It was the same both at home and on the market this week. Sunshine and showers. In town we are inundated with visitors who have arrived on some special cheap holiday deal put together by The Sun. And what a shower it produced! It was good to have an excuse to visit London again this week for dodddy and Smellie's bash. It was nice to see so many familiar faces there. Had a good reminisce with Sardine and Pinsticker about the first ever meeting of BBers from the old ESI days. It seems a long time ago now. At the time it was ground-breaking having 24 guys unknown to each other (except by funny names) turning up for lunch at Soho Soho without a single person dropping out. Bigwig was our organiser then. I don't suppose for a moment he realised what he had started! I arrived home today to discover that Mrs. Greystone has arranged a week's holiday for us - starting tomorrow! We've been trying to find time for a break for a while now but I expected A LITTLE MORE NOTICE.

Monday's FTSE100 was drifting along, a little lower awaiting news of the Fed's decision on US interest rates, until 4:30pm and the big finger of fate hit the wrong button and sent the closing figure tumbling 206 points to 5690. Subsequent investigation laid the blame for the clanger at Lehman's door as someone got their zeros wrong and a rogue trade distorted the day. There was some recovery on Tuesday, but with investors wary of the US rate cut news, trading was thin. The FTSE100 closed at 5842 - just 152 points good. Not nearly enough to "balance the books". Wednesday trading was another red day with plenty to moan about on the technology and telecoms fronts. It may have been wet and cold in the City yesterday but the turn fot he worse in the weather did nothing to deter investment. Although the index finished well off its high thanks to profit-taking and a glum start to US trading, it still managed a 20 point gain and finished at 5904. With everyone awaiting the latest Greenspan pronouncement, the market was quiet on Friday, finishing marginally ahead at 5915.

Various conversations of late have highlighted that there are a lot of goodies on the site of which BBers seem unaware. The FTSE100 and techMARK100 grids, for example, are available - each refreshing as your monitors do. Breakouts, chart alerts, percentage gainers/losers, company liquidity data - all available by clicking the Top Lists tab. Take a look. Even if you knew of its existence, there are extra analyses and data views being added all the time - you may have missed some!



The Weekly BB Review

In deference to moonblue, who insisted I had missed a good thread to review, this week I took a look at Regus is a stonking short (RGU), started in January by dodddy. First reaction was - they've got the title wrong! It was Wednesday morning and the shares were UP a stonking 10%. However, on checking the chart it was evident that it had been the right call at the time (although the shorters must have had a few doubts in February when the share price shot over the the 390p mark!). diego, a commercial property developer himself, made a good case against the Regus business model (p140) early May which was very timely as it heralded a second big slide in price. By then ebiz and mahmoo97 had joined the action, both closing out on 11th May - presumably at a profit. This week, the majority took long positions, maybe closing out a little too soon, but better safe than sorry. It is an interesting story of unpredictability with a few warnings about controlling targets and stop-losses and a good reflection by dodddy, explaining that a broker "buy-note" can often be produced to give big holders some strength to sell into. Now, how cynical. As if! ;=) By Friday, the share price had clambered back up to 242p bid after three successive days of gains. Dead cat bounce, as mahmoo97 thinks or something more substantive? Monday will surely tell!

ebiz and dodddy were at it again with Capital Radio - Short Opportunity (CAP) this week and called it right. BYRDSONG was deterred by the spread - generally wide on these, but the Wednesday fall was big enough to more than compensate on its own, never mind the plunge downhill all the way from last week. adamh was another put off by the spread. Many may have missed Dil's reference to Scottish Radio Holdings amonst the chatter which turned out to be an even better shorting opportunity, called perfectly. Nice one Dil! The downturn in fortunes for all commercial radio stations is the cut-backs in advertising. When things aren't going too well for a company, it is the marketing budget which gets cut first, often quickly followed, as Scripophilist says, by staff cuts.

The gauntlet was thrown down in style in Game - A GAMBLE BACK TO 12P ???? (GAM) as the company this week confirmed it had disposed of a couple of loss-making subsidiaries - Gameplay Sweden for 1 kronar and Gameplay Uk for £1! Admitting that the company "may not now have sufficient cash to reach profitability", it is now effectively on hold until someone comes up with a bright idea. Goggin suggested it as a pure gamble - hoping that a dead cat bounce might provide an opportunity for a quick buck. MrWildjuice added a link to the latest news which suggested that the UK business was valued at £1m and that the MBO team had 10 short weeks to get their act together before they were left to swim for it. darren b thought the odds too great for a gamble and preferred to look elsewhere. humbugg saw no attraction in it either, guessing Goggin might want to "eat his post" very soon. eagle1 thought it was bail-out time Wednesday by which time hilary was into "conspiracy theory". Ramas stills sees some mileage in them. I'm watching and waiting but I certainly ain't putting any cash on this pony! Friday close? 4p bid.

