A Brief Look At The Week Ahead

On the earning front this week, Marks & Spencer is likely to shine with a market consensus for final pre-tax profits of 750m, an increase of more than 20% over 2005. The result's key driver will be better sales and margin performance, helped by high-profile advertising, better stock management and more fashionable products. With 6.8% growth on a like-for-like basis, M&S's Q4 sales outstripped market expectations and represented the third consecutive quarter of improvement. However, M&S is facing a potential mushrooming of energy costs, given the recent warning from fellow retailer Sainsbury on the impact of gas and electricity prices, and it also has a 750m pension deficit to worry about. Also in the retail sector, GUS reveal full-year numbers on Wednesday. With GUS set to spin off credit-checking agency Experian, few surprises are expected. Analysts are forecasting a top-end pre-tax number of 832m for the owner of Argos, a big slip from last year, largely due to the sale by GUS of its Burberry stake. While Experian powers on, buoyed by acquisitions and solid organic growth, a profit decline at Argos will be exacerbated by the struggling Homebase chain. The decision in March to create separate boards for the UK and international businesses is widely regarded as the first tentative step towards the break-up of Cable & Wireless. With plans for a 220m senior executive bonus pool, a major business restructuring and a depressed share price, C&W is seen as a company under pressure. Investors are lining up to grill management at the group's full-year results on Thusday. Other companies under scrutiny this week include CAT on Monday; EMI and British Land on Tuesday; GCap Media and Scottish Power on Wednesday, with Tate & Lyle and Daily Mail on Thursday. It will be interesting to see if the market focus remains on interest rates, inflation and global matters, or whether it is ready to get back to the business of concentrating on company results. Take care out there! Good hunting! Greystone (Greystone is Alan English, City Editor at MoneyAM.)

cut & paste from the other side

I have been trading for last few years. I found IG Index and GCI an offshore based firm to be the most corrupt.

IGs order ticket has buy button and sell button but no cancel button. Every time you place order IG will fill the order if the price moves against you but if the price goes in your favor IG will send massage saying sorry size was not available. You have no chance to cancel any order. When it comes to stop it is even worse. I have seen stop blown with more than 20 -30 cents slippage but there was no trade at the stop level except a spike. If you challenge them to check against TIMES AND SELLS they will give you the trade back and then they will make you leave.

I have written to FSA about IG Index. I have at least one media interested in the story. They have already witnessed IGs actives on my screen. They were shocked

GCI will always slip you. You will find it very hard to get hold of them on the phone. If they dont like the topic they will put the phone down saying they are unable to hear you.

If you day trade using spread bet make sure your broker offers you rolling bets not futures only. I stay well away from firms who offer future bets only.


You are welcome to call me on 07737 796932 if you have any experience or idea you want to discuss.

This is my selection for the "UPS" this week BFC

Share	Volume	Chart	News	Various
BFC price 165.50p	Almost all volume buying last Friday	All Indicators at well oversold are now rising	Market for biodiesel is in a fast growing market from 3M tons last year is expected to grow to 10M tons on 2010. Company has raised 7.9M on a placing at 180p only 10 days ago	The plan is now a producing one with a good change of increasing capacity as bank remains supportive, director buying last week and AGM on 30th May

2 weeks bollinger bands, MACD

                    JOKE OF THE DAY

Absolute Worst Jokes!

Two sausages are in a pan. One looks at the other and says "god it's hot in here, and the other sausage says "OH MY GOD IT'S A TALKING SAUSAGE!"

Why did the bee cross his legs? Because he couldn't find the BP station.

Why don't blind people skydive? Because it scares the crap out of their dogs!

What is the last thing that goes through a bug's mind as it hits a windshield? His 'butt!'

What do you call a boomerang that doesn't work? A stick.

What Happened to the fly on the toilet seat? He got pissed off!

How many Psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb? Just one, but the light bulb has to really want to change.

Why did the booger cross the road? Because he was being picked on!!!!!

Where do kings keep their armies? In their sleevies.

What's the difference between mashed potatoes and pea soup? Anyone can mash potatoes!

What did one frog say to the other? 'Time's sure fun when you're having flies!'

