Then I will examine the CVs of the management looking for the name of an experienced and previously successful business person

Then I will examine the CVs of the management looking for the name of an experienced and previously successful business person. This is a dog-eat-dog world and you need to know all the tricks of the trade to survive.Who else is buying shares? I like to see directors who have put their money where their mouths are, and it is good to know that some of the bigger investors, the institutions and the funds, have faith.When I have the complete picture I will sit down in my rocking chair in the sunshine of my garden, arm myself with a glass of a double single malt, and think. Is this going to be a great company? Am I so confident about it that I would be prepared to stake my worldly goods and my reputation on it? Very few, if any, shares can pass this test but if one does I will buy a substantial shareholding. And on the Saturday following the purchase, dear reader, I will tell you what I have done and you can then make up your own mind about it.Incidentally, if you know a share which you believe might fit my criteria and be worthy of examination don’t hesitate to let me know.

My e-mail address is at the end of this article.***Advisory and discretionary brokers employ analysts, who examine the current situation of companies and make recommendations to brokers who in turn advise their clients what to do. To add a touch of mystique and to confuse simple souls like me they use a special language.BLOW means “buy lower down” but BOW means “buy on weakness” (they don’t explain the difference). GBUY is “gentle buy” and UNB is “unbundle” but no-one says what unbundle means and it isn’t in the dictionary. STB is “short term buy” and STS is “short term sell” but how long is short term? Does STB this morning mean it is an STS after lunch?According to my calculation there are 67 sets of these capital letters and I defy anyone to give a meaningful definition for more than half of them.Of course BUY and SELL are easy to understand but you will rarely find many of the latter. That’s because if analysts rate a share as a buy the brokers can ring their favoured clients and earn some juicy commissions. If the recommendation is to sell the broker can only ring existing shareholders.

Or am I being cynical?terrybond hemscott . Today details of the most up-to-date survey of the endowment market are revealed. The results show that, on average, 15-year endowments are yielding a third less now than 10 years ago and that 10-year policies are down by nearly a quarter. Today details of the most up-to-date survey of the endowment market are revealed.