indeed, you certainly have my respect for this aspect.

cheers GF.

Find me better compound growth....85% at the moment & it's due to get better :-)

No answer then?


goldfinger you got involved in Telecom Plus & Sportingbet after they left Ofex, wow could have bought Telecom plus for 30p on Ofex.....maybe you will buy Britannia over 1 when it's on AIM.

GF raises some good points. Offex and Aim are traditionally treated as high risk because of the liquidity issues and the lacket of analyst coverage.

I think, though, that brokers treat them as higher risk because they are riskier for the broker. They call for good fundamental research and a lot of brokers don't want to commit the time or energy and would rather follow the latest research note from DKW or whoever. They get a bit of cover from that if it goes pear shaped.

If you look at the way the market has moved over the last few weeks aim companies have, as G.F. says, hardly budged and they are for the patient. But then isn't there some maxim about not looking at equity investment for less than a 5 year term ? I know that most people here are frequent traders but there is a distinction between investing and trading.

Not that I advocating puting the crown jewels into 2 offex companies, but a good spread along with other holdings can't hurt.

Punting on a large cap is essentially betting against 300 analysts who are frankly better trained and have more time than me. They live there lives for their sectors. Okay, markets aren't efficient, and nor am I, but I think that there are better opportunities to identify value in the small caps.

Hey ho. Off the soap box now.

And for those having a very slow day:


Professional investment may be likened to those newspaper competitions in which the competitors have to pick out the six prettiest faces from a hundred photographs, the prize being awarded to the competitor whose choice most nearly corresponds to the average preferences of the competitors as a whole; so that each competitor has to pick, not those faces which he himself finds prettiest, but those which he thinks likeliest to catch the fancy of the other competitors, all of whom are looking at the problem from the same point of view. It is not a case of choosing those which, to the best of ones judgement, are really the prettiest, nor even those which average opinion genuinely thinks the prettiest. We have reached the third degree where we devote our intelligences to anticipating what average opinion expects the average opinion to be. And there are some, I believe, who practise the fourth, fifth and higher degrees

It is the long term investor, he who most promotes the public interest, who will in practice come in for most criticism, wherever investment funds are managed by committees or boards or banks. For it is in the essence of his behaviour that he should be eccentric, unconventional and rash in the eyes of average opinion. If he is successful, that will only confirm the general belief in his rashness; and if in the short run he is unsuccessful, which
is very likely, he will not receive much mercy. Worldly wisdom teaches that it is better for reputation to fail conventionally than to succeed unconventionally.

J.M. Keynes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, 1936.

But Ofex is about to become like AIM, 4 market makers by 2004 end......many commentators are catching on.

It's only for those who like high risk/high rewards, those who like safety, yield and a steady 20% pa gain on average, should stick with the blue chips!

Not sorry not for me. Not regulated enough too much of this kind of thing happens which as just hapened in last few days...............

Over on Ofex, currency exchange group 4Less placed 2.8 million shares at 60p and that managing director Charles McLeod had dumped 450,000 shares at the same price ahead of a move to AIM. Since the mid-price ahead of the news was 87.5p the placing seems at a low level but the company - in a rare moment of corporate honesty - told free to use website Unquoted-Analyst.com that its shares were simply overvalued at 87.5p. They were 5p less overvalued by the close." Just think from 87.5p to 55p, - scandal.

If this happened on aim or main market there would be a shareholder rebellion, I feel sorry for those investors who have lost so much on this company.

cheers Gf.

Afraid it does suggest that there is little interest here. I said there were bargains there on ofex, but i certainly do not think Britannia is one of them.

All these director sales tell a story, that company will be hurt by rising interest rates and the claimed conservative accounting - all that means is that the problems will take longer to show through and the inexperienced might well be left holding the baby, when the problems become all too apparent. And given that even several FTSE 100 financial stocks trade on single figure p/es difficult to imagine Britannia meriting a comparable rating, let alone its current premium - on a more competitive market. The 'growth' is from a chronically low base and hollow claims like 'it's going to get better' or 'more to come' do not help intelligent or mature investment decisions.

And if you watch commercial tv for more than 20 minutes you are almost guaranteed to see adverts offering better rates (Britannia verge on the shark imho, over 30%) from more established companies - cut throat competition that will eventually tell on such a small concern.

And goldfinger makes a very valuable point: ofex companies like 4less and Britannia likely to suffer from competitive mms as so many share sales and Gerald Ratner style comments about overvaluation (though fair play for honesty I guess!) would lead to markdowns. managements in many ofex companies have much to learn about the real commercial world!

If you are looking for a good ofex share, Oakdene expects to make 3 million+ on a p/e of under 4.