Interesting pull out section in yesterday's Irish Times. I know these special pull outs tend to be advertorial but there were some interesting and informative articles in there.
One was from an anonymous punter, which I thought was going to be some big success story. But no. He had bet on Wheat, Oil and Footsie in fairly high stakes and all had lost. One of his wins was when he got a hunch from a friend that his friend's company was doing well and so the imminent trading statement should be good. I think there is a lesson here. I don't think any of us can call the big plays - that's just luck - but maybe we can get a sense for something which we are very close to. I haven't tried it yet but I think I could guess the likely impact of trading statements in my own industry which is of course financial services.
Also interesting was that the tax advantages were considerably underplayed. I sense the FSB industry is very sensitive on this score.
Overall message was that FSB was the same as traditional buying/selling of shares except so very much cheaper, and of course you can short.