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!!

eric this was intended for short term traders,risk reward at this stop loss is to great to miss have taken out fresh spread bet,with this in mind still holding my long term shares from a year ago. what would have been nice for the co to have done was to release the date of trading update.cheers woodie

capa

Helpful post on IDS. Figures are impressive with first decent profit projected of 4m. However, sales year on year are just up 50% whereas it looks as if ASC will be mrope like 100%. Cap. of two companies is similar which may be justified on larger turnover of IDS. Indicators very positive for IDS which must be viewed as a buy. It will be interesting how sp performance compares going forward. The results from NEXT are pretty dreadful. 2% up at retail shops over Christmas - I wonder why?

WOODIE

Worth looking at IDS to give confidence in actions taken. Thinking of adding to my ASC CFDs at this level. I suspect it bottomed out earlier today as price is recovering on reasonable volume. I suspect the 2 100k transactions were buys delayed an hour. Helpful to differentaite your long-term and short-term trading strategy.

Eric

eric thanks my short term play is for these figs to be released,spread bet is for march there should be no fresh news after the release of trading statement from co unless take over approach.long term i will hold until at least the end of the year what i got to work out is when the growth is going to slow down trying to guess this in advance is what selling at the right or wrong time is all about.cheers woodie

Woodie,
Trading statement to be released 21/1/5.
Rgds
ZZZ

casham thanks

casham: thanks for trading date; bit later than ex[pected and gives more time for building up a position.

WOODIE: trading announcement with interims gave sales up 81% to 26th November. dawsinho's hitwise chart shows that Xmas season was very strong and should at least have preserved year on year figures. I would expect margins to increase as overheads pre-determined at Q2 levels. Statement should at least match expectation and could exceed but not by significant margin. One would expect a run up on expectation (happened with interims) with mvoement on news depending on results re expectations. Q4 guidance will be important.

I anticipate news during first quarter on three fronts: (a) successful Miss Sixty launch, planned January; (b) own label launch, planned March; (c) new warehouse (gets a worry out of the way); plus, perhaps, new front-end platforms, including Amazon (delayed because of potential impact on volumes). In addition, it appears that the switch to on-line trading is accelerating. As you mention, ASC must be a takeover target and one would expect speculation to increase. How much would a predator have to pay? depends on competition which surely would be fierce. This all seems to point to building up the ASC stake.

dawsinho: very helpful charts from hitwise - provide confidence in above comments.

Eric

Price down on a fair volume of relatively small sales. Have been wondering why and suspect, perhaps a combination of, the following: (a) ASC having been share of the year of 2004 (I think) punters are switching on view that lightening doen't strike twice, aiming to find the 2005 share; (b) short-term positions; (c) quite widespread expectation that Xmas trading built into price. My money is on trading statement having one or two juicy morsels and will get price going again; or the hitwise figures may move price up in advance.

Eric

Looks very healthy at level 2.

I think that trading update from IDS has done these no harm at all.

Bought some IDS yesterday, a handy brace to have these two.

capa

capa

Looks good move to back IDS who, as Shares Tip for 2005, appear to have more to go. Down market compared to ASC but doing well with TV buying. Interesting that John Marshall of Shares sees TV as giving another dimension to ASC. The internet savvy young ladies are probably quite happy with pc but there must be a separate market out there, possibly in other socio-economic groups. May need to be carefully handled not to effect their existing market. Good move again today and preparing for the next big push?

Eric

ASOS CHALLENGE PORTFOLIO

company_________ EPC pp(p) issue-m shares price value cap-m gain % gain-wk

Broker Network H BNH 77.50 15.065_ 6450__ 133.5 8611_ 20.11 72.26_ -3.61
ASOS____________ ASC 56.00 67.97__ 8900__ 78.5_ 6987_ 53.36 40.18_ 0.00
Stanelco________ SEO 4.50_ 782.225 111000 6____ 6660_ 46.93 33.33_ 11.52
Civilian Content CCN 16.25 41.883_ 30700_ 15.25 4682_ 6.39_ -6.15_ 5.17
Marchpole Hold._ MPH 33.75 120.445 14800_ 28___ 4144_ 33.72 -17.04 -4.27
Yoomedia________ YOO 22.00 499.9__ 22700_ 18.25 4143_ 91.23 -17.05 7.35
Sterling Energy_ SEY 17.25 822.712 29000_ 14.25 4133_ 117.2 -17.39 -6.56
Cybit Holdings__ CYH 91.00 19.779_ 5500__ 67___ 3685_ 13.25 -26.37 -8.22
Petroceltic Intl PCI 15.00 484.975 33300_ 8.38_ 2791_ 40.64 -44.13 4.75
CFA Capital Gp._ CFP 0.70_ 619____ 714000 0.3__ 2142_ 1.86_ -57.14 -9.09
Petrel Resources PET 124.5 58.625_ 4000__ 46.5_ 1860_ 27.26 -62.65 -3.13

totals_________________________________________ 49836______ -9.39

Little change in a fore-shortened week. So I will comment briefly on my personal interests in the hope that others will respond in kind.

Main holding remains ASC. I commented last week on the repeat of a triangle formation; valid comment that triangle was shorter but in fact the drop to a support level this week has brought it more in line with the October situation. Suggestion of a break-out in the next couple of weeks which could well coincide with trading news on 21st - resistance level is 83p.

Have built up holding in CFP, backing new management team. Have CFDs in YOO and MPH. Funds available on Tuesday to add a CFD, probably SEO which has excellent buy signals. Analysing CYH and will post results on that bb as a 'Legitimate Ramp'! Impressed with BNH, a Shares tip for 2005. CCN sleeping so will wait til it awakes! Out of the oils, possibly for good on 'once bitten' basis.

