The first of two successive weeks with the builders in! What a joy! How so few guys can make so much mess in such a short time is beyond me. So, it has been a week for eating out and trying not to notice the muck and rubble. It is driving my wife crazy that she can't run along behind these guys, hoovering up the mess. In true husbandly fashion, I have maintained a suitably low profile throughout the proceedings, happy to involve myself in other activities which kept me locked in my office. I knew that building an office in the garden was going to pay off! Family life has been even more disrupted by bugs this week with my son-in-law down with pleurisy and my daughter with flu. The grandkids have been farmed out to their other grandma to keep them away from it all. One of these days we'll get straight!

Maybe because it was a holiday in the US, nobody seemed prepared to make the first move on Monday. The FTSE100 rose slightly but only the oil sector showed any real enthusiasm. Tuesday's focus was on bad news rather than good, although there was plenty of encouraging talk about. The main index fell off 87 points, too close to the 6000 mark for comfort. On Wednesday, all levels of the market took heart from better sentiment in the US and increased hopes of an early interest rate cut here. The FTSE galloped on 114 points and the TechMARK also gained over 100. Thursday, again, was positive, although profit-taking in main line stocks took the glitter off a little. Friday was pleasingly blue on the whole, although the FTSE100 stumbled towards the close.

A further reminder, if it was needed, that the next of Dodddy & Smellys London Nights Out is scheduled for 15th February. There are also less glamorous (but probably equally enjoyable) events scheduled for The Bristol & South West Focus Group on the evening of Tuesday 13th February in Taunton, Somerset and The Northern Ireland Focus Group at Cookstown on Friday 23rd. Time is now getting tight, so please contact the organisers of these events soon if you are interested.



The Weekly BB Review

It was time to resurrect Fibernet getting better all the time (FIB) on Monday when Camp Freddie wanted some confirmation that his interpretation of the chart characteristics was correct. Long-term fans, Romeo and acropolis, were doubtless pleased to see the positive movement in price and karlm was prompted to dip in a toe. With the 4 for 5 rights issue behind them, it was a good time to show some early shareholder benefit. The price took off with a vengeance on Friday - up 85p by noon and finishing the session ahead almost 10%. A good time for Solomon to take a second bite of the cherry!

City Center Restaurants (CTC were also under renewed scrutiny when ARICHARD noticed a biggish trade on Tuesday and MMs repositioning themselves. While crocodile waited for the right moment, wanabee could see nothing but rising pizzas! (No anchovies please!) They finished a creditable 47.5p bid at the end of the week.

Gladstone - break out !!! (GLD) was also dusted off this week, having been originated in March 2000 by friend Learjet. REDYBREK and buba picked up on the sudden rise on Thursday but there was no explanation for the sudden resurgence in market interest. Ahead 15% on the day, it was quite a revelation. Then Friday? Nothing at all! What an anti-climax!

Shorters of Regus, the business services group, must have had a nervous week of it. dodddy started Regus is a stonking short a couple of weeks ago when there was evidence of big selling and the share price looked weak as water. However, after an initial drop, they went into recovery mode and now don't look quite so stonking. Early this week, hoops and paulwells joined dodddy in taking up new short positions but the share price held up well. By Wednesday, alexx and lodger were out, nursing wounds. The price levelled out by Friday and buying activity kept them at the 360p mark - not so good if you went short at 340p and didn't jump clear in time. Whilst there is a lot of stock in the hands of the MMs, this one will be unpredictable. Best steered clear of for the moment. There will be opportunities another day, I'm sure.

You can't keep Tomkins off the BB. All the usual suspects were at it again this week with Clem expounding his management theories and Scripohilist (PW with attitude!) dissecting the recent McKinsey report in Tomkins in £700m buyback.... Whilst the buy-back programme might have kept the share price down, as chadd says, the slide in price began long before that - last August to be more precise. bpoole is likely correct that the MMs will have a field day with this one. There was a leap in volume on Thursday which took most people by surprise, although it was not seen as the beginning of the buyback exercise. It was also announced the same day that one of the directors picked up a cool 100,000 shares at 167p. So, the latest question for everyone is "who bought the 45 million shares this week?" A new interested party? Maybe The Count! ;=) Friday saw a disappointing 6p loss with a late sell-off.

hsandhu took the trouble to ring troubled Huntingdon Life Sciences on Friday to try to glean some information about the forthcoming announcement. The reply was very interesting - Statement re timing of announcement from HTD (Huntingdon). Is this a smokescreen, wishful thinking or the genuine article? Monday will tell. Whatever the news, the price showed blue at the end of the final session with a 28% jump to 7.5p bid. If the currrent newspaper stories have it right, the company are considering pulling the plug in London and depending on their NASDAQ listing for investment support. What would that mean to UK investors?

Whether or not you are a day trader, it is often worth taking a look at what is going on in the daily threads to help you gauge the general sentiment. (It could also be useful to know whether there are any bears growling when you are about to plunge into a buy!) This week's activities are summed up here :- Monday; Tuesday; Wednesday; Thursday; Friday. Tuesday's thread was as much a lesson in grammar as anything with stustu's "Sloppy grammar can lead to sloppy trades" backfiring on him. LOL.

