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!!

Kivver,

Intersting to see you hold IQE. Surprisngly a good rise today base on the back of substantial sells outweighing buys. Read somewhere that the Semi Conductor business is going to come under a lot of pressure, so although the IQE recovery looks good for the moment, will it last? Just a thought.
Clearly you are not adverse to investing in shares with risk, so I wonder why you continue to hold Tesco as the largest part of your portfolio, when the return is but 52%. I say only 52%, because you have just made 57% out of SPS over a much shorter period. I wouldn't presume to advise you what to sell, in order to buy another stock, just an observation.

Regards

PTH

Interesting reading some people talking about mms taking on stock and marking it up... I suppose they buy the stock back and try to get as much as they can for it, also fooling punters into a false sense of security making them think sellers are buyers and causing buyers to get in on it.

If they were to drop the price significantly then it might panic people into selling and lumber them with a lot of stock. Sometimes if mm short of stock they drop the price to try and pick up cheap shares and to panic people out.

I remember when New Star fund manager sold hundreds of thousands of these at 6p.. what a 42 carat plonker!!

ASOS Challenge Portfolio for week ending 14th October.

company_____ EPIC price,p shares__shares_ price_ value_ cap.(m) gain/
_________________ buy____ issued(M)______ 15-Oct 15-Oct________ loss

Civilian Con CCN_ 16.25__ 41.883__ 30700_ 22.50_ 6907.5_ 9.42__ 38.46
Yoomedia____ YOO_ 22_____ 125.538_ 22700_ 27.50_ 6242.5_ 34.52_ 25.00
Broker Net__ BNH_ 77.5___ 15.065__ 6450__ 87.50_ 5643.8_ 13.18_ 12.90
Petroceltic_ PCI_ 15_____ 484.975_ 33300_ 16.25_ 5411.3_ 78.81_ 8.33
ASOS________ ASC_ 56_____ 67.97___ 8900__ 60.00_ 5340.0_ 40.78_ 7.14
Marchpole___ MPH_ 33.75__ 120.455_ 14800_ 35.50_ 5254.0_ 42.76_ 5.19
Sterling En_ SEY_ 17.25__ 822.712_ 29000_ 17.50_ 5075.0_ 143.97 1.45
CFA Capital_ CFP_ 0.7____ 619_____ 714000 0.70__ 4998.0_ 4.33__ 0.00
Stanelco____ SEO_ 4.5____ 78.225__ 111000 4.25__ 4717.5_ 3.32__ -5.56
cybit hold._ CYH_ 1.82___ 988.952_ 275000 1.60__ 4400.0_ 15.82_ -12.09
Petrel Res__ PET_ 124.5__ 58.625__ 4000__ 106.00 4240.0_ 62.14_ -14.86

total___________________________________________________ 58229.5 5.87

capa has taken the lead with impressive rise with CCN. Demonstrates the potential with the small cap. shares. The other two under 10m cap. are SEO and CFP. The former has recovered much of the lost ground from last week; the latter has refused to budge despite the talking up by pth and others. I, for one, have bought the argument and a decent stake in CFP. They are in a win/win situation with the rapid growth of the AIM market (see article in IC today): it grows their business and investors are turning to AIM for growth (see thread).

The three energy shares are the largest cap. PET dropped to 80p at one time on Thursday on large trading volumes only for buyers to then outweigh sellers and much of the drop being recovered. One suspects it will be either top or bottom by the end of the campaign.

Of the others, BNH and MPH have made good ground this week with legend jumping into third place with BNH (if you are going to put all your eggs in one basket, you could certainly do worse). YOO appears to be on a steady ramp up (worth reading mactavish on the YOO thread). Which brings us back to ASC: steady improvement after period of horizontal training. The answer to Kivver's question above must be not to stay out of ASC - it wouldn't take much for the anticipated profit surge to be anticipated in the share price. The others need to double by the New Year to beat them, I reckon.

Overall, a nearly 6% gain which generally leaves portfolio investors in the blue after spread and dealing expenses. Promising and encouraging!

Yes, now a bad week for the hypothetical investor!!! Good analysis EWR

Haven't seen anybody talking about this, but it would appear to put ASC in a totally new game....one with lots of costs attached, but conversley, greater visibility. Read through to the last paragraph.

Opinions?

Regards

PTH

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,2764-1291909_1,00.html

ptholden

Thanks for your observations. Regarding IQE if you go and read the 'iqe a recovery share' thread, suehelen has posted some very useful and positve information making this look good in the short term.

