Plus500 Live Discussion

marktime1231 23 Jan 2018

Contrast IG See why IG execs have been so snappy, 4% yield on sp roughly flat over 2 years and earnings growth rolling along at +10% pa. Focussed on a narrow market which is expensive to service with limited room to grow. Only now have they thought about a strategy to expand. No wonder market and broker response to their interims today has been muted.Meanwhile our red neck Israeli chums have built a really neat platform, cleverly marketed a simple service to retail punters in an expanding number of markets, and operate successfully on what looks like a skeletal staff. They must be really really good and tremendously hard working people. It may have to up its admin and overheads but it seems to be positioned and has regulatory requirements in mind.Gone are the days 2 and 3 years ago where FT Alphaville devoted an enormous amount of time to criticising this upstart mostly on the grounds that it looked too good to be true, because it couldn't figure out how P500's business model worked and why it was so successful, and so questioning that it may not be ethical or properly governed or honest. Actually Plus500 did need to do some catch up work to get on the right side of compliance issues, but then the rule makers were doing just that ... making up the rules. Still are in fact.And some of the early management attitude was appalling - we are doing ok because we haven't had a major complaint and we haven't been sued yet. Fortunately those people haven't been in charge of late, brilliant programmers nonetheless.Not sure I understand the business in the detail, but I am satisfied this is not a flash in the pan and is not a dodgy scheme. P500 have found a neat way of profitting from the enormous retail appetite for speculative trading ... punters gambling on price movements in things like foreign exchange, like other people bet on horses or poker. On the whole I think P500 make their money from transaction fees and margins in the spread rather than book making per se, but there are probably balancing of positions and hedging in the background. Punters lose money, actually a large number lose quite a lot, mostly to each other. Gambling is ruinous we know. It is not a pick on moral or ethical grounds. I have had a play with the P500 demonstrator and it is terrifying how quickly you can get caught out even when you think you have a safe idea on where, say, oil or gold prices are heading. Way too exciting for me.A knee jerk reaction to ban all crypto currency trading would be just that, like banning gambling because people bet. A ban would affect everyone. Much better that the regulator concentrates on things like small stake or trading limits for non-professionals, restricting leveraged losses so you can't lose more than your stake, controlling how services are marketed (it is not investing, not even trading, it is betting) so no trashy get-your first-£10-free type of deals, and safeguarding procedures for how new clients are taken on who may be vulnerable, proper money laundering controls etc Just like any other gambling operation. So far without the super-taxes, just virtually unrecoverable Israeli witholding tax at rates in excess of international tax treaty conventions.Meanwhile P500 sp has surged on earnings growth running at about +30% pa while also delivering 6%+ dividends. Much more in the pipeline. And to rub salt in IGs wounds the board and shareholdrs have just voted the CEO and CFO a splendid bonus ... dare I say it one that seems well deserved.Going forward to remain as an investor I would be pleased if Plus500 cemented its good fortunes by embracing the concerns of the regulators. Why not be seen to take issues seriously, not just make the right noises actually take pre-emptive steps to enhace controls customer care services and safeguarding procedures, put the right sort of city types in place to deal with city issues, work on some goodwill projects. Feels like that would be a bet

marktime1231 11 Jan 2018

Facts vs Rumours An odd press release from Numis on behalf of IG yesterday in response to the Dear CEO public letter about CFD trading concerns (which IG clearly received) in which it said it was largely unaffected and repeated its view that it is more likely that P500 with its "lower class" customer profile would be more heavily affected.A helpful response from P500 followed, in which it points out that the conduct issues covered by the Dear CEO letter were not relevant to its business model, and in fact Plus500 had not been included in those addressed by the letter. P500 resisted any temptation to comment on anyone else's position.Pretty disgraceful from Numis and IG (again). I would be considering a "cease and desist" letter of my own to them if I were general counsel at P500.

shugg1e 10 Jan 2018

Re: AMAZING TRADING UPDATE! Classic pump and dump

alltold9 04 Jan 2018

AMAZING TRADING UPDATE! Surpassed all expectations and the sky really is the limit. I can see testing £12.50 today and £15+ before the magnificent results are released. Truly amazing company.

marktime1231 03 Jan 2018

Boom Well even as good days go that was one and a half. Congratulations to everyone who ignored last month's hiatus and blocked the twerp last Summer shorting this back down to 600p.My instinct is that we will see the sp up to £12.50 by or when the financial results released late Feb turn this latest super trading update into hard numbers and dividend. I might even add a few on that prospect.£15 on the next trading update expecting it to show spectactular business growth has not been stalled by regulatory strictures.Do not be spooked into selling this money maker too early unless you have an even better prospect of a 50% return in the next few months.

