We spent the week alternatively baking this week as bright sun and heavy rain took it in turns to bombard us. At least the greenhouse is beginning to show signs of life. We found a pond for our tadpoles not far away so I hope at least a few survive to croak next year. My first week or so of non-smoking has been more difficult for my wife than for me as I've been in such a crotchety mood. I don't think she realised just how bad-tempered I can get - they should have counselling sessions for partners too. A knock on effect has been that I've developed a pasion for chocolate and am again in the dog-house for attacking the Easter Eggs which had been bought in for the grandkids. Let 'em eat cake! I see I've drawn Brave Highlander in the Grand National sweep at the pub. They tell me its an old horse but a stayer - couldn't be more appropriate!

We saw the best and worst of the markets this week but generally it was a shorters' paradise. With George Dubbya discovering rather late in the day that China is not after all a suburb of San Francisco but a fairly large country with run by inscrutable beings, he managed to turn a problem into a crisis. Wonder what would have happened if a Chinese spy plane had strayed into US airspace and killed a pilot? The crew would probably all be charged with something seriously expensive and potentially critical by now. However, I digress. Although we can't blame poor George for all our financial woes, he sure as hell didn't help. Only Dell Computers managed to save the day by being brave enough to speak out about their more modest ambitions for the year in such a way that a little confidence was restored to the US markets midweek. It all disappeared on Friday but, that is another story. London ran out of balls on Friday and let the bears take the high ground again. What a sad sight it is to see the FTSE100 at 5601 and the techMARK struggling to get close to 1800. I hope for better things next week but am sure to be disappointed.

In case you missed it in the Daily News Bulletins, ADVFN have teamed up with Accountancy Age to form a new index. This is the bones of the deal:-

ADVFN.com and Accountancy Age, the premier magazine for financial professionals, announced on Thursday that they have launched the Accountancy Age/ADVFN Index. The index is based on a portfolio of ten accounting-related shares listed on the LSE. The companies are Capita; Itnet; Hays, Reed, Robert Walters; Logica, Misys, QSP, Sage and Sema. The index is based on a notional £100,000 invested in each of the companies and reflects the % change in the value of the portfolio based on current prices at close each day. Accountancy Age will publish the index each week in Accountancy Age magazine which has a circulation of more than 75,000 financial professionals.

Complimentary to the Accountancy Age/ADVFN Index, ADVFN is providing Accountancy Age with a real-time share price and graphing service available at www.accountancyage.com

Martin Talks, ADVFN’s Commercial Director, said: “We are delighted to be associated with Accountancy Age Magazine. Their circulation is not only impressive in numbers, but also in quality as it targets an ideal audience for our services. We shall be announcing more similar deals as we expand our range of shares provision services, not just to publications and portals, but to investor relations sites of listed. As well as providing real revenue , these deals continue to grow our brand among a targeted audience.”

Damian Wild, Accountancy Age’s Editor, added: “This is exactly the sort of service we should be providing to our readers. Accountants are key drivers of UK plc – particularly in terms of the corporate finance, tax and investment advice they offer. And while accounting businesses firms aren’t listed on the London Stock Exchange’s main board – yet – there are numerous software, recruitment and business advisory companies that provide accounting-related services. The Accountancy Age/ADVFN index will provide the only measure of the health of that business.’

The publication comes out every Thursday providing news on accountancy, finance, business, taxation and technology and is circulated to more than 75,000 accountants each week. AccountancyAge.com (www.accountancyage.com) is the web presence of Accountancy Age and is one of the leading accounting and finance sites on the internet offering news, analysis, information, training and jobs. Both are published by VNU.



The Weekly BB Review

It is time again to give some thought to the Dodddy & Smelly London Night Out which is a regular extravagaza well worth joining in if you have the opportunity. It can be particularly valuable to new users of the Bulletin Board as a means of putting faces to names and getting to grips with some of the regular protaganists and find out what makes them tick. It is a great social event too and don't be surprised if a "special guest" or two turn up. You can pick up all of the details from the thread, but the next date for your diary is 17th May. The venue this time is "Snows On The Green" restaurant in Shepherds Bush, not far from Hammersmith tube station. Smellie is in the middle of negotiating a set rate for the meal which should be in the region of £25-£30 pp plus drinks. If you miss it, you'll always regret it.

Dil was doing his darndest to wind up Sardine with when he posted it in February and Aquila has now re-opened the wound. The definitive thread is Flat is beautiful but a quick look at the chart will show you that all is not well in the flat earth society. Great technoloy but unless like Sardine you built up a holding in the early days (he had to build an extra shed to house his share certificates if I recall correctly) and got out in the summer of 2000, it would appear you have missed the best. It has been a downward spiral ever since and shows no sign of reversing.

