Any punters living in Birmingham Area interested in a Pie, Pint and jaw, one evening in a pub in Birmingham area.
Personally interested in small time investing(gambling), developing an appetite for CFDs. Also developing an interest in Charting or TA.

I use Sharescope, Moneyam, Barclays, Comdirect and IC

Well, Selftrade have just given a max of 100 to buy, 1000 to sell (shares). I agree with Fred that the market is skewed, and I know generally that the free float is limited.

However, there is a fair difference between Selftrade and Barclays ie between 100 shares and the equivalent of 330 shares. Even so this is minute compared with sizes of 5000 regularly available back in the summer. If Fred got over 11,000 online at one go back then, then it does appear that Selftrade is not offering such wonderful terms. If Fred can get shot of all 11,000 odd in one go now online then Selftrade is clearly failing.

Look like it's turning out no better than iDealing.

As a quick follow on, I have looked on Selftrade for Microfocus to trade via Plus, and the Selftrade screen came up with Microfocus - LSE - as TELEPHONE trading only! A FTSE 250 company!!!!!!!!!! This just gets curiouser and curiouser. As Fred rightly says, results in three weeks time. Big 0.6m trade just gone through. I suspect stakebuilding. Bid? Dream? Fantasy?

Level playing field. Pah!!!!!!!

Further evidence that Selftrade is no longer the Broker that it was under Comdirect/Squaregain Management in many important ways IMHO.

Hard to know if is just a quirk of this stock, or a wider malaise. Never known it this bad before. But as I say, it could just be an overly sensitive pointer to something developing. Or maybe Boursorama (an off putting name if ever there was one) have been cutting back on the number of RSPs (MMs) that they go to. I'll drop 'em a line and see what happens.

Any decent one's left? I know we've covered iDealing ad Nauseam, Barclays seems to be nicely in the frame with Stan and Fred. Survive's recommendation?

As far as brokers go then Charles Stanley/Fastrade or TDW (although I'm aware that Stan ain't a fan of them) seem OK to me. TDW are presently doing a one month commission free period for new account holders.

Thats true Chris but I have given them another look since you mentioned to me about their exposure to international stocks ie Europe. I also believe that these brokers have to make changes as bad news does travel via the internet about poor service, they cannot stand still these days as they have maybe in the past.

55, There is a sell note in IC for MCRO which may account for SP drop. I am holding for results.

Likewise Fred - not a lot of choice, though I have fewer than I did a month or two back. Many might be surprised that an IC remark had an effect........ Any decent grounds for their view? The Indie said to "buy on the dips" a couple of weekends ago, just after the favourable trading statement. Takes two views to make a market. I might just start buying againl

Survive, thanks for the suggestions, not sure if I haven't got a dormant account with Fastrade. I did have something else - other than the unhelpful iDealing - before Comdirect came along, but I remember it as having a rather cumbersome platform.

Re the Thursday 22nd November Seminar by CMC. It is at :-

18h00 at

Radisson SAS Hotel,
12 Holloway Circus,
Queensway,
B1 1BT

An expensive venue.....

55.... How did you find out? .... Did you get an e-mail from them yet?

Fastrade- although they don't do Euroclear stocks or Covered Warrants they seem very efficient with all the 'normal' UK stocks. They also seem fast notifying clients of any events such as consolidations. rights issues, warrant option deadlines etc. They had a few hiccups after being taken over by Charles Stanley - but now seem to be back to their previously very good standard. They only deal with T+3 settlement - although credited proceeds on any sales can usually be utilzed within 5 minutes of a sale. They're a bit expensive if you use phone for transaction instead of online facility - although I've always found that if you've had to use phone because online facility for a particular share was unavailable then they've just charged the cheaper online fee.

Visited CMC site and registered.

Radisson SAS Hotel ? does that mean they are expecting trouble-):

Well, it's an interesting venue. 5-star. Just a short walk up the road to New Street station.

5-star?, boy we do seem to be coming up in the world.

..No dress code I hope.

dress code .... in Birmingham ... !!!

although they do have valet parking....

and talking about 'coming up in the world' - it's 39 storeys - so a little difficult to miss... (although meeting room facilities are only on floors 2 & 3...).

Here's the link to their meeting room facilities:

http://www.radissonsas.com/cs/Satellite/Page/RadissonSAS/Page/rsasHotelDescription/1087881384685/en/hotelCode--bhxzh/

Stan, I caught a snippet the other day about plans for putting bag scanners in at railway stations. Imagine the poor sods queuing for hours when all they want to do is nip round the corner from New St to Fiveways. Be the bus stops next.........

Never mind what level it is on Survived, what is the hospitality gonna be like?

From what I remember they had a short period a while ago (due to terror alerts) when they stuck scanners in at New Street station - think they made a profit on the situation (as they were also checking tickets and the number of fare dodgers charged was in to triple figures).

55 - hospitality ? - depends on which meeting room package that CMC have purchased! Don't suppose it'll be the full banquent one - but hopefully it'll be more than just water....

Chris,

valet parking? does that mean that if I arrive by bike they will give the chain a wipe down and check the tyre pressures?