What are your holdings and intentions? Apart from being helpful, it will hopefully demonstrate continued interest in this portfolio, unsuccessful though it may have been so far!

Eric

Eric,
I am holding:- Vodaphone, Sage, Arm, Corus, Egg, Cadbury, BT, Brad&Bing (BB), OOM, ASOS. and loosing quite a lot. From previous posting you know ASOS is my first venture outside the 350 where my strategy was buy and hold, this bb yourself, and johngtudor have changed that for good. I also have an IHT problem and recently discovered that shares held in AIM for two years are not included in yr estate. So I have to do some switching out of 350 into AIM. ASOS has hauled back some but only VOD and CBRY, and OOM are in profit. I need some good AIM shares to invest in for the short and long haul to get rid of the loses. Hopefully looking at Investors room will provide some of the solutions. I know this does not help you and the portfolio, but it helps me to see the error of my previous ways. Selling Corus and buying BNH next week.

By the way haven't seen any postings from johngtudor lately. SD

eric with regard to ypur portfolio it just shows that even in a bull run some stocks do not perform.see my previous comment re risk reward lets hope most that are showing losses have cut and run.re asos at the present time you wont get a better risk reward play then this if the share price comes back into the mid 70s with stop loss at 69p your risk will be 6p not even 10% with up side over 20% its a no brainer.cheers woodie

SEADOG... I am a mortgage consultant that works for an accountancy practice... We specialise in tax, especially IHT planning. I have something that might help you.. Post me a private message with your number on it and I will tell you how we try and avoid it for our high net worth clients. Look at the following example:

If you have an estate worth 1m.. you know that 263k is the IHT nil rate band so therefore 737k is your net taxable estate.

So 737k x 40% is 294,800 - This is the amount that will be paid to the government following your death (assuming you have a 1m estate and things stay the same).

The way to avoid this is:

Say if you have a house worth 400k, we would raise an interest only mortgage.. well for as much as we can given your income. Say in this case 250k. (There are few lenders that do asset based lending, but Halifax allow most mortgages upto 75% Loan To Value on a self certification basis, plus c and g allow investment income to be taken into account i have found). I typically get a rate of around 5% fixed for my clients.

If we could raise 250k, we then put it into trust - an offshore bond, with cautious to balanced risk. The 250k takes 7 years to fully get out of your estate. In order to pay the interest only mortgage, you take 5% tax free per annum from the offshore bond. This covers the interest only on the mortgage... it is pretty much self funding. In terms of the investment performance, you would hope the fund managers long term could get you a return of 5%. Even if they don't and get say 4%.. it is still worthwhile as you are potentially saving 250k in IHT over the longer term!!

The mortgage is designed to be paid off on the second death from the proceeds of the estate or the property to be sold.

I have recently come across a Close Brothers Property Scheme... where it takes 2 YEARS for money to get out of your estate. Basically you invest money into a private limited company... you qualify for Business Property Relief.. which means money will be out of your estate after 2 years.

I hope not to have bored you seadog, but it has worked so far for many of our clients. Plus it is the only way (besides adverse lending) i have found to make money on mortgages for a firm... because the loan amounts are large!!

IF ANYONE IS INTERESTED I HAVE A BELTING CGT ONE THAT WORKS!!!

legend still in asc do not intend to sell.see my previous post re when growth slows down? cheers woodie

Legend290782:
Many thanks for your advice. I should have said that my son in law is an Independent Financial Consultant and we are working together with Charcol to mitigate the IHT problem, but many thanks.

No probs, I am just doing my financial planning exams myself now!! I thought I had done all the exams I needed to do in my life at uni, I was clearly mistaken!! Did my mortgage exams last year. After these, it will be the taxation and trusts. After that I may even do the ACCA to be an (dare i say it)accountant!!

Woodie, I only wish I had put more into toa (but are pretty much all in with BNH)... they have looked and traded very well from 8.5p!!

Interesting posts. Legend, can you confirm SEADOG's point that shares in AIM companies move out of the IHT liability area? I was aware of the CGT implications but don't have a personal problem there - in a problem behind me, I lost funds on a business venture but have a good accountant who is charging the losses against CGT. Whilst not personally relevant, I also believe the CGD gains are not subject to CGT. Mind, you never know what Gordon will be up to next.

Woodie: I agree your BNH investment. I also think there is huge potential in SEO, MPH and CYH: all pretty well one-way bets. Have a look at the BBs. I am doing an exercise this weekend on CYH: a change in accountantcy policy has rocked the shares. I will reporting a reasoned view of what the share price would have been if they had started the conservative policy from day 1 and, also, attempting to interpret the figures to gain a projection of when they will return to profit. I plan then to try to flush confirmation out of the company or advisors. I will give a quiick summary of the results here because I suspect it will prove that they are way undervalued, mainly because of uncertainty and the failure of the company to do this evaluation.

Eric

I will check, but I would only have thought it would have been only worth it if you intend to keep the equities for some time as otherwise, if you cash them in then they are back in your estate.

As for the CGT thing, it is something I have found how to avoid it if you have gains over the annual exemption (04-05 8200)...

I suspect that is the problem in looking to AIM stocks in relation to IHT. Take ASC for example: OK, they go on going-up. Will they be in AIM in five years time even if you hold them: take-over must be probably in that time; graduation to the FTSE? change in tax regulations as it is seen that many AIM companies should hardly be classes as start-ups. The arguments for AIM companies lie elsewhere - see today's Times where small-cap and AIM companies are continuing to out-perform the more sluggish members of the FTSE. Always excepting Tesco and HSBC. Most of the others are proving unmanageable.

Eric