Tracking

Monday 31 January 2011

Too slow!!

I think I learned a valuable lesson today. There was a positive RNS on TSTR this morning and the sp started to rise to 1.35 and I could have sold but I thought it would keep on rising. However in a few minutes it had dropped to 1.08p and then recovered to 1.17p. So if I had been quick off the mark I could have sold at 1.33 and bought back at 1.08p or is that just the benefit of hindsight?
As TSTR started off at over 1.3p and VOG went to 6p, it was disappointing that they finished the day on 1.1p and 5.69p!! Still as my dad used to say, "Life is how you take your disappointments!"

Saturday 29 January 2011

Victoria Oil and Gas VOG

There has been a lot of excitement today as a very nice article appeared in the Daily Telegraph.
http://www.victoriaoilandgas.com/newsMedia/DailyTelegraph_CameroonSupplement_Feb2011.pdf

Victoria Oil & Gas
Sponsored by Peregrine Investments Ltd
Distributed with The Daily Telegraph


Victoria Oil & Gas to turn on first ever domestic gas supplies in Cameroon
By Pat Lay


AIM-listed Victoria Oil & Gas plc (“Victoria”) will shortly become the first producer and supplier of domestic natural gas in the Republic of Cameroon. Victoria is ready to lay the pipeline already shipped into country and finalise all necessary civil works in order to deliver gas to Douala-based industrial consumers in Q2 2011. The project is the first in Cameroon to deliver gas to industrial users, thus supplying cheaper, more reliable and cleaner energy where demand is growing rapidly.


Since its entry into Cameroon two years ago, Victoria has enjoyed a very positive experience. Chairman Kevin Foo stated, “Cameroon is an excellent place to invest with a stable and democratic government that welcomes outside investment and, in return, provides strong technical and professional project oversight.”


In less than two years of project involvement, Victoria has completed appraisal, development and commercialisation of the Logbaba Gas Field, which lies beneath the city of Douala, the industrial capital of Cameroon. Douala is the Central African regional base for international giants like the French Castel Group (SABC), Guinness and Nestlé.


One of Victoria’s most noteworthy customers, Cotonniere Industrielle du Cameroun (Cicam), is the largest textile producer in the country, with roughly 60 per cent market share, with current fuel costs of around US$2.2m a year. However, newly installed machinery to expand its operations and increase efficiency is still lying idle because of high energy costs and the unpredictable nature of power supplies in Cameroon. Cicam estimates that converting to gas could lower its energy costs by up to 30 per cent per annum.


There are nine customers within ten kilometres of the plant, who have already contracted for gas supplies and many others are in active consultation with the company. Victoria estimates that there are in excess of forty potential industrial customers capable of taking large volumes of gas for raising the heat needed for their manufacturing process and/or for their own onsite power generation. Victoria’s customers expect to make significant savings from their existing energy costs when the lower energy price is coupled with increased efficiencies, zero storage costs and lower maintenance requirements associated with using gas. The other major advantage is the environmentally cleaner nature of gas and the lower carbon footprints that are generated.

The Government of Cameroon intends to triple power generation in the next 10 years and much of that will be generated by gas. One of the biggest problems facing the country today is the lack of generation capacity and many industrial customers have cited constant power disruptions as a hurdle to future economic growth and corporate expansion. This puts Victoria in a very good position, for not only does the Company operate the only onshore gas discovery in the country, giving them first-mover advantage, but it has also the required proven and probable reserves to meet much of the future demand.


Victoria’s gas to power strategy is two-fold. Once the pipeline infrastructure is in place and gas supplies are underway, the Company anticipates a large proportion of this existing customer base to readily enter into additional gas purchase contracts for their own onsite gas-fired power generation. Although this requires an initial capital outlay on the part of the customer, the advantages of a lower-cost, uninterrupted power supply greatly outweighs this initial capital cost.


Once gas supplies are on stream, the Company expects many new industrial customers who desire a reliable onsite power source to also become customers. The fuel cost of diesel power generators currently available to the market is approximately twice the price of Victoria’s supply contract price.

Power projects are a high priority in Cameroon and so the Company has also commenced discussions with the Government for participation in a large gas-fired power project, which would be connected to the existing power grid.

Since Victoria acquired its interest in the concession two years ago, it has managed to increase proved reserves five-fold and has more than doubled proved and probable reserves. These reserves are attributable to a total of six wells. Victoria anticipates drilling many more wells in the Logbaba natural gas field to meet future demand.


As far as Victoria is concerned, this is just the end of the beginning; 90 per cent of the licenced block remains unexplored, and the best location within the current structure has yet to be drilled.
International languages spoken in Cameroon include French and English, and there are abundant well-educated professionals and experienced local labour with a solid work ethic. Given its positive experience, the Company may also seek further on-shore licences, and believes excellent growth prospects lie ahead for Cameroon.


