BP Article

BP Article

Lloyds Results

Lloyds Results

New Banks article on ShareProphets

New Banks article on ShareProphets

Albion VCT Seminar (2014)

Monday 10th November The Crown Hotel Crown Place Harrogate, HG1 2RZ

I'm thinking of going to the Harrogate meeting and writing an article for ShareProphets on it. It'll definitely improve my chances of going if there are plenty of interesting people are going too, I'm happy to network!

New TSB Article

TSB

New Lloyds post on ShareProphets

New Lloyds post on ShareProphets

Update To The Virgin Media Complaint

I guess you could call this good research into the broadband industry. Still extremely frustrating though. So in total now I’ve had instances where I’ve lost internet connection about 72 times this year. Since I spent 50 minutes complaining to the Indian call centre, giving them all my details, I’ve lost internet connection 12 times. I’ve now rung OFCOM on (03001233000) on two separate occasions, and got a much better response from then than Virgin Media. They agreed that I gave sufficient information to the Indian call centre, and I confirmed the details with the CFAS with them. Their number is 02075203814. I’ve added to the official complaint that their advertising (which they spend millions of pounds on) is misleading claiming ‘super fast broadband’ when it doesn’t even connect. OFCOM did give me some useful advice though, and encouraged me to switch to another provider. I know other people have had similar problems. I’m going to expect to be compensated for all the time I spend dealing with it- so you would have thought Virgin would have made an extra effort to get it right since complaining but obviously they haven’t, even though they said they would when I made my original complaint. All the time I don’t have an internet connection costs me money too. Anyway, hopefully this helps you if you have a problem with Virgin Media too.

Goal Update!

Feeling great that my shares are going up... only slight regret is I didn't buy more when they were cheap. The fact that some of my shares temporarily went down doesn't change the fact that I am a professional investor, who has spent thousands of hours analysing the market. Need to trust my instincts more!

I feel that I have a lot value to offer and want to monetize it Pushing comfort zone has gone well today... new connections and opportunities on the horizon but will do MORE tomorrow!

Glaxo Results Boosts Share Price - but still a buy

Glaxo Results Boosts Share Price - but still a buy

British American Tobacco is Investing in E-Cigarettes: Good News

British American Tobacco is Investing in E-Cigarettes: Good News

HSBC Chairman Unhappy with Bonus Cap! Turkeys Don't like Christmas!

HSBC Chairman Unhappy with Bonus Cap! Turkeys don't like Christmas!

At 549p Banco Santander is Good Value Again!

At 549p Banco Santander is Good Value Again!

New British American Tobacco article on ShareProphets

New British American Tobacco article on ShareProphets

Will the Big Four Supermarkets lose Market Share?

Will the big four supermarkets lose market share?

GSK

GSK article

Don’t Be Afraid to Tell Companies You’re a Shareholder

Don’t Be Afraid to Tell Companies You’re a Shareholder

Ethical Investing

Good morning all. Well I was struggling yesterday to find something to write, and didn’t manage it. Bit annoyed with myself, because writers really should write something everyday. But now I have found my inspiration ‘Ethical Investing’. You’ve perhaps read a few of my articles now, so here’s a bit more about my background. I’m the only member of my family who isn’t a Christian. And I’m not talking about folk who claim they are Christians. My family are pretty hardcore. They give over 10% of their income to charity. My mother and sister went to Liberia last year to ‘help people’. Even as a little boy, all my holidays were Christian holidays. I decided at the age of thirteen that I didn’t believe, and that wasn’t a super popular decision. I still went onto do Religious Studies at A Level though, and even some modules at university. I also studied Philosophy at University for one year. Some pretty ‘interesting’ conversations there, such as ‘if a worm was cut in two, would it actually be two worms’?

Anyway, my favourite philosopher by far was Nietzsche. He’s well worth a read, even if he’s a bit unhinged. He basically dismisses the whole idea of ‘ethics’. A lot of what people call ‘ethics’ is just based on Judeo-Christian thinking, or mind control.

I thought about this subject more and more, and finally managed to write a decent post on my blog about it, which you can find here http://markhowitt.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/everybodys-doing-what-they-think-is.html “Everyone is doing what they think is best for Themselves”. This sums up all human motivation. Of course, people get mutual fulfilment with others, but all action is based on what people THINK is best for themselves.

Since 2011 I have set myself clear financial goals, which I also wrote on my blog. And I’m a bit annoyed this year I might possibly not make it due to share performance (and other factors), but we’ll see. I know in the long run I will make decent money, so I shouldn’t beat myself up about it. I would recommend you make goals and track yourselves in regards to finances and shares. Financial goals are some of the best you can set, as they’re readily accountable and easy to measure. Of course you shouldn’t make a financial goal your only goal, but I would recommend the vast majority of people reading this to make it part of their goals.

That’s why now I cannot be swayed by anyone harping on about having an ‘ethical view’- at least if they tell me about it and try and make me believe what they believe. They are just doing it to make themselves feel good. You could easily raise an ‘ethical objection’ to any company in the FTSE 100, but I guess even the people who believe in ‘ethics’ aren’t convinced by those against companies they hold. All that matters to me is how much money I make from shares.

View Investing as a Mental And Emotional Challenge

The stock mentioned that I bought is now up over 4%. Check this out

Virgin Media

Well well...

Yesterday was pretty frustrating. For hours the internet wouldn't work, and it's happened before quite a few times. So contacted Virgin media via twitter and they made their usual excuses. So today will be complaining more officially to them and contacting OFCOM. And this morning I woke up and found I can't access my email, Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter despite the internet apparently working. Aiming to keep calm but annoyed. Will work on this...

UPDATE... Internet didn't work some of that day but working fine now. Complained to OFCOM, spent 50 minutes complaining to Indian call centre. It's happened 50 or 60 times this year, so asking for £100 compensation is fair. I'll update again on how much I got.

New Article

New article on ShareProphets.

British American Tobacco

New British American Tobacco article on ShareProphets.

Sainsbury's

Interesting to see how the corporate world operates... plenty of Sainsbury's staff are interested in me and what I write yet investor relations aren't bothered to reply when one of the owners of the business contacts them!

The Threat of Aldi...

I shop at Aldi every week. As I've mentioned in my article published on Fool... there have been queues outside it before 8:00am in the morning. The car park is practically always overfull to capacity all the time during the day. Aldi are expanding rapidly in opening new stores too. I think there is only a certain level they will be able to obtain because some people just won't do the Aldi experience, and some people do have 'brand loyalty'. If there isn't an Aldi too close I can't see many people going out of their way to visit one. It's not exactly a 'fun shopping experience'. You can't get many brands in Aldi still, but slightly more than before. But it just goes to show the MAIN thing MOST people care about is price! So Sainsbury's should shift focus away from more 'green' or 'charity' approaches to just cutting prices- which they have been doing to an extent.

Message to Sainsbury's

Post to their 'LinkedIn'.

"As I've mentioned on twitter, you need less 'sustainability' and more cutting prices to maintain profits. I'll be watching the dividend payments closely."

I think shareholders should actively tell Sainsbury's this. Being directly honest, at the moment I'm annoyed at myself for investing and my father for recommending I invest. I still believe they will rise from here but still annoyed. My instincts were correct- price matters much more than any charity guff or 'sustainability'. The majority of shoppers don't care about that, they care about what's in their pockets.

Part Seven

Here

Parts Five and Six

Part Five Part Six