So excited about first trade!!!

Wobblydeb

isayhello wrote: »

Hiya, well done on your first trade. I've thought about it a few times but just not really gone for it. Would you recommend any particular books or sites that you read which helped you understand the whole shares thing better? I've found a few sites but often found they go straight into the jargon pretty quick.

Also would you recommend iii as people to deal through?

Good luck with your shares

I would agree with jimmyss1 - "The Naked Trader" has been the best book I have read so far. It is enjoyable to read, easy to understand, and gave me confidence to get started without feeling I needed to be a mathematical charting genuis!

iii have proved really straightforward to deal with so far. Their website is reasonably easy to follow, and cheaper than the high street banks (although iii is part of Halifax which gives me some confidence). My ISA was pretty straightforward to set up, and yesterday's trade cost zero commission as their 'portfolio builder' service costs nothing until June 2010.

Although..... I would have been better off buying when I chose to for £10 and trading last week, as the total share value had risen by £15.91 by the time I bought! Doh!

The shares are in a company called Alphameric if anyone remains curious Zero debt, improving dividends, rising cash balance and seems to be through the worst of recent legal wrangles.

greggymagic

Congratulations and good luck Wobblydeb!

If you don't mind me asking how many did you buy and what did you get them for?

Geoffo_M

Good luck with ALM

halight

Well done mate
Glad that your first trade went well, even if it did cost you £15 more than it would have done last week!

sabretoothtigger

They must be a technology company with a share price of 575p ten years ago and 35p now. The chart looks reasonable over five years, next target looks to be 45.

did you buy for fundamental reasons, with such a small company it must be classed a risky buy. Whats their unique selling point and whose/wheres the target market

Wobblydeb

sabretoothtigger wrote: »

They must be a technology company with a share price of 575p ten years ago and 35p now. The chart looks reasonable over five years, next target looks to be 45.

did you buy for fundamental reasons, with such a small company it must be classed a risky buy. Whats their unique selling point and whose/wheres the target market

Yes, I bought for fundamental reasons - although I am very interested that you can identify a target from charts. How did you arrive at 45p?

Alphameric supply tech solutions to bookmakers. The main USP is TurfTV and they (apparently) supply more than 90% of the market. They've pretty much got it sown up - so much that they've been taken to court twice around how the contract was decided. They won the initial case and the appeal, and I am optimistic that the legal wrangles are dying a death allowing management to concentrate their time and money on the business.

The company is highly cash generative, and have reinstated dividends this year. Turnover and profit are growing and there have been expressions of interest from possible purchasers.

It IS a small cap with a limited market, so higher risk. I am concentrating on small cap (full listing) companies with good fundamentals and looking for those with 'something special' such as potential new products or markets / takeovers etc.

sabretoothtigger

http://bigcharts.marketwatch.com/advchart/frames/frames.asp?symb=uk%3Aalm&time=8&freq=1

http://www.digitallook.com/cgi-bin/dlmedia/security.cgi?username=&ac=&csi=10758


45 isnt certain just history shows it was a significant valuation point to many, maybe some will take profits then or whatever


Sounds a reasonable venture, america has recently uncapped their online gambling trade I think? 888 shares have done well, seems similar to the case you say.
How is their debt

Other news on the horizon would be government selling off tote maybe
&

Among the mid-caps, Ladbrokes dived 5.4 per cent to 171½p after accompanying a £275m rights issue with a profit warning.
While the bookmaker blamed a bad run of sports results, analysts were more concerned that rising UK unemployment was leading to smaller bets.
Closest peer William Hill, which Goldman Sachs cut from its “conviction buy” list, was down 3 per cent to 171p.