I was surprised on Friday evening to see that the Melrose position was at 253.48p and showing a profit of £103.29 profit. Odd, I thought, as the limit sale price was 252.82p, which would have yielded £100 profit.

Looking closely at the charts revealed that this price was an after hours auction price and spread limits are not activated out of hours apparently.

Melrose seems to be on a rise – 6% last week against a FTSE rise of 1.42% and brokers are targeting 160p. The XD date is 19/9/12 and dividends are paid on this date for spread bets. (The SP may dip as the dividend value is “lost”, but not always).

As a result I hope to ride this as winner. I have raised the “sell” limit to 262p, really with the hope that it doesn’t trigger before the XD date when I’ll get a £13 dividend on top. I’ve moved the stop loss to 235p, which means that if it goes absolutely pear shaped I should still see a small gain.

 

If the position stays open, once the dividend is banked, I’ll think seriously about closing at any price above the original target.

 

Bezant Resources

I placed an order to open a buy position on this miner. A year ago it was announced that they had sold an option to buy an asset at a fixed priced for several millions. This is payable whether or not the deal is done. The cash will provide a special dividend in January 2013.

This news led to a SP price rise that looked reasonable given the dividend. The SP however fell back and continued to fall after I sold at a loss – at about the price it has now come back up to.

The SP is beginning to look quite positive and I am wondering if we are beginning to see interest rising in a share that should yield 125% (34p div on SP of 27p). It just seems logical that any price under 34p is just silly and bound to rise.

I probably should just open the position however I placed an order hoping to pick up on a dip to 26p. Will I miss the boat by being too greedy? There seems to be solid support at 24p so the downside is also limited.

Order to open at 26p at £30/pt, stop loss 22.5p. No limit set for the time being – this I see as a long term bet and the expiry is March 2013.