frog_in_a_tree
02 Nov 2019
Motley Fool tip today Hi Ripley, I am mainly a dividend investor, mostly buy and hold. I thought the LSE financial diary might be useful for some. I watched the rugby but, like you, I thought that England were being over-powered within the first few minutes. The Springboks defence was like a brick wall. Cheers, Frog in a tree
Ripley94
02 Nov 2019
Motley Fool tip today Hi frog_in_a_tree. Whats your interest in this one ? Did you watch the rugby … i do not bet but thought a bet after the game started on south Africa was easier to call then this share game guessing
frog_in_a_tree
02 Nov 2019
Motley Fool tip today London SouthEast run a pretty good finacial diary giving the dates for report divi and ex dates. I keep it on an open tab on my ipad for easy reference. lse.co.uk Financial Diary - calendar of economic and company events Financial Diary - calendar of economic and company events Cheers, Frog in tree
Ripley94
07 Sep 2019
Motley Fool tip today GOG… XXXXX They think the sector will benefit from people giving up cars. 12 times forecast earnings … 5% yield.
numberbiter
02 Jun 2018
Latest negotiations Further to my last posting, I have been having protracted negotiations with NUMPTY. No, not with the Transport Secretary, Chris Grayling, but with the National Union of Metal Professional Trains (York). Unfortunately, literally, they will not budge. Without a driver they are refusing to move.So, if you are a shareholder in the Go-Ahead Group, I would ask you to write to the management team suggesting they employ more drivers. It seems every train (not just one in two!) needs one.
numberbiter
01 Jun 2018
Re: Possible market manipulation Wuffet, thank you for your support; this is really appreciated. However, it seems that I am wrong. My MP, Chris Grayling, believes that trains don't need drivers. It seems that all trains were unionised when British Rail ran things. I am told that the problem is that British Rail made a binding agreement with the trains that they would only be expected to move if they each had a driver. Now, in the spirit of cooperation the trains did agree that they would run without a driver on the Docklands Light Railway, but they refused to extend this to the rest of the network.I understand that the Go-Ahead Group and other train operators, with Grayling's support, have been negotiating with the trains to get them to accept running without either a driver or a guard, but they will not cooperate, If you listen to the news, railway workers have been erroneously telling passengers that trains have been cancelled or are late because of a shortage of drivers. We now know this is untrue. Mr Grayling has told us that all delays and cancellations are the sole responsibility of Network Rail. Apparently, trains have agreed they don't need a driver, but need a rail track that will tell them what to do. Over the weekend Network Rail was supposed to have installed throughout the country, at a cost of £150 billion, computerised tracks that communicated with trains, but they failed. So we cannot blame Go-Ahead's management, we have it on good authority that it was all Network Rail's fault. The only solution is to privatise Network Rail and let Virgin Engineering do the job. When we have a Transport Secretary than does not understand that as our rail tracks have been built to Victorian Standards (great for their time) we still need drivers, there really is not a lot of hope!
wuffet
31 May 2018
Re: Possible market manipulation Hi Moonman,Sorry I'm with Numberbiter on this. Firstgroup said today they expect up to 106m of losses on their Transpennine rail franchise because their assumptions were wrong. i.e. too optimistic. How can they get it so wrong, a boring train across the pennies!! Branson challenged Firstgroup in court on the East Coast Mainline as they were being overly optimistic in order to win the franchise. It's now recognised as poor quality earnings and this is being reflected in lower ratings as is a lack of growth in bus revenues. This has affected Go-Ahead and its valuation.If it is simply a case of analysts reducing their rating which drops the share price by 5% when they are wrong why don't you take advantage of that. Buy the shares on the fall knowing they will recover as the analyst is wrong!! Similarly, sell when he upgrades (wrongly) and the price goes up as you know it will reverse.In other words if there is market manipulation you can make money from it, so do it rather than using it as an excuse for a share price movement you don't understand/agree with.good luck
MoonMan1977
31 May 2018
Re: Possible market manipulation I don't disagree with your argument, my point was that an analyst states that they have lowered their rating and the share price falls as a result. I think this is the second time in a couple of months that we have seen 5% drops off the back of one of these downgrades. The fact that it is simply their opinion doesn't seem to count (as opposed to hard facts from a trading update 7 days beforehand) and as the share price drops as a result, it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy whereby they are proved 'correct'. They could equally upgrade the price based on nothing more than their opinion and the price would go up. That's got to be dodgy! If the share price is going to be influenced by analyst opinions/predictions then why bother with trading updates, half and full year results at all?
numberbiter
31 May 2018
Re: Possible market manipulation No, Moonman, it is not market manipulation. When the Transport Secretary, an ardent supporter of capitalism, says that the rail companies have spectacularly failed commuters and another Tory MP says that all the franchises running Thameslink and Southern (Go-ahead Group) should be taken off them, then you can understand why the market is nervous.The new timetables effective a week or so ago are a complete shambles; in many cases travel times are longer, trains still run late and cancellations are worse than ever. The problem is, as always, that the management of the Go-Ahead Group have not yet worked out that trains refuse to run unless they have a driver. If they employ the number of drivers needed to run the timetable (they also need extra to cover for illness and holidays) then they would make a loss. So they deliberately operate with a shortage of drivers that inevitably leads to cancellations.I know, Moonman, that you believe I am a 'Sourthern' moaner, but you must understand that the performance of this company is so bad that even the Tory Government are embarrassed. The reality is that the vast majority of rail companies have hit the buffers due to grossly underbidding. The Tory government never seems to learn - they privatised hospital cleaning telling us they had saved a fortune in the process. The problem was that hospitals were no longer being cleaned properly and super bugs took hold. The railways are the same; the government can save money by privatising the railways, but only if the service deteriorates. Nationalisation of the railways is round the corner; if the Tories don't do it then they will lose the next election because the railways are now so bad that commuters are seething.Note that First Group (another rail operator) has gone belly up today (well as far as its share price is concerned). It is only a matter of time before the Go-Ahead Group joins them, so now is the time to get out. This is not market manipulation; merely the market is reacting to reality.
MoonMan1977
30 May 2018
Possible market manipulation Another day, another large drop (5%) apparently for no other reason than an ANALyst downgrade. This comes around a week after the stock went up off the back of hard figures (by way of a trading update) and yet these figures can basically be ignored due to these clowns 🤡 pulling another 'prediction' out of thin air.This strikes me as nothing short of a self fulfilling prophecy, they downgrade the stock and the share price plummets as a result meaning that they must have been correct!! In my book, this is nothing more than blatant market manipulation and something that should be looked into.
numberbiter
26 May 2018
Re: Yet another CU Moon man; I accept your conclusion and comments. I take it you don't live in the South East and therefore cannot comprehend how awful Southern Railways really are. It would help both commuters and investors it they were to give the franchise up.
MoonMan1977
22 May 2018
Re: Yet another CU An awful lot of your posts are moaning about one thing and one thing only, the infamous Southern Railway and privatisation. Yes a change in policy by the government would change the rail side but GOG are about more than just one rail franchise, you are starting to sound not unlike the clichéd disgruntled commuter/serial complainer!! 
numberbiter
21 May 2018
Yet another CU The revised timetables came in today which meant more cancellations and late trains. This privatisation fiasco cannot go on much longer. Even the Tories have begun to nationalise the railways, so it's only a matter of time before this lot implodes.
numberbiter
18 May 2018
Re: halfway up the stairs Even the Tories are nationalising the railways now! It cannot be long before the dreadful 'Southern' suffers the same fate.
LifeInPlastic
14 May 2018
halfway up the stairs keep going
