Masher- the simple reason I don't post on iii is because I was...

Masher- the simple reason I don't post on iii is because I was banned from the messageboard.

Regarding XEL, I'm perfectly happy with how things are going, and am not worried in the slightest, despite being 15% or so down on the initial investment at the time of writing. That's not to say it can't fall further in the short term. My initial buy was based off the share price bouncing 3 times off the support level at 102p- normally a decent indicator of a bottom, but it wasn't to be. It doesn't alter the fundamentals however which I do consider to be strong (though not as amazing as some on iii would have you think- forget about £5 a share nonsense and stuff like that, £2-£2.20 is a more realistic 12 month target IMO).

I think it's a good buy at 89p (if I didn't, I'd obviously be selling them all first thing on the open today since I don't look at the price I bought in at, or what the price used to be when considering buy or sell decisions, only the current fundamentals), though there could well be a better time to buy out there. I'm not confident enough there WILL be a better time to buy- like I say, if I thought that I'd obviously sell now and re-buy in at that 'better time'- but the recent bottom was 80p or so and there might be an opportunity to pick them up at those levels again if there's a news vacuum or unfavourable market conditions.

The thing is with XEL, for me, is Phase 1B. Unlike many, I don't see the current flow testing leading to a massive share price increase. Successful testing will be largely priced in. If XEL can secure decent bank funding after Phase 1A, then just simply holding until major production starts will see you in very good profits as once the oil starts pumping XEL will be valued at around 8x earnings per annum which is pretty standard for profit making companies.

The flipside is, as RussianRoolet points out- if they don't get bank funding shareholders will be heavily diluted. World oil prices taking a further tumble wouldn't help either but that applies to any oil and gas production company, including Range. On the whole I like the risk/reward situation there but I'm under no illusion that it's a sure thing or that the price couldn't get worse before it gets better.

In short- yes I would consider 89p to be good value, but only if you're planning on holding until Phase 1B- short term anything could happen really.