There was an excellent discussion on the vagaries of SETS this week in ROBOT Traders on SETS Stocks cost you money! where crocodile introduced us to BOTs - the programs which actually insert transactions into the order book. A lot of the discussion was the use of BOTs to insert multiple trades to made up a large order - a practice which, as JonC pointed out, was, at various times in the past, derided as misuse of the market when used as a strategy by small investors. Einstein defended the practice as a means of stabilising the market for big clients but Mad Mac was unconvinced that this was in the general interest. Access to Level2 data does help the small investor but, as crocodile says, the data shown there is only two-dimensional and it takes a sharp and practised eye to recognise when BOTs are at work in the background. titus tried to answer each of the points raised in turn. One suspects some professional experience is at work here. croc has now become intimately involved with a BT BOT which has made and saved him money. Maybe we should hold an "adopt a BOT" week so we can all reap the benefit! Seriously, the more we are aware of the mechanics of the market, the better placed we are to take advantage and avoid pitfalls. If you read no other technical thread this week, please take a look at this one and learn.

We had a visit from Cyber PAPY this week who is beta-testing the ADVFN site in France. bénédicte (advfn.fr) was on hand to make sure that there was no misleading advice! Dil was claiming to be English! You can't be more misleading than that! Some words from Paris is a great way to start what I am sure will be a good relationship between the sites. I'm equally sure Scripophilist's "3 Euros par Noël" T-shirts will sell like hot cakes - whether the semantics are correct or not! Euroland here we come!

Andyble has been through hell and high water to find a home for his great transaction tracking system (maybe remembered by some of the old hands as "The Dibbler" in its early manifestations) and has now succeeded thanks to ADVFN. Exact Futures on Trades Screen gives some detail and some idea of the usefulness of the system. You get instant analysis of trades including graphic representations and direct links to ADVFN Level2 data. There is also a link to the latest AFX News items as they appear. I am so pleased that Andy's efforts have eventually paid off. I have been using the system from the outset and found it difficult to believe that nobody could recognise the advanced thinking behind it. Congratulations to ADVFN for having the vision to recognise what a great addition this is to the investors' toolset.

Meanwhile, in the Land of the Free.......

Initially, Vislink's inclusion in the TechMARK index had a negative affect on the share price but there have been signs this week that a further turnaround is under way with hightone amongst those watching the action closely. Maxmilliom and Bhoy are also following events with interest. Although I don't hold at the moment, I have in the past to good effect and believe the company has the potential to go much further. At this stage, I would like to see them consolidate closer to 70p before plunging back in, but I think it is only a matter of time before they come good again. Best of luck guys!

With Interim reslults due to be published next week, it was a prime time for discussions on the possibilities for Just Group. (Just Group - Interims 24th Jan & News). Certainly any thread which can generate about 400 postings in a week deserves to be looked at. rally started the ball rolling. sanderstwo was prepared to give the company until the results to come good but that wasn't the universal opinion. This is a perfect time for the MMs to juggle the price about with so many private investors taking an interest and plenty of stock available. Buys were outnumbering sells significantly during the week as getrich was eager to point out and the announcement on Thursday that the share offer for Mediakey had received a 90%+ take up might also have helped the price. However, it didn't happen. TrustMe was hoping that press coverage would do the trick but none emerged. Meanwhile Optimistic was living up to his name and b14 was worried that enthusiasm was waning. dcowling tried to calm things down with a measured precis of the situation but SEVEY and dublin were sounding decidedly twitchy. I imagine everything that is known about the company appears on this thread somewhere. There is a lot of well reasoned argument and a lot of passion. I hope the lead up to the results gives the price a northerly nudge or there will be blood on the carpet. With over 21 million shares changing hands on Friday and no movement in the price, it is impossible to see where this will lead. I only hope that some good weekend press and a genuinely upbeat statement from the Chairman/CEO next Thursday will have the right effect. My fingers are crossed on your behalf.

There was more excitement at NMT Revisited (NMT) as the price began to improve at last, thanks to news kindly posted by mungoa - "Safety-syringe maker NMT Group rose 2.25p to 24.5p following a staff appointment in the US and news of a possible North American distribution deal....." GIGGSY went straight into "£1 by Xmas" mode and traded volumes took off with a bang, pushing the price along to an encouraging 25.5p bid and continuing the good run since the New Year with the highest close since September. CRIMESTOPPERS and gnash are now on the edges of their seats. This one is a permanent member of my Monitor list and it would be great to see the new surge continue.

This week's Poster of the Week prize goes to crocodile who opened my eyes to the background of Level2 data and its hidden dangers. (See the SETS thread above) Congratulations crocodile! If you will e-mail me a delivery address, I will see that your prize finds it way to you very soon. I'd love to be able to deliver it by hand to you in Le Touquet but I'm afraid pressure of work won't allow at the moment! An apt moment too to thank croc again for the great help he is to us all on the PC & MAC CLINIC - On line problem solving thread.


Good Hunting!

The ADVFN Who's Who is still growing steadily and is now a quite long list. All entries received to date have been included. If you haven't sent me your bio yet, please drop me a few lines about yourself - a full editing service is provided! No e-mail addresses are published unless specifically requested.