There has been plenty of bearish activity this week, although the bears have had a few twitchy moments. Those following bird's The Bear Club..........ARM for instance will have seen that this week has been a bit of a roller coaster for ARM Holdings with a blip midweek pushing it up a few points. There's one thing about ARM, when it moves it moves big time. Friday it was back to its old ways and down 34p. bird found early support for his bearish stance from Clueless, KENNETHRICH, random and NickB. Mad Mac's attempt at irony failed miserably but he gave a comprehensive desription of his position on the stock and the "raison d'etre" behind his thinking. On Wednesday johnpaul1 seemed to foresee the future and, as markeady said later, "...hope you caught the 10% yesterday and hopefully some more today..." which is where the blip came in which I mentioned earlier. By Friday, Limpsfield Chartist had re-shaken his chicken bones to come up with a new target of 200p, a tad upset that Kayak had figured out how he does it! ;=) (A list of the other Bear Club threads running is available at The Bear Club....Full members list with hot links to charts etc.) Thanks bird for what looks like being a good series of discussions.

With spread betting becoming more widespread amongst BBers, axiom started Teach yourself successful spread betting this week and laid out a few sensible ground rules that will help keep you in the safety zone. It is all good advice. The important thing is to stick to the rules you set yourself - especially observing your STOP level. Although you will find some conflicting advice here (everyone has their own favourite strategy), there was good input from MartinC and nc. celtek was interested in finding a proven method for establishing the right stop loss (if you get it wrong you can stop out at the wrong time and lose money - or miss profit). adamh having recently successfully begun trading the Dow using CMCs was wondering whether spread betting could save him from the clutches of the tax man. news posted up the interesting fact that "the guy who shorted the Nas down form 5000 made £750,000....the best ever win at IG as far as I know.." Shows that there are big numbers to be made if you get it right. Don't forget some of the more disastrous results which have been posted up recently. It is easier to lose money than make it. Stick to those rules! Good thread!

Cambridge Antibody (CAT) saw plenty of action this week, particularly as it annouced it was going to list on the Nasdaq. By Thursday, Acronem was thinking long but Gerard J reckoned it was overvalued and that 1270p was a reasonable price. Cat calls from chadd and Rayrac. This week's chart suggests that with or without any catastrophes overtaking them, next week will be interesting.

With April just a week old, Technet's * USA STOCKS - April 2001 * thread generated a massive 670+ responses. It just shows how important US activity is becoming for us and how many are now dealing US stocks. If it continues like this, Technet and his buddies are going to need a BB all of their own! I must say that I visit the thread each day out of interest. Between this and the Nasdaq site, I can get a great overall view of what is going on. Keep it up guys! And thanks.

Don't forget to check out the regular Breakout threads too. The latest BREAKOUTS 9th April to 13th April (Good Friday) 2001 has been kicked off thanks to Capitalist. PlanB has added the first entry this time which is Clinton Cards who produced a great set of results this week and a very upbeat trading statement. Add your own favourite with a potential for breakout or just take a look at the thread from day to day. You may find it throws up some opportunities you would otherwise have missed.

Finally this week, a potfull of good wishes and good luck to crocodile whose daughter is married today. I hope the bride and groom have a wonderful day and that Mum and Dad aren't too overcome to allow them to quaff a bottle or two of good champagne. Cheers! (He has promised to try to post a pic of the event on the weekend thread later - if he can keep his hand steady enough to take one!)

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

Although Imagination Metagence-A revolution on the way?? is almost solely inhabited by sweenoid, it is full of information about Imagination Technologies Group's DSP product. If like lightning and "moi meme" you don't know what that is then it is explained in some detail here. (Digital Siganal Processor) With preliminary reults due out 23rd May, it may just be time to begin to take IMG seriously for a while.

It was an interesting week for Psion as it seeks to re-invent itself after the Symbian adventure went cold. In May have to wait for 150P, iain g posted up news of the announcement that Dixons and PC World are to market the company's Wavefinder DAB offring. fastbuck had five good reasons for staying clear (or going short on the stock). BootifulBoy looks on it as a day trade share at the moment and made a few bob out of it this week when the price bounced. Still worth watching IMHO.

As the chart shows, Arcadia took a lot of people by surprise this week and made a bit of a mockery of the thread title Why is Arcadia falling which seemed quite valid when it began on Monday. Polly Darton called it just right with Mr TB adding the same buy advice the following day. By Wednesday, LOVEBIRD was having some doubts, seeing the number of sales outnumbering buys. As 2wild pointed out, there are never more sells than buys - someone always owns the stock. rahel took out a nice profit when the share price took off after the results but 2wild is hanging on in there for more - 540p? Well, maybe. One day. :=)

pommy started the definitive GRAND NATIONAL thread last weekend and got lots of takers. As I don't know one end of a horse from the other, at least now I will recognise some of the names as they charge around Aintree today. I've drawn Brave Highlander in the sweep - a graphic of which -GoldDog has kindly produced for me. (See post 65) To all of you punters I wish good luck. With my penchant for picking stock losers of late, I think I'll sit this one out.

There has been some really good stuff on both BBs this week and trying to choose a winner has been extremely difficult. However, I have decide that bird is my Poster of the Week this week for his excellent series of Bear Club threads and the work and research he has put into them. I see them running for a long time. Congratulations bird! Please drop me a line with a delivery address and I'll get your prize on its way.


Good Hunting!

The ADVFN Who's Who is still growing and is now a quite long list. 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.