Meeting:

Monthly Meeting - November 2004

 

Held at:

The Brocklebank, Crewe

Date:

2nd November 2004

 

 

Time:

17:00 – 17:40

Prepared by

Dave G

 

Chairperson:

Adrian T

 

Present:

Dave G

 

 

Adrian T

 

 

Richard W

 

 

Simon B

 

 

Apologies:

Chris B

 

 

Kit P

 

 

 

Chairman’s Acceptance of Minutes

 


_____________________________________________


____ / _____ / ____

Signature

Date

 

 

 

1           NEXT MEETING

Wednesday 8th December at 16:45 in The Brocklebank.

2           Minutes of previous meeting

Accepted

3           ACTIONS FROM PREVIOUS MEETING

3.1          Actions Closed Since Last Meeting

Ref.

Description & Progress

Status

DG/0907/04

Update strategy about assigning a champion to speculative holdings that double, and to not need a champion for fundamental in exceptional circumstances

1102: All agreed with revised version 5 of strategy so it became approved.

COMPLETE

RW/1004/01

Sell Severfield Rowen and purchase appropriate amount of Lambert Howarth

COMPLETE

DG/1004/02

Look out for October competition

1102: It wasn’t in the paper when it said it was going to be.  The next competition is due to be in the Mirror on 10th November

COMPLETE

RW/1004/03

Produce a list from Sharescope of which companies will be reporting in October

1102: It was agreed that this action would be helpful for every competition so Dave to remind Richard to produce the list when he gets the competition details each month

COMPLETE

3.2          Actions Carried forward to Next Meeting                         

See end of these minutes.

4           Treasurer’s Report

4.1          Monthly Report Summary

See separate report for detail. 

Highlights/Lowlights  A good month with an overall rise of approx £916 in net assets.  Unit value up from 469.511 to 486.805.  We have £5,688.95 of non-mechanical cash.

4.2          Matters Arising From Report

All to send Chris their bank account details so that he can pay off the creditors.

Richard questioned whether Countryside Properties was actually in the Property sector…possibly should be in Construction.  Richard to check and notify Chris if it needs to be changed in the report.

5           PORTFOlio Management

5.1          Monthly Money Management Checks

We remain “Too Low” in our proportion of assets in common UK stock (64% against strategic minimum of 75%) and the fundamental portfolio is also still “Too low” (18% against strategic minimum of 25%).

Further purchases for the Fundamental portfolio would address these so proposals are still encouraged.

5.2          Mechanical Portfolio

This month is a month for selecting another share for the ‘Growth’ side – our fifth entry.  Top candidate was Cape but we already hold that in the Speculative portfolio.  The next two candidates were Qualceram Shires and Carclo but these have spreads of 8.3% and 6% respectively.  This was considered too high so, as the next candidate, Oystertec, was reasonably close behind in the rankings, it was selected as its spread was only 4%.  Richard to make purchase of appropriate amount.

It was agreed that some guidance should be put into the selection criteria in Appendix B of the Strategy to suggest that we should aim for companies with spreads less than 5%, though we should not completely limit ourselves from buying shares with spreads >5% (e.g. if all candidate shares have big spreads or if those with smaller spreads are significantly lower in the rankings).  Dave to update Strategy.

In the Value side of the mechanical portfolio, Crest Nicholson had fallen through its stop loss threshold so had been sold in the month.  A replacement was needed for the Value side also this month.  Top candidate was Alfred McAlpine which we already hold so next candidate was Taylor Woodrow.  Richard to purchase appropriate amount.

The table below now reflects the sell situation for each mechanical holding.  The appropriate sell condition is shown in bold

Company

Portfolio

“Anniversary”

Purchase Price

Target Price

Trailing Stop Loss

High Since Purchase

Target Met?

Sell If Below

Countryside Properties

Value

Dec 2004

196.70

295.05

29.51

279.00

No

295.05

Wagon

Value

Feb 2005

198.00

297.00

29.70

198.50

No

297.00

Horizon

Growth

Mar 2005

66.50

99.75

9.98

72.25

No

99.75

4Imprint

Growth

May 2005

141.50

212.25

21.23

144.50

No

212.25

Fyffes

Value

Jun 2005

117.34

176.00

17.60

129.75

No

176.00

Sportingbet

Growth

Jul 2005

99.05

148.58

14.86

106.50

No

148.58

McAlpine

Value

Aug 2005

254.70

382.05

38.21

260.25

No

382.05

Hyder

Growth

Sep 2005

150.00

225.00

22.50

155.50

No

225.00

Lambert Howarth

Value

Oct 2005

272.00

408.00

40.80

271.00

No

408.00

 

5.3          Monthly Reports For Each Company in Fundamental Portfolio

CodaSciSys

HOLD – Not yet met sell criteria (see table in 5.5 below)

ISG

HOLD – Not yet met sell criteria (see table in 5.5 below)

Parity

HOLD – Not yet met sell criteria (see table in 5.5 below)

Big Food Group

HOLD – Not yet met sell criteria (see table in 5.5 below)

 

5.4          Speculative Portfolio

Cape

HOLD – Not yet met sell criteria (see table in 5.5 below)

 

5.5          Stop Loss / Sell Criteria (as of date of treasurer’s report)

The following is the summary of sell criteria for each stock held within the Speculative or Fundamental portfolios (the Mechanical holdings are dealt with as part of section 5.2 above).  The stop loss is invoked against the “end of day” price, but the sell decision may wait for the opening price to avoid rogue trades at the end of day.

Stock

Reportee

“High” Price

Stop Loss (based on the “high”)

Exit Criteria

CSY

Richard

420

210p

Was reviewed at the meeting as scheduled.  Agreed to hold for another 6 months at least.  Hold until at least May 05 and then review. In addition, review following any trading or results statement that expects / reports a fall in either revenues or profits over the previous reporting period;Trailing stop loss of 210p to star