The thing about my portfolio is i like to spread the risk, you will notice a large part of it is in the 'safer' ftse 350. Not only have these shares improved in value i have also received some nice dividends which have all been reinvested. I have done well with some of my smaller, riskier stocks but i am sure it is more by luck than judgement. I must admit i am starting to wonder just how much further tesco can go, but they do just keep going.

ASC seem to be trading between a small range at the moment and although i agree with all the positive comments that one step further has not been taken YET.

Update,

Apparently there is no truth in the story!!

PTH,

I live in Edinburgh and the article is accurate re fashion etc. It is pretty obvious that ASC is targeting the 18 to 34 market by opening in Leith. I suspect overheads will be high but Leith is good for visibility - the nightlife attracts a lot of students from Edin Uni and most of the digs are in/around Leith.

As usual, ASC marketing team have done their research well.

Regards,

Ramu

Eric,

Just so you don't miss it, have sent you an Internal Msg.

PTH

ptholden: I am not sure I understand your reference to putting ASOS into an entirely new game...(msg 500)...please expand. Is it to do with ramu (msg 503) re Edinburgh/Leith and a retail store? Thanks John

Kivver
I agree with and understand the reasoning behind selling some shares to invest more in ASC.But I am completely baffled as to why you chose to hang on to IQE and Tesco and sold SPS. Sorry....none of my business really and probably speaking out of turn and what do I know.
Team -I can't get the article link to work for me, but do I understand correctly that we are opening a retail outlet? Is it really a good time to expand in this way? What are we really going to gain from this and won't advances to online shopping such as being able to 'feel' textures online negate the need for a shop. Surely people are shopping with us because we are cheaper than the high street. The goods are not unique in a big way. Will we continue to undercut the high street if we are there as well?
Apologies if a lot of my ramblings are answered in the article.

John,

Found this link on another BB, which the last paragraph refers to ASOS opening a Retail outlet in Edinburgh. My comments were directed towards this development. Apparentlty, this has been denied by ASOS and therefore should be disregarded, apologies for setting hares running!

Regards

PTH

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,2764-1291909_1,00.html

Morning all,

Marchpole in talks to buy Louis Feraud fashion brand, have posted on mph thread.

Hi sandrew,

my reasoning my be a wrong but one but sps has risen sharply in small amount of time. It rose 10% on friday and not sure if this sustainable. I am now looking for it sign or announce some real revenue generating deals now. I am sure these are going to come but the longer it takes the more fidgety investors will become. I have also read the increased sale in 3g phones has not really taken off yet but realise there is still lots of time for this to happen. I am not finished with this share by long way.

Glad the Edinburgh shop news was a false alarm. It wouldn't appear to be needed and would be a distraction and a costly one at that. I know lastminute.com well and they have followed a policy of buying up travel shop operations to build volume which may or may not have been justified. ASOS are focussed on niche sectors where peer group recommendations plus focussed marketing would appear to be working very well indeed.

Please look at the post I have just made on YOO bb. Look also at the 1-year price graph, referred to in the article. The company is in far better shape to hit the 55p mark than a year ago - and stay there. Worth a 5% stake in your portfolio (as opposed to 20% for ASC!). Looking for a chartist to comment on the recent chart formation.

Eric

Eric: I have as you requested taken a look see at YOO's chart...and commented appropriately..I think! But it did make me think about what the appropraite Stop Loss should be for all the stocks in out Portfolio, and more importantly, Why? I wonder if there is any support among the sponsors to suggest a SL for their chosen stocks with an explanation to back it up. I am sure we can all learn something from this. It will also enable us to look at the best risk/reward stakes that could be taken??

Over to you as I busily write something up for PCI?? John

johngtudor

I think the stop loss proposal is a good idea - perhaps sponsors could take a view during the week so that we can include on spreadsheet next weekend. Have tended to take an informal approach, as on many things. Have probably suffered as a result, e.g. earthport. You are right that each stock neems to be considered on its merit - e.g. with a stop loss on PET of 25% we would have broken it already. My own approach is to take a view, and normally get out, if there is negative news which reduces my own expectations, not necessarily primarily because of the potential loss on the share but because of greater opportunities elsewhere.

Eric

I agree with your final comment Eric. Not sure a stop loss is really going to work with PET. Let's face it either they get these contracts and go into orbit or they don't and sink like a stone. I'm sure if the news is released before the markets open as I expect will happen ...and it's bad the opening price will be way below any stop loss we would have set. Hopefully a decision will be announced end of this week or beginning of next,so we may not have long to go.

sandrew64: Yes...well PET is rather an exception as the SP all rests on one outcome...it's almost a binary bet! John

Anybody read the Independent today? Nice little article outlining that sales have been significantly up over September and October. Looking good!