any one got a feelling in their water how far LLoyds will go looking to to buy but just dont know when they are low enough

It is an excellent chance to top up at 413p.

I'm looking for sub 400 but it is day after day at the moment .... very hard to watch

Lloyds TSB is the bank to buy.

LLOY has already rise to 418p now.
BARC is the next excellent buy at 418p. It's too cheap now.

Read the article in Daily Express on 5/3/2008 on LLOY and BARC.

Tipton, I told you to buy yesterday, did u take my advice?

Had to buy some at 396p, yield 9% ! could not resist.

I am going to hang on for a day or two i just think they may go down a bit looking around 370
anyway got a buy in for 370 so we will wait and see

I brought some in February @ 395, have a target of 355 for next purchase, wasn't sure if I would have a chance a few days back. But looking likely now if we have another sell off.

Interesting to see new mortgage deals (with airmiles) advertised by Lloyds on TV tonight.

Yes I saw the advert, I guess it's a novelty and shouldn't cost them too much.

I wonder if we may have a new trading range for lloy soon, between 350 to 400, if this is to be the case I would like to buy @ 355 and then short the same amount from 400 after. If sp keeps rising to 445 I could close my short for a loss, but cover the loss by selling the shares I brought at 355.

If price hit 400 then fell back towards 355 then I would take my profit from my short, and wait for the same situation again, or set another buying price further down.

My thinking is that I want to buy lloy and others over the long term, so I might as well try the above plan, the most I could lose is the dealing costs.

That sounds like a pretty sound strategy spitfire43 assuming nothing pushes the shares violently north or south at the wrong moment.

Not sure about that spitfire.

Sounds intelligent but ...

If sp goes higher than 400p then one trade covers another and if sp drops back to 350 likewise, where your short gain is matched by you losing your long profit.

Hence what is the point? Why not just take your profit at 400p and wait to get back in again if sp drops to 350p.

Answers on a postcard to ...

I know where you are coming from dd, but if I had placed the above when I brought at 395 in February I could have shorted twice with a top price of 480 and my purchase protecting the short position. Because I'm in the process of building a stake in lloy, and expecting weakness in the sector for the next 12 month's or longer, the main risk would be if the sp headed north without much of a pullback and I missed the opportunity to buy longterm, and had to sell the share to cover the short.

But IF........... the plan worked, I could have my cake and eat it.

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - UK bank Lloyds TSB Group Plc. said it has signed up to a three-year agreement under which it will offer new mortgages to selected Northern Rock customers nearing the end of their fixed-rate deals.

Under the agreement, eligible Northern Rock customers will be offered a Lloyds loan and those who accept will be exempt from the lender's standard application fee.

Lloyds will apply its usual lending criteria, which include a maximum loan-to-value ratio of 80 percent, a spokesman for the bank said. Lloyds will also pay a commission fee to Northern Rock for each successful mortgage application.

Northern Rock, which has announced plans to shed one-third of its 6,000-strong workforce under a government-sponsored turnaround plan, said the agreement would safeguard about 100 jobs.

'We expect the new service to require around 100 existing staff who may otherwise have been at risk of redundancy,' the bank said.

Lloyds, the United Kingdom's fourth-biggest bank by market value, said the agreement would 'accelerate new business growth in a low risk manner while assisting Northern Rock towards its goal of reducing the size of its balance sheet'.

Northern Rock, once the UK's eighth-biggest bank, was nationalised earlier this year after the global credit crunch forced it to seek emergency funding from the Bank of England.

Northern Rock aims to repay a 25 billion pound Bank of England loan and reduce its portfolio of mortgage loans by half by 2011.

Lloyds shares were down 0.3 percent at 389-1/4 pence by 9:55 a.m., while the FTSE 100 share index was up 0.3 percent at 5989.2 points.

Gus comment: Looks like LLoyds will be able to cherry pick some of the more lower risk loans. I expect an adjustment to values will be made to take into account the weaker housing market when making assessments. Presumably NRK will be stuck with the no performing/riskier loans at the end of the day.

I agree, it looks a good deal for LLOY and part of the desire for NRK to get out of Mortgages. Just hope it's not one nice one, two, get a bad one three.

Does anyone think LLOY will have a rights issue, to bolster their coffers?

That is the only concern I have.
My holding is in loss presently.

I listen intently hangon and haven't heard any anayst say they might.

Barclays is the one being mentioned as a possibility.

Interesting article below from todays Telegraph, this is what I wanted to see with Lloyds.

See below.........

Lloyds TSB is considering launching a takeover bid for one of Germany's largest retail banks, underlining the British lender's relative immunity to the writedowns that have scarred the balance sheets of its international rivals.

Lloyds TSB is in the early stages of considering a move for Deutsche Postbank, valued by the German stock market at about 10bn (8bn), which has been earmarked for disposal.

If it decides to proceed with an offer, on which it would be advised by Lehman Brothers, Lloyds TSB would be embarking upon a significant change in strategy.

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The bank's focus has been on the domestic British retail and commercial banking sectors, but its limited exposure to the sub-prime mortgage and credit crises has, in the view of Lloyds TSB executives, given it a mandate to seek out international acquisitions.

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Deutsche Postbank, which is majority-owned by the logistics group Deutsche Post, has a wholly or partially owned network of nearly 11,000 branches. Other groups, including Germany's Allianz and Commerzbank, and Spain's Grupo Santander, which owns Abbey in Britain, are also examining offers.

Lloyds TSB declined to comment on its interest in Deutsche Postbank, but people close to the British group said Sir Victor Blank, its chairman, and Eric Daniels, its chief executive, are keen to look at a series of merger and takeover opportunities in continental Europe.

Bidders are also circling Citigroup's German retail banking operations, valued at about 5bn. Barclays is understood to have come close to lodging an offer for the division, but decided against this before initial bids were submitted, said sources close to the bank.

certainly good news from the point of view that lloy is looking to grow in this weaker market to drive a good deal. We will have to see how things pan out but we may well see a rights issue in order to make this expansion which would be better received than one to fill black holes in balance sheets. However, should boost the sp short term.

If LLOY is contemplating a bid for Deutshe Postbank that would be a reversal of their strategy of recent years to dispose of international businesses in South America and New Zealnd, it seems somewhat risky to buy into Europe when the euro is riding high and we are still faced with a possible global recession.imho

depends on what the deal will be. They dont have to buy. Lloy have consolidated well over lasted few years since they changed the management. They are a conservative lot. Best time to expand is when business is depressed as long as the price is right.