relatively intelligent investor

I have decided to build a position in #BRCK Brickability. Divi 6.5% PEG 0.3 Good business, trough earnings. Chart shows price moving 50 day MA -and forming some higher-lows.

#FTSE #LSE March was interesting for the portfolio ! Month -7.06% YTD +2.53% Added to 5 positions 3 new Buys 1 reduced 6 sold Only 2 stocks held at start an end of month were up. #SQZ #TCAP They ended March as my 2 largest (detail to follow)

#BRCK I have been adding weight to my position of late, blissfully un-aware that the company have received a 65p bid in the meantime. In any event the bid has been rejected as the BoD thinks it's undervalued - STRONGLY agreed.

BREAKING: Zelensky just landed in the UAE and signed a defence cooperation agreement with President MBZ. The deal on the table changes everything about this war. Ukraine is offering Gulf states 1,000 drone interceptors per day. Each Sting interceptor costs $2,100. Each Patriot missile it replaces costs $3.9 million. In exchange, Ukraine wants the Patriot missiles the Gulf states are burning through, because Kyiv cannot get enough of them to stop Russian missiles. Read that again. The country America refused to arm fast enough is now arming America’s allies with a weapon that costs 1,857 times less than the one America cannot produce fast enough. The National reported on March 27 that Zelensky told reporters: “We’d like to quietly receive the Patriot missiles we have a deficit of, and give them a corresponding number of interceptors.” AFP confirmed the UAE agreement on March 28. Eleven countries have formally requested Ukraine’s drone defence expertise per Zelensky’s own count. Over 200 Ukrainian military specialists are already deployed across the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Jordan. Here is the arithmetic that should terrify every Pentagon procurement officer on earth. The United States fired 943 Patriot interceptors in the first four days of the Iran war per a US Congressional study cited by the Jerusalem Post. That is eighteen months of Lockheed Martin’s annual production consumed in 96 hours. Each of those 943 shots cost $3.9 million. Total expenditure: $3.68 billion in four days on defensive interceptions alone. Iran produces 10,000 Shahed drones per month per Reuters. Each drone costs $20,000 to $50,000. The cost exchange ratio is 114 to 1 in Iran’s favour per Military Times. Ukraine’s Sting interceptor inverts this arithmetic entirely. At $2,100, the cost ratio flips from 114-to-1 against America to roughly 10-to-1 against Iran. Ukraine can supply 1,000 per day. That is 30,000 per month against Iran’s 10,000 Shaheds per month. For the first time in this war, the defender’s production rate exceeds the attacker’s production rate at a fraction of the cost. And the country that built this weapon is the same country that Trump publicly rejected. “No, they are not helping. We do not need their help. We know more about drones than anyone else” per Fox News. He doubled down: “The last person we need help from is Zelensky.” Meanwhile the Pentagon notified Congress of plans to redirect $750 million in Ukraine-bound Patriot missiles to Gulf states per House of Saud reporting. America is simultaneously refusing Ukraine’s cheap solution and cannibalising Ukraine’s expensive one. Zelensky framed this explicitly. He told The National: “No matter how many Patriots, THAADs, or other air-defence systems are in the Middle East, that alone is not enough for fully effective air defence.” He told the UK Parliament: “When it comes to shooting down massive Shahed attacks, only Ukrainian experience can really help with this today.” The Pentagon is spending $3.9 million per interception, raiding Swiss fighter jet accounts to cover shortfalls, and diverting Ukraine’s own Patriot supply to the Gulf. Zelensky is offering the same result for $2,100 and producing 1,000 units per day. The market has a word for this kind of disruption. The $2,100 drone is the most important weapon in this war. And the country that built it is the one America said it did not need. Full analysis - open.substack.com/pub/shanakaans…

Why the U.S. Navy can’t fully protect the Strait of Hormuz: ⬇️

Serica: North Sea and its people ‘deserve better’ Serica Energy chairman Dave Latin has set out a four-point plan to 'kick-start the UK North Sea'. #SQZ - Serica Energy @SericaEnergyplc

#CURY an interesting reaction to the CEO leaving in an orderly fashion and the trading being inline - 11% Such is the market these days I suppose.

Nobody in the Trump administration planned for Iran to shut the Strait of Hormuz. Nobody planned for sustained missile strikes on American bases across the Gulf. Nobody planned for an energy crisis. Nobody planned for Europe to look at Washington, shrug, and walk the other way. Nobody, it turns out, planned for very much at all. Read the accounts of how this war was decided and you are left with one deeply uncomfortable realisation: the people who launched it appear to have been genuinely surprised by almost everything that followed. The Iranians shot back. The allies didn’t show up. The oil price went vertical. All of it, apparently, news to them. Which leaves two questions so obvious they’re almost embarrassing to ask. What exactly did they think was going to happen? And did anyone, in any room, at any point, think further ahead than the applause? Gandalv / @Microinteracti1

It's been a tricky year for #SQZ but outputs have been very strong of latye and acquisitions made should really bear fruit for the rest of 2026 and onwards. Looks like #CRUDE and #NATGAS are going to be a lot higher for a while....

