Weather Lottery Share Flotation?

tracylaw

I received a letter from Arc Equities Limited, this morning concerning the floation of The Weather Lottery, currently a Private company, but apparently floating on the stock market and the letter invites interest prior to "the Company's inteded admission to AIM in due course"

Please could anyone explain this, and whether it is a good idea to buy shares in this investment - or how would I find out? Has anyone else received a similar letter?

Thanks T

cheerfulcat

It's not a good idea to buy shares on the back of unsolicited advice. And AIM traded shares need more care than FTSE ones.

HTH

Cheerfulcat

Chrismaths

Boiler room.

cheerfulcat

Boiler room.

Arc Equities are FSA registered; I think that this response is a little injudicious.

tracylaw

Thanks for your advice, but I don't understand the terms your talking about, and I am still none the wiser about whether an investment in The Weather Lottery is a good idea? Has anyone heard anything about them? Are they doing well - is their flotation on the stock market likely to improve the company and why ... those sorts of things

Would be really grateful if someone could answer in more detail?

Thanx T

isasmurf

Chrismaths wrote:

Boiler room.

If that's true perhaps you should tell the Conservative Party, SNP, UKIP, several charities, football clubs, cricket clubs, ice hockey clubs, basketball clubs, schools, etc., etc. who operate the weather lottery.

For info: http://www.arcequities.co.uk/newissues.asp (I'm posting this to back up the OPs original post and to help anybody else provide her with some help (but not advice remember;) )

And the Weather Lottery: http://www.theweatherlottery.com/main.html

The question I'm wondering is, why did you receive this letter?

Chrismaths

I tried to post earlier, but was kicked back (internet problems) - I withdraw the boiler room comment. However, this guy has received an unsolicited mailing, which is what made me say it in the first place - and direct mailings of this sort are in my own opinion, not that much better than BRs.

As to whether the OP should buy some - you can't give investment advice on this forum. However, as this is a pre-IPO, there is no guarantee that it will go to IPO, in which case you will have a share you can't sell. On the risk front, this is right at the top of the scale - in addition to the normal equity based risk, you also have a huge liquidity risk.

cheerfulcat

Hi, Tracylaw,

Thanks for your advice, but I don't understand the terms your talking about, and I am still none the wiser about whether an investment in The Weather Lottery is a good idea? Has anyone heard anything about them? Are they doing well - is their flotation on the stock market likely to improve the company and why ... those sorts of things

Would be really grateful if someone could answer in more detail?

If you don't know whether it's a good idea then it isn't. What anyone else says is irrelevant. That includes strangers, no matter how well-meaning, on a bulletin board and strangers, possibly not so altruistic, who write out of the blue to tell you that it is a good idea...my advice is, if you don't understand an investment, leave it alone.

tracylaw

Yes, very good advice (if you don't understand it leave it alone). Thank you.

I wasn't actually asking whether I should or not, as I had already decided - as you say - "if you don't understand an investment, leave it alone" but was rather hoping someone would help me to unravel and understand it, so that for the future I would be more educated, perhaps I didn't make that clear

What would be really helpful is an overview on Shares, and explanations about what BRs IPOs etc etc all mean? It would be particularly useful to discuss the Weather Lottery issue, as this would then be applied to a real situation, which could be watched, evaluated etc ...

T

Chrismaths

BR - Boiler room, an unregulated company offering for sale shares that may not be tradeable, or are worth significantly less than they say. They make huge commissions on the sales, and then disappear. Very illegal, very hard to get your money back.

IPO - Initial public offering. This is how a company gets on to the stock exchange. This can be by 2 means - either the owners of the company sell some or all of the shares, or they issue new shares for subscription. In the first case the owners are looking to sell some of their company, in the second the company is trying to raise new money.

Pre-IPO offer - An unlisted company offering shares for sale that has an intention of conducting an IPO ('float') in the near future.

Try the Motley fool forums for discussions of individual shares.

steady__eddie

Tracylaw, I also had one of these invitations today and I am trying to figure out which company has been selling their shareholder details lists.
You haven't got shares in your own name in any of the following have you :-
Bradford and Bingley, Eurotunnel, Panmure Gordon or Skyepharma.
Perhaps we could narrow the source down.