For its part, Victoria Oil & Gas, working closely with SNH, the State-owned hydrocarbon company, has invested more than US$70m on the Logbaba development and facilities and will provide nearly 100 jobs during the construction of its pipelines, and 50 more during steady-state operations. All construction is carried out to top UK specifications and the whole operation, when completed, will provide a major boost to the Cameroonian economy.
This has given many investors a lot of hope that the licence may be issued shortly. One poster was suggesting that the sp may be 7p on Monday. We will see but it can certainly do no harm!!

Friday 28 January 2011

Tristar Resources TSTR

Well no RNS this morning but despite a quiet market, TSTR is continuing to make ground. It is likely that we could have an RNS next week with the results of the drilling. There has been a lot of speculation because China is the main supplier of Antimony and it is restricting supply and putting the price up. So if the results are good then TSTR will have an valuable asset. Also the sp should rise.
Funnily enough despite me giving up on IMIC, the sp has recovered a little. I have set a limit sell order for my shares so we will see.
Victoria Oil and Gas VOG are still waiting for the licence and Jonathan Scott Barrett is out in Cameroon trying to speed it on its way. Lots of investors are getting nervous from waiting for the RNS but patience is the name of the game!

Thursday 27 January 2011

Horizonte Minerals

I was pleased to see that Horizonte Minerals HZM was on top of the leaderboard today, having gone up to 31p!! I bought these shares in September for 11p and the fundamentals were very good, not that many shares in public ownership and strong backing from other companies to develop gold fields in Brazil. I sold mine at 14.75p so you might think I was regretting selling but no. True if I had kept the shares I would have nearly tripled my money but having sold my shares I have gone on to increase my portfolio and also my experience of trading. Indeed, I believe that the fact that they have gone up so well shows that my investment strategy and selection procedures are doing OK.
At the moment I am watching my shares in Tristar Resources TSTR, who today closed at 1.20p and I bought at 1.04p. I am trying very hard not to sell them as I believe that when the next RNS comes out in the next few days or weeks, the sp will be above 2p. Some people believe that if the find of Antimony is good then the sp could go to 5p, 10p or more. I am not sure about that but I think 2p is achievable, but do your own researchg DYOR.

Tuesday 25 January 2011

Do NOT invest in International Mining and Infrastructure PLC (IMIC)

Foolishly I bought some shares in this company the other day.Then suddenly the sp started to drop and continued dropping. I bought at 0.69p and today the sp is 0.42p!!
Last Friday I rang the company to find out what news there was and asked too speak to Mr Haresh Kanabar, the Chairman. He was not there so I spoke to Mr Lakhani the Financial Director. I asked about business news but he was unable to tell me anything other than that a 6 month interim statement was due soon. He said he would pass my views onto Mr Kanabar.
I checked on a few bulletin boards and found nothing useful so all day yesterday and all day today I have been ringing them but the phone is permanently engaged!! Its as though its been disconnected.
I checked the Stock Exchange site and logged onto their website but it is for the previous company and not for  International Mining and Infrastructure PLC. There is no address, email, contact us details - nothing.
Fortuneately I am not heavily invested so I suppose I will have to write it off to experience. Very irritating though. Moral being Research before investing!!!

Saturday 22 January 2011

Victoria Oil and Gas VOG

I believe that VOG will get the licence at Logbaba soon so I discussed with my wife buying some more shares in VOG. She knows little about trading and I think is a little disapproving of it but we agreed to buy some more VOG shares hoping that the licence may arrive soon! So on Friday I purchased 100000 shares at 5.66p.During the day I was able to reassure my wife that we were doing OK as at one point I could have sold at 5.75p so we would have been in profit. However, the plan is to sell 70000 shares at 10p and put the money back into our account. Time will tell!!
I put £6000 into my trading account so with the difference I bought some shares in International Mining and Investment PLC!!! This is a low value share and I bought in at 0.69p Shortly after it dropped to 0.55p and finished at 0.63p!  It is a company investing in mining companies and has recently relaunched itself. There is little info about the company so I rang them on Friday night to ask what news there was. The main man was not in so the chap I spoke to said he would pass my message on. I think I will ring again next week.

Wednesday 19 January 2011

Testing Time

This week has been very testing of the nerves! Not a lot has happened really, most of my shares have either fallen a little or stayed the same. Monday everything was red and not a pleasant site. There was a reasonable RNS from ABH and the sp recovered a little but I am still in the red. Today it drifted down a little.
When there are lots of other shares getting RNS and their sp is rising you begin to think that it would be better somewhere else. However, like the old saying, the grass is always greener...
Last week I posted on the EDL site that after the dilution, the sp would drop below 2p and got shot down, a couple of days later it was below 2p! At least that is something I have learnt!
Obviously there are shares going up and down all of the time. I have shares in 6 companies so it is perfectly normal for not a lot to happen, just a matter of patience!!!!!