A woman asked her husband to go to the video store and get A Scent of a Woman, he came back with A Fish Called Wanda.

    

UPS (Added by Master RSI on Sun 21 May 05:49 pm)

GTL - Mid 2.875p

Reason - Indicators now at oversold after the retracement. Construction work on its new ethanol US plant on track. Big push on US a couple days ago to get ethanol at pumps. Next week the UK government releases energy report and new ethanol company floating on Tuesday

2 weeks chart

3 month bollinger bands, MACD

Sorry but I don't know which thread to ask this in, please advise.
I am leaving Squaregain because of their cockups on my account and very poor response, also because they are merging with Selftrade who I left 2 years ago for the same reasons. I trade equities and Covered warrants, (and forex via Capital Spreads and BOM) I was going to go to Etrade, but in 10 days they have not reponded to my initial enquiries, thus not endearing them to me, though their comission is low and facilities seem good. (If they are all they claim.)

Can anyone please tell me of their experience of Etrade or recommend another (execution and data only) outfit?
Many thanks in advance

Good morning traders!

In Asia today, the Hang Seng ended the morning down 189.03 points at 16,124.33, hit by weakness in Chinese commodity and oil stocks. The Nikkei, meanwhile, was down 94.19 points at 16,061.26.

New York's main oil contract, light sweet crude for June delivery, was up 16 cents at $68.69 a barrel from its close of $68.53 in the US Friday.

Happy trading!

G.

Good morning all.

Morning all

Good morning all

Markets open lower but there is a follow through at BFC 172p +6.5p

The news of the DAY >>>>> BOMBAY shut for one hour after 10% fall earlier.............

India's BSE, NSE resume trade after 1-hour suspension on 10 pct plunge

- BOMBAY (XFN-ASIA) - The Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange resumed trading in the afternoon following a one-hour suspension earlier in the day after the benchmark indices plunged 10 pct, dealers said.

In early trade, the BSE-30 Sensex index fell an intraday record 1,111.71 points to 9,826.9 before trading was halted.

The rival National exchange's 50-share index, known as the Nifty, fell 289.6 points or 10 pct to 2,896.45 and trading was also stopped.

As trading resumed around 0730 GMT, the Sensex recovered to show a loss of 491.51 points or 4.49 pct at 10,447.10 while the Nifty was down 148.50 points or 4.57 pct at 3,098.40.

small longs ARM,BT.A,VOD s/l on

Bombay news hardly surprising.

So no one uses Etrade then! I wonder why.
Please someone be kind enough to respond or advise what thread to post in.

Midday Market Summary

rpaco - Hi. Didn't mean to ignore but was waiting for a response from one of the regulars... ;-)

There is a thread here on the subject of brokers :- http://www.moneyam.com/InvestorsRoom/posts.php?tid=9881

You should find others by using the thread search facility above.

E*Trade is one of the most established of the online brokers and I have no reason to doubt that they have a stable user platform. I haven't used them for some years now but when I did, I experienced very few problems.

You will find that there are horror stories about most of the brokers at one time or another. You will also find most of them receiving glowing praise too.

It is all a matter of personal experience and individual requirements.

If anyone else can point rpaco in the right direction, I'm sure we would both be grateful. :-)

G.

       LUNCH TIME FUN

Cheers Gray
I got a response in the traders room thread but will have a look in 9881 too.
Incidentally, who do you use and why did you leave ETrade?

rpaco - I'm now an ex-pat so I had to move all my dealings to the continent. I now use Internaxx in Luxembourg. It was nothing to do with the performance of any UK brokers I used. ;-)

G.

I've used TD Waterhouse and Comdirect (now Squaregain) in the past for physical shares.

I closed TDW because at the time their internet trading platform was unreliable and their customer services were quite frankly hopeless. I have no idea if they have improved although I was thinking of opening a new account with them as they are doing 2 months of free trading - so I will probably give them a go again.

Comdirect trading platform I have found quick and reliable but again the customer service side of things leaves a lot to be desired in my opinion.

The trouble with the 'cheapie' brokers is exactly that - they are cheap - they don't give a t**s about churn as long as they can attract new customers and you often have to complain in writing to them to get anything sorted out - it's no good phoning them.

long again BT.A 226.25 s/l on