Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

This couple, who have reared a lion cub, have to release it into the wild to become a wild lion. Sadly, it is just too big for them to keep.

A year goes by and they go back to Africa to see how the lion, who they named Christian, is getting on.

They have been told that it will not remember them. Here's what happens when they meet up once again.

Do you think it will remember them?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVNTdWbVBgc

Skinny,

Any idea's. I could get the info yesterday re shares on loan ADVFN for a couple of hours, but since then it does not come up on financials. Can you only get these on a regular basis if you sign up re paying to upgrade from free.

Greek.

Greekman - I cannot seem to find them now and I do subscribe!!

Strange to say the least. Anyway will keep trying and thanks again for the info.
If I do find any site that provides such info, I will let you know.
Also I have e-mailed ADVFN re the apparent loss of the aforementioned info.

Greek

Greekman - apparently advfn are no longer showing the crest information - I should have kept quite!

Skinny,

Thanks. No doubt it was me trying the site that jinxed it up.

G&S,
There used to be a list in Shares mag.
Maybe someone at MAM could let you know
where the got their info.
mac

It probably has something to do with the FSA demanding more openness on positions with a ruling as from 20th June.

Thanks to all. Am awaiting reply from ADVFN, but it did cross my mind that it may be linked to the FSA ruling as they are looking to take action against Deutsche Bank re their advise to client to short right issues in British Banks. Although as the rules stand I fail to see how they can.
Interesting all the same.

Have still not found any site that supplies shares on loan figures for free but still looking.
Still awaiting reply from ADVFN, although I did receive an auto 'receipt of message'.
After 2 days, I don't expect any reply as when I was with them several years ago, their customer services were a disgrace, the same went for iii. When will companies learn that it costs far more to attract new customers than it does to retain existing customers (about 10 times as much according to a report released last May re banking services). It is far more difficult to gauge the effect of retention of custom than it is to gauge the effect of newly attained custom.
As to MoneyAm they do as we know, like all web site companies have their site faults and problems, but I don't think anyone can fault their customer services, both for speed of reply and helpfulness.
Just thought they deserve a plaudit or two.

Greekman when I asken them on the problem thread, this was their reply


Skinny:

We are no longer providing the Crest loan information on our site.

Regards,

Skinny,

Thanks. You would have thought courtesy would have resulted in a reply to me though.

Just had the usual supermarket discount/offers bumf put through the door.
It has several items marked 'Any 2 for said amount' and several items market ' Buy 1 get one free' (Can anyone out there can tell me the difference).
My wife has a habit that annoys me (well she has several but time is limited), whenever she sees the 'bogof' offer she will repeat it. Any offer stated in this manner annoys me as quite often I don't want 2 of the bl**dy things and you are not as we all know getting '1 free'.
Another con which I am sure often catches out mainly elderly people who are trying to save money, are the prices for differing sizes amounts. Most people take it for granted that if you for example buy a jar of coffee, 500g the price is less than 2x250g jars of the same brand. Tesco where we do our main shop has dozens of offers where the bigger the amount buy, works our far more expensive. I have found the same in all the big 4. Also some so called offers on the 'cheap counter' are more expensive than those on the main sales shelves.
In our local street market you often see signs stating, 25p each 4 for a and similar. In fact I saw a sign a few weeks ago where it cost more to buy 4 together than it did to buy 1x4 singly, and yet people were still going for the multiple buy offer.
These may be pathetic points to moan about when there are obviously far more serous subject to moan about, but I HATE GETTING RIPPED OF.

Graphic but true. Now if only Zimbabwe had oil, no doubt the western world would be in there sorting out democracy like a shot.
As for so called war crimes, I think I have just about as much chance winning the lottery than Mugabe has of seeing Justice against him.
Saying that, I don't think we should intervene by direct action as no doubt if we did both sides after a time would treat us as the enemy, something that always appears to happen. Let the African countries sort it out if they have the will.

Its a great likeness of Trevor MacDonald, but I'd have thought he was too busy with News at Ten to bother with Zimbabwe.

According to The Daily Telegraph, the trading of Oil Futures now accounts for 3/4 of it's market price activity. Should peculating on the future of any commodity be allowed. The trading of such is now so prevalent that these markets are becoming very distorted, to such an effect that it is our Futures (pun intended) that are being gambled with. But if we think such dealing should be curtailed, the big question is how. I would think the authorities would find this almost impossible to stop.
The same is with Short Selling. Whether you agree or not with this practice there is no getting away from the fact that again distortion of markets takes place. There is little or no clarity, re these dealings. If you are a big money player you can almost make a price change on your dealings alone, Evil Knievel being one example. This distortion, into which the small PI cannot hope to see into is in IMHO one of the main reasons why markets are seeing less and less PI market activity.
Such practices 'RIG' the markets, and are open to corrupt practices perhaps more that other forms of trading. After all, I am sure we all except that it is far easier to talk down a share that it is to talk a share up.
Would be interested in views agreeing or otherwise.

I agree entirely, greek. Six or seven years ago, I queried with my pension provider (thankfully a final salary scheme) why the pension fund was lending substantial amounts of stock to third parties for what seemed a pittance by way of fee. The response was that it "added liquidity to the market" and the practice has grown significantly since that time. Seems to me a complete distortion of the market - if I was dictator then no-one would be allowed to sell any shares they did not own. No objection to pure spread betting (although too risky for me) but I would ban stock lending. Short selling seems to have been invented as another way for the greedy to make (or lose) large amounts of money gambling with shareholders capital.

D'accord.

Shorting, CFD, Leveraging.
They all have the same effect. They magnify peoples ability to trade volume way above their natural boundary, so sate their greed. This therefore magnifies the fluctuation in prices beyond normal market activity. Any investor can buy or sell ten times his weight and for some that is an enormous weight.
Does this not remind you in many ways of the current housing / financial markets? Greedy banks leveraged to death lending money to people who are then endebted way beyond their weight.
And if it does, are we learning no lessons from the current meltdown? Do we sit idly by, knowing full well that the financial markets will do exactly what the housing and secured lending markets are doing right now?
Perhaps the answer (to both issues) is a review of capital adequacy. Banks must have liquid capital of 4% of the debt. Perhaps the time is right to up that and introduce a ruling that any trading of shorts and CFD's are backed by liquid capital of a much higher figure than the (I believe) 10% that is current.
This would both reduce the amount of money used in these practices and also reduce the amount of forced dealing by almost eradicating margin calls.
I know it would slow growth and investment, but surely stability is a goal worth paying for.
It would be painful for some, but so is the housing crisis, and in both cases we will emerge with sensible, sustainable and predictable markets, providing we can learn from our mistakes.

Just as a footnote, futures were never intended to be a form of speculation, so perhaps the problem is that we have allowed it to be so.
Futures were merely a form of loan from the rich traders to the poor producers to ensure something was produced that the trader could trade!! No interest was payable but trading terms were more beneficial than would otherwise be the case.
There is no need, with a modern banking system for any producers to require a loan. How stupid is it to assume that Saudi Royal family need paying up front for their oil so they have enough money to produce it???