I'm very proud of our teams’ ability to quickly navigate rapidly evolving requirements and deliver an outperformance for FY2026. With momentum continuing, I look forward to consulting major shareholders on a potential move to the Main Market of the LSE in due course. #Volex #VLX

#VLX Q1 2026 "significantly ahead" - music to my ears! Good tailwinds in growing markets, but also great execution by @NatRothschild1 and his team. A move to the #FTSE main list on the cards too.

Ed Miliband has a cult-like conviction in his own climate ideology. He is incapable of admitting that he is wrong – even with mountains of evidence stacking up against him. As the world gets more dangerous, his anti-North Sea fanaticism is making Britain weaker and poorer. Unfortunately, as more and more people sound the alarm, Miliband only becomes more convinced by his own righteousness. Today, the Conservatives will force a vote in Parliament calling for the emergency approval of the Rosebank and Jackdaw oil and gas fields in the North Sea – two fields that could be up and running by the end of the year. Turning our backs on domestic gas that could heat millions of homes would be madness in normal times, but it is sheer lunacy in the midst of a gas supply crisis. In government, I legislated to protect North Sea oil and gas licences and I approved Rosebank, even though I was told it would have put my own personal security at risk from climate extremists. It was controversial at the time, but to say times have changed would be an understatement. From the wind lobbyists at RenewableUK to the chair of Great British Energy - Miliband’s “clean energy” propaganda outfit - the head honchos of the green lobby say we should drill. The great and good of the Labour Left, from the Tony Blair Institute to the unions and Ed Balls, say so, too. The relative geopolitical stability we have had for most of my adult life is not something we can bank on in the years ahead. We need to pass on a country to the next generation that is strong and prosperous. That means making economic decisions based on rationality, not ideology. The North Sea is a blessing for our economy. When gilt markets are charging you a premium because they think we’re borrowing too much and earning too little, it is incumbent on the Exchequer to make the most of all growth opportunities we have. It is a blessing for our energy security, with the gas making up half of our domestic supply. But it is also a blessing for our environment, as the North Sea is much cleaner than importing LNG from abroad. However, for Miliband to admit this would expose the intellectual fraud at the heart of our net zero climate policy. Miliband’s agenda rests on the absurdity that carbon emissions only matter if they happen domestically. It incentivises the replacement of British industry with dirtier imports from abroad. The fact that North Sea gas displaces dirtier LNG doesn’t matter to our climate bean counters because foreign LNG imports aren’t counted in our domestic emissions targets. This is Net Zero irrationality in a nutshell. Fewer jobs in Britain for more carbon in the atmosphere – and yet to the religiously fervent, they will argue that this is Britain’s example of climate success. This is fantasy thinking we cannot afford. We must fast-track Rosebank and Jackdaw and lift the onerous bans and taxes on the North Sea to back Britain’s energy security. Kemi Badenoch knows it and Keir Starmer knows it. Unfortunately, so far, only one of them has had the courage to say so.

@MarioNawfal The key here is that all are taking the "toll" route around Larak island - anything but a return to the pre-war flows.

🇮🇷 Some ships are starting to move through Hormuz again Marine traffic data shows vessels trickling through the Strait over the past 24 hours.

#MEGP long-awaited results very much on track with increased returns to shareholders announced, along with a new dog washing offer. Presentation here. If you play it at x1.4 speed the CEO sounds just like @jackwitehall youtube.com/watch?v=f2ds8z…

My latest cartoon for tomorrow's @Telegraph Buy a print of my cartoons at telegraph.co.uk/mattprints Original artwork from chrisbeetles.com

A gold slump based on fears of central banks hiking rates and selling reserves shows a misunderstanding of how the monetary policy system works. A gold slump based on fears of a recession is even less justified. Any answer to today's risks will be more currency printing, not tighter policy. via Bloomberg

In precious metals, the XAUXAG ratio is worth monitoring in the coming days and weeks, as two distinct forces are currently impacting gold and silver. Beyond the ongoing wave of long liquidation—driven by a deteriorating technical outlook and weighing on both metals in the short term—a more significant risk is emerging, particularly for gold. This centres on potential selling pressure from surplus economies, many of which since 2022 have shifted allocations away from dollar-based assets toward hard assets such as gold. With revenues now under pressure, some may be forced to raise liquidity—either through bond sales or by reducing gold holdings—to meet fiscal obligations. Against this backdrop, two opposing forces stand out: - economic growth concerns weighing on silver demand - the risk of reserve reallocation flows reversing, impacting gold Once current volatility subsides and a ceasefire paves the way for a gradual return to normalisation, gold is likely to reassert its role as a reserve asset and a hedge against rising fiscal deficits and currency debasement. The long-term bullish outlook remains intact, in our view, but near-term headwinds may continue to challenge bullion. Below USD 4,660 support, the next levels to watch are USD 4,550 and USD 4,380.

Shame we taxed our own production to near extinction. A #UKGOV U-turn would be nice here.

#MPC @bankofengland minutes, infer the committee are on message with the 2% target. However some are mindful that it ought to be more a mid-term objective, whilst the economy deals with the input cost shock of higher energy costs 1st Sensible IMO🤔 bankofengland.co.uk/-/media/boe/fi…