JohnyCash 03 Jan 2018

D/T Article Bitcoin's rollercoaster ride powers online trading firm Plus 500Rising interest in crypto-currencies such as Bitcoin led online trading firm Plus 500 to hit a record number of new customers in 2017 Bradley Gerrard 3 January 2018 • 127pmA surge in the popularity of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies led online retail investment firm Plus 500 to hit a record level of quarterly sales at the end of 2017.The company said it had seen “increased interest” in the investment products it sells that are linked to cryptocurrencies, as interest in the asset class grew among private investors.Bitcoin in particular grabbed the attention of currency speculators globally last year after hitting $19,187 in December on the back of a 1,800pc rise compared to the start of 2017.The cryptocurrency's heady rise and subsequent large fall to $13,472 has been beneficial to Plus 500, as its contracts for difference - or CFDs - allow traders to speculate on the rise or fall of an individual security without actually owning it. This means Plus 500 customers could have backed Bitcoin to fall from its 2017 highs without having to buy any of the cryptocurrency.As well as reaching an unspecified record quarterly revenue at the end of 2017, Plus 500 said its 246,000 (2016: 104,432) new customers for the year as a whole was also the highest it had achieved.The comments, which came as part of a short trading update from the company, mean it now expects sales and profits to be ahead of market expectations.Investors in Plus 500 reacted positively to this, sending its shares up more than 16pc in early trading to £10.27.Asaf Elimelech, chief executive of Plus500, said the company had started offering trading in cryptocurrencies in 2013, but that interest had risen in 2017.The update tops off a strong 2017 for the business, which announced a $10m scheme to buy back some of its shares in June and a more than doubling of net profits in the six months to June, as well as a surge in new clients and an increase in existing customers' trading activity. Plus 500 will publish its full results before the end of February, the company added.[link]

freedom-thirty5 03 Jan 2018

Re: Trading update today Yep another tasty update from this money printing machine.I actually didn’t know they offered cryptocurrency CFDs. I might actually open an account to get in on that.

dave297 03 Jan 2018

Trading update today Extremely positive ,as expected & we must be generating large amounts of cash & I suspect that our year end balance will be higher than expected.

marktime1231 18 Dec 2017

Re: Tumble on ESMA plans I have read the reports again and commentaries this morning. My real effect is that nervous investors have been tipped into taking their profits before Christmas.P500 may only be slightly affected by any new restrictions, hence the reasssurance from Liberum. Numis are scathing and think P500 will really suffer while preferring IG's outlook. It is hard to know who to believe.P500 have a CFD business model which already largely addresses concerns raised by ESMA and are unaffected by binary trading rules since this is not their game. On which basis P500 continues to have fresh licenses awarded to trade in new geographic markets.The only vulnerabilities in P500's current business model are with bonus incentives and trading inducements to retail investors, and maybe how it does some of its advertising in the CFD space. The changes it needs to make and the potential consequences for the business are slight, underlying growth prospects remain stellar as it expands markets.My take is that the impact of restrictions could be far harder on the likes of IG who are bleating about it, while P500 are supportive of the ESMA regulatory changes.

NewM0ney 18 Dec 2017

Tumble on ESMA plans but Liberum buy rating reconfirmed Liberum Capital's have retained their target of £1,069[link]

marktime1231 22 Nov 2017

Interesting slump in the sp A corporate sale by a founder of a large stake which is value-priced (on my projection of forward earnings and dividend) is possible, actually I expected a full buy-out approach attracted by cash generation ... if you were Global Finance Inc why leave your investment under outside control in a country with difficult political and tax-withholding issues.So the rumour of a stake sale is quite believable ... but the idea that such a move has stalled because of an argument on price from 980p to 940p is not credible, especially as we have dipped below that price point. More likely we are seeing an open market over-reaction to renewed publicity and regulatory concern about financial "brokerage" of binary betting being a ruinous form of gambling.And ordinary investors sitting on huge paper gains cashing in this year's sp progress. My year end target was 900p+ and here we are still.The effect of (results and) the previous buy back which ran through August was a powerful improvement from 650p through 800p. I don't know what caused further momentum to peak at 1050p three weeks ago, appreciation of good value and prospects? But it suggests that announcing a further buy back would see us back there. Given that free cash will have continued to roll in and given investors' dislike of the witholding tax, another buy back could well be imminent. Stellar results and an increased bumper final/special dividend next Summer would not surprise me either.A buy back after Christmas maybe, we don't get results until February but I wonder if they might run a buy back ahead of financials again?My feeling is to hold for £12 by next Easter wth a 50p+ net div to go with. And that will still be cheap compared to a £15 fair value price.

freedom-thirty5 17 Nov 2017

Re: Recent Purchase !! Is there any actual proof of that story?

stuffee 17 Nov 2017

Re: Recent Purchase !! alwaysabPlus been plunging due to attempt by founders to sell around 7m shares last week. Placing aborted due to price disagreement. Regrettably this overhang will probably hold price back until cleared.See [link]

alwaysabeliever 17 Nov 2017

Re: Recent Purchase !! Right or wrong it was a short and quite expensive visit. Seem to be in free fall just now. I’m out !!

shugg1e 14 Nov 2017

Re: Recent Purchase !! Yep its because i bought a few back as well I will buy some more at around 525p to give me back my original holding.