Wednesday 12 January 2011

Boring day - another view

Not a very good day, all my shares were down except for TSTR Tristar. No chance to try selling and buying back on the retrace. However, I did read a post on a BB that seemed to make sense to me. The guy was saying that when he started 25 years ago he was always looking for about a 10% return and was living on his wits trying to make some profit. It seemed a little like me. Then he said that as his investment in each company went above £5000 then he learned to relax and become more patient and look for bigger profits.
Some might argue that it was all right for him to say that as he had lots of money. However, the philosophy is correct but the temptation is to take profit while it is available. As shares don't go up in a straight line small investors might feel that they will lose their profits if they watch a share retrace. I have learnt with GKN that waiting is worth its while. However, I have sold some shares too soon when if I had waited I could have made a better profit.
I need to reflect on this lesson often if I am to makwe progress!

Tuesday 11 January 2011

Exciting Times

After my last post about Tangent TNG, I had the opportunity to sell today, so i did. I had an order in to sell at 7p but sold at just under 6p. Not a lot of money but a small profit!
I had looked at the stockpicker function on LSE and searched for shares under 1p. My eyes fell on Angel Biotech who were at 0.51p so I put in a bid and bought 55000 shares. They should be announcing their end of year trading statement in the next 2 weeks so I hope that it will be good!
I tried to sell my PTCM shares for 0.34p today with the view of buying back in at 0.31p later in the day. They got to just over 0.33p but not 0.34p! I keep trying to sell and buy on the retrace but one day I will be successful.
TSTR and VOG are still holding steady and both are waiting for an RNS so again,patience is the name of the game, although I have put a sell order in for VOG at 10p.

Friday 7 January 2011

Tangent Communications

It was a very subdued day today, many investors were waiting for US Non Farm Payroll info and there was little trading really. Most of my portfolio was in the red although at the end the surprise was Tangent Communications. I bought these at 5p and they don't move much and the spread is quite large 4.75-5.50 so I was pleased when at the end of the day the mid price stood at 5.25p I am looking forward a good year end at the end of Feb. The results won't be for some time after but they do appear to be going in the right direction. Also a number of directors have been buying shares which is always a good sign.

Thursday 6 January 2011

I must learn to be smarter!!

With the rest of the money from the sale of my Low and Bonar shares, I topped up my TSTR. I bought some more at 1.03p. Later in the day they moved up and at one point I could have sold them at 1.14p but I didn't as It wasn't that much of a profit. Later when I looked the price had gone down to 1.10p So it is possible that I could have sold and then bought in again on the retrace but I am not that quick or  adventurous at the moment. If I had sold and was not able to get back in I would still have a profit, so I must try this at the next opportunity.
My Tangent shares are strange, there is a wide spread and the only people buying them seem to be the directors, which isn't a bad sign. Be nice if they moved a bit more though!
VOG is doing OK, closed at 6.3p yesterday and is hovering around that mark today. We are still waiting for the licence and hopefully that will be soon.
I want to buy some shares on the New York stock exchange so that I can spread my money around the world economies. So if anyone has some low value shares they think are of interest, then let me know.

Wednesday 5 January 2011

Happy New Year

So, whilst the rest of the world was trading on Monday, London was on holiday. Yesterday was pretty boring from my point of view, with only a little movement from Low and Bonar. Today didn't start much better but things began to warm up in the afternoon. At about 4pm Low and Bonar were at 52p and showing me a small profit so I decided that I would sell. Whether that was the right decision only time will tell!
So in the last half hour of the session I was browsing through the LSE site and not particularly interested in buying any more shares straightaway. However, my eyes fell on Porta Comms PTMC which is a newly floated company, formerly TSE Sports Consultants. They were at 0.3p so I decided that I bought put a limit bid in for 300000 shares at 0.29p. With 2 minutes to go, my order still hadn’t been fulfilled, so I cancelled it and placed a market order and got them at 0.292p! I was very pleased and even more pleased that TD Waterhouse had reduced my costs to £8.95.
Apparently some brokers are targeting this share at 1.5p but I would be happy with 0.6p. We will see.
Interesting to note that over the holiday period SRES touched 7p!! Considering I bought SRES at 1p and sold just over 2p, I should be kicking myself but I was pleased with my profit so I don't think I have anything to grumble about. I hope SRES continue to do well but I don't think I will be reinvesting.
Today the other excitement was that VOG were up 15% to 6.3p. That is 50% profit on my original stake and not far from being in profit on my recent top up. Just waiting for the licence and we might make my target of 10p.