Editorial Contributor
ROBBIE BURNS’
FEBRUARY TRADING DIARY Well I don’t know about you, but all this talk of horsemeat has got me really into eating... meat. Pictures of burgers on Sky News made me crazy for them. Yes, meat, I can’t get enough of it now. You’ve probably gathered I’m either crazy, easily led or the ultimate contrarian! The Burns household has seen me grabbing handfuls of mince (probably no horse, but who knows and secretly who cares?) and turning it into burgers. Always add Worcester Sauce, tomato sauce and mayo into the mince and obviously a bit of horsemeat if you have some Findus products to hand… Years ago I owned a cafe and by mistake I handed over a Chicken panini to a vegetarian. She came back that afternoon. “How dare you give meat to a veggie...” I thought she was going to sue or demand money. However she admitted she loved it and started eating meat again. Oops. Not as bad as the woman who complained there was fish in her fish pie though... Why am I gabbling away here (gobbling away?) talking meat — well it honestly does have something to do with writing something for Spreadbet magazine. A piece of news that hits the market and so hits a particular share can often throw up an excellent opportunity for a spread bettor. A share goes down massively. Can we make some quick money on it? Possibly, but you have to get it right and follow a few rules. My article, my rules, okay? I never knew for example a week ago that I would be making money from horse lasagne. But I did... and a pretty meaty amount. Okay, I promise not to use any horse/meat jokes from now on... just don’t nag me if one slips in though (get it?!).
54 | www.financial-spread-betting.com | March 2013
I had made a very decent sum from food distributor Greencore previously — I’d more than doubled my money and banked more than five grand selling at 111 after it peaked at 115. It then sank to 100 and I felt glad (and smug perhaps, or is that lucky?!) that I had sold, but then immediately started looking to buy it again lower if I could, targeting 90p as an entry. Then one morning I saw the price plunge into the 80s and thought this could be an amazing time to buy back. I turned on the news — reason for the plunge? It has admitted selling horse bolognese sauce to Asda ...mmmm... yummy! When a company has fallen a lot you need to do some quick thinking: how much in percent has it fallen? Now have a guess at how much percent you think it should fall after the news and how likely it is to bounce back. Okay, Greencore had fallen to the low 80s, nearly 30% lower than its recent high. Then I saw this sentence in its statement to the market, “Beef Bolognese Sauce represented c. GBP0.3 million of Greencore’s GBP1.16bn turnover in its last financial year. The annualised revenue of all products withdrawn represents less than GBP1.0 million.”