JohnOfYork
01 Mar 2018
Re: What's going on? "I haven't got a spare day to read all this stuff!"And you think we have? Typical Lancashire idleness! DYO.Joking aside, National Grid's slide is probably to do with fears of rising interest rates and a re-nationalising Labour government but wtfdik, I'm only a kind Yorkie.
Team Manchester
01 Mar 2018
What's going on? When will the collapse end?Why is this happening?Did anybody pile out when 1050p?I recall a poster on here who seemed quite savvy who used to sign off 'LK on the flybridge', tell me what's happening please!? I haven't got a spare day to read all this stuff!Yours desperado
trader jack
27 Feb 2018
Re: Discussion board. I have just registered and logged on to Barcplus and my first thoughts are disappointing. Discussions seem to be only a fraction of what appears currently on ii boards. There seem to be many categories that have had no postings at all on them and many where the most recent post is sometime last year.I am with those who would like to see the discussions linked to individual shares rather as ii do at the moment.I also like to be able to see the current share price whilst I am reading the discussion / thread (as in the case of soi for example)Whatever the perceived faults of ii discussion boards and the attempts by ii to "update" their pages the thing that ii need to do before this new discussion site is let loose on us poor investors is to ensure that full beta testing is done so that there are few if any complaints once it goes live!Just my thoughts TJ
sound money
26 Feb 2018
Discussion board. With the migration to a new ii site of which along with others I will continue to support, thought you might like to consider also trying the discussion board on[link] will find some familiar posters including Soi, Magoo, Jack Dawson, Vtec, Damp Seaweed, SBK etc.It's a good natured board which covers the whole investment spectrum. If you enjoy discussions without acrimony you would be most welcome.Just follow the link.
dregor
26 Feb 2018
Re: Trends and Targets - FRTEB Fair enough FRTEB; always glad to be of service!
Paulie_Mu
26 Feb 2018
Re: new buyback started. In response, it annoys the heck out of me that any company should offer a scrip dividend in an age where it actually does not benefit the investor.Some quick points:1) Scrips are chargeable against income tax so no benefit to anyone here2) Investors do save on stamp duty and any platform fees imposed vs DRIP which incurs stamp3) Price of SCRIP is usually known pre election vs DRIP which is post payment4) A company like Natl Grid has (relatively) high retail investor ownership so I guess they offer a SCRIP in the hope that this utility can issues shares (equivalent to printing money under QE!) instead of handing out cash. That allows it to borrow more cash, or at least keep borrowing lower than otherwise would have done - also think BP here which offered a SCRIP to make investors believe the fallacy that it had re-started paying a dividend.Further, I hate buybacks. Yep, I've studied buybacks vs divs a lot and, frankly, in an ISA/SIPP driven UK environment I can't help but think investors would be a lot better off having cash distributed to re-invest in companies with ideas than companies buying back stock which has very, very little impact on share price.
FRTEB
26 Feb 2018
Re: Trends and Targets - FRTEB I'm absolutely positive, but thanks for thinking of me 
dregor
26 Feb 2018
Re: Trends and Targets - FRTEB FRTEB,NG creeping back up now; are you sure you don't want to change your mind?
Lupo di mare
21 Feb 2018
Re: Diversifying? Yes, tks, Guitar, I was referring to the charging points rather than the transmission network.Yes, batteryman, gas is explosive, and that's obviously in the forefront of the minds of those creating the means of delivering and using the stuff. Certainly, EV's appear to be safer.Did you ever wonder, when taking a break at a motorway service station, that those around you would be driving on the motorway. I shouldn't have said that - but I did.
batteryman15
21 Feb 2018
Re: Diversifying? There could always be a hydrogen BOOM - Literally. safety would be an issue with hydrogen.
Guitarsolo
21 Feb 2018
Re: Diversifying? Lupo, Re hydrogen fuel cells, remember the hydrogen is produced by electrolysis of water = more electricity required and lots of it!But I remember doing an essay about the viability of hydrogen fuel for vehicles as part of my chemistry A-level.....that was 25 years ago. Yikes!Guitarsolo
Baker2005
20 Feb 2018
Re: Diversifying? yes- there is a lot of work going on into developing fuel cell technology, but they either need hydrogen or natural gas to work, and neither is a particularly easy fuel to recharge safely and quickly, added to fact these fuel cells are expensive to produce and have a limited life ( as do batteries of course).There is also a huge amount of work going into "solid state" battery technology. It will be a very interesting decade for sure. Batteries seem to have the lead right now, but you never know - break throughs happen all the time albeit of decreasing technological magnitude compared to 100 years ago..
Lupo di mare
20 Feb 2018
Re: Diversifying? Baker - "so someone has to invest in the grid upgrade at some point. Owning the charging points is a good to way to fund it.. Makes perfect sense to me."If NG invest in the property and equipment and upkeep for charging points, they'll borrow money on the assumption that they'll get x% return on the investment. Not an easy calculation to try and make.Same with upgrading the network. I'd rather they stuck to their knitting. Furthermore, who's to say that hydrogen won't become as big or bigger than EVs. I doubt that setting-up charging points in competition with existing service stations will get anywhere near funding network upgrades.
Hardboy
20 Feb 2018
Re: Diversifying? "if the plans to move everyone to electric vehicles by 2040 happen, we will need much more grid infrastructure to support all those charging points..."Not if the electricity is generated by a fuel cell on the car, then refuelling is as easy as now. Technology not as advanced as battery power, but it is coming; and it would simplify a lot of the potential problems with battery power.
WhoSparticus
20 Feb 2018
Re: Diversifying? - Happy Rabbit "when you charge these lithium batteries at that power they only have a very few charge/discharge cycles in them."Not an NG problem. Politics says electric cars happens and car manufacturers / battery peeps have to deal with this.
