Movers & Shakers - January 22 2010

A summary of the latest stock ideas and global insights from the Stockopedia Community.

Markets & Macro

Since our last newsletter, there's been a fair bit of crystal-ball gazing amongst our Contributors. It's that time of year. Edward Harrison reflects on the implications of 2009 concluding that our political failings will likely mean that the next decade will be one of sub-par global growth with fits of recession. John Mauldin, tracking economic fundamentals, see a highly uncertain outlook for 2010 while Robert Newgrosh, possibly the UK's most accurate technical analyst in 2009, set out the long term bullish stall by arguing that the FTSE could rise to 10,000 by 2012.

Clive Corcoran articulates some compelling views across the major asset classes, from Japan equities to forex, in what lies ahead for investors  and Dominic Frisby has shared a series of Economic Predictions via podcast: Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.

Oil & Gas Focus

The big sector news of late has been Soco International's move to tap its shareholders for cash for the first time in its listed history ahead of an intensive drilling campaign.  Emptyend, Marben and SW10Chap have lead an excellent discussion of Soco's operational update and placing and its potential implications. Sandra Allen assessed the prospects for Ascent Resources in Hungary and Italy & asked whetther the Kazakhstan drilling could prove transformational for Max Petroleum.

Other widely discussed oil stories have included Heritage Oil's Ugandan asset Disposal, Petroceltic's latest placing to take out Iberdrola, and  Victoria Oil & Gas'  latest developments with the Logbaba-5 well in Cameroon.   Frequent contributor Oilguy also considers the potential of Iraq as a producer, while Oildrum's Euan Mearns has written an excellent piece entitled "Oil price: where next? - and thoughts for 2010". 

Gold, Uranium and the Miners

After the highs of 2009, some of the metals seem now to be hissing a bit. Bubble specialist, Andrew Butter argues that the gold price could collapse and Adam Hamilton thinks that a copper correction is well overdue.

Wantedman wrote an excellent piece on Australian uranium explorer, Marenica Energy, following the recent investment by Areva.  Related to the evolving Extract Resources story, Niger Uranium was a subject of debate given the move by NWT to gain board control and order the distribution of Kalahari’s stake. On the subject of Uranium, Tournesol highlighted the forthcoming Mining Journal Uranium Event on January 27th. Moving to less fashionable metals, Dominic Frisby examines the prospects for tin and tungsten in his latest podcast on Spanish miner, Eurotin and TSX-listed Cadillac Ventures.

Education, Tax and Investment Miscellany

The Streetwise Professor mourns the death of floor trading, while others mourned the passing of British icon, Cadbury into the hands of Kraft. The uncertainty about potential CGT increases sparked debate on the site about tax-efficient investing. Strolling Molby asked whether moves towards a cashless society boded well for Monitise Plc. John Mauldin has written an excellent piece on biotech investing revealing his increasing appetite for the sector, while

Anna Morrell contributed some excellent beginner's pieces on forex trading, CFDs, investment trusts and risk management. Betasurfer has set up an interesting resource for those interested in arbitraging dual-listed stocks. There have been a couple of excellent interviews, firstly on Stochastics with currency trader, Derek Moore and secondly, with Matt Taibibi, the Rolling Stones journalist famed for  taking on Goldman Sachs.

Elsewhere on Stockopedia

We announced the 2009 results for the Stockopedia Challenge, with winner CN100 up 263% in just nine months. You can read an interview with CN100 about his fantastic performance. Think you can beat him next year? The 2010 Stockopedia Challenge will start on March 31st and you can sign up here

Meanwhile, in the Stockopedia Seasonal Challenge, Salty64 continues to lead the pack, up 58% by picking AEX COP and RRL.  However, snapping closely at his heels and hoping to overtake him by March 1st are ohisay and alano20.

Finally, we are delighted to announce some important new partnerships with both Edison investment Research and Fox Davies Capital so you will be seeing a lot more from them around the site shortly.

Safe Investing for 2010,

Ed, Dave and the Stockopedia Team