Anyone who missed Whoops - MotionPoster Research II (MTP) missed a good opportunity. When Whoops originally brought it out on the FBB in November last year, the share price was chugging along not doing much in particular. This is probably the most researched company on either BB. There is so much detail on every move they have made that Whoops has started off a new thread (which even has its own counter!) to cope with the bulk and keep it up to date. They rose dramatically over the last couple of weeks and, despite a hiccup mid-week, they have rebounded well and are now standing at 28.5p bid (as opposed to the 11p or so last November). There always seems to be "an announcement" due any day but it hasn't deterred any of the fans when nothing has materialised. This week davewahwah tried to do some digging with the company's website provider but got nothing out of them. scov was trying to establish whether at current market cap they were oversold and mieke had all the "official" figures to hand. GoldenChalice went a step further with his own projections. The product this company has is unique and potentially a good money-spinner. With a contract or two under their belts, Whoops's faith will, I trust, be rewarded.

Braindrain was thinking ahead to retirement with Pension fund stock - Workspace Group (WKP) in January. It took a while to get a response but M.T.Glass and Ladron eventually picked up on them , although it took M.T. until this week to buy in. After a plunge from grace in March and April, the chart has begun to look decidedly bullish. I have a feeling it may have a few more fans next week!

A new one to me, ROK Property Solutions, hit the PBB this week thanks to pug who wondered why the price had suddenly changed. (See Can anyone tell me any background info on this co?) As goforit explained, this was formerly known as EBC Group. petec, a long-term follower, gave a good explanation of the company's recent history. Dil and gerard J were quickly on the bandwagon. With recent press coverage in such diverse publications as Shares Magazine and The Daily Telegraph, it was enough, it seemed, to send them on their way up. However, ROK took a knock on Friday which might have caught a few out. It was probably only Dil taking some profits out to pay for lunch! 6.5p down on Friday but still well ahead on the week, even if far away from the 170p target bandied about.

Dave5182 didn't like all the negative comment on the old FBB Forbidden Technologies (FBT) thread so he started a new one, to applause from pherring. mmonies reminded us that at the AGM, the Chairman said deals would be announced shortly. (Sound familiar?) Bundmar brought news on Thursday that the company had made its first product sale - to be used during the election campaign - but nobody could find any sign of it. When mmonies did eventually find the details, it turned out that only a nominal £10 was charged by the company for the use of its software. I guess they hope that any publicity they get might make it worthwhile. If they are going to be "politically correct", I suppose they ought to offer it to every candidate for the same price. At least that would generate a few hundred quid revenue. ahkeen's PC didn't show the results up very well - it appears to need a PIII running at 400mhz or more. Well, my PC fits into that category and I still found it didn't run quite as well as I'd hoped. Maybe it was using the Millenium Dome as a backdrop that did the damage! :=) After a tiny spark on Thursday, the share price fizzled back down again by Friday close. I'm afraid you'll have to be patient a while longer Dave.

As mentioned above, transmission speed is always an issue. Whether you want to watch video or receive vast wads of data to help with your trading/investing. ADSL essential ? looks at some of the possibilities. It is a bit of lottery whether you have speedy (and cheap) services available where you live. This week Mad Mac introduced us to "tele2" who have launched a 150kps service for under a tenner a month. However, unless you live in Reading, Bracknell, Wokingham, Leicester, Leeds, Nottingham or Bradford, you'll have to wait. zzaxx99 was a tad put out that they didn't cover NW London but I think it likely that he'll get access at least five years ahead of we poor souls in the deep west. Please keep posting here if you do find any good deals going. There are plenty of eager customers for the first company to offer that kind of service nationwide.

Dodddy& Smelly night was another in a procession of successful events arranged by the dynamic duo. It was a great night out with a great bunch of people. The food and the venue were superb. We had three speakers to entertain us - Mark Watson-Mitchell of Shares Magazine, Miles Saltiel, Head of the Technology Research Group at WestLB Panmure and Charles Bromley, Managing Director of Corrintian Financial Management and the balance was about perfect. Smellie even persuaded Bullshare to spill the beans after making sure he's had a goodly quota of vino. However, if you weren't there, I'm afraid we can't divulge anything which he said - sworn to secrecy! :=) There will be an opportunity to repeat the experience, probably in September. If you missed out this time, do try to make the next bash. I'm sure you'll find it encouraging, enlightening and a damned good night out! Thanks dodddy and Smellybogbrush from all of us!

Poster of the Week this week goes to petec for so readily sharing his research on the ROK thread. This is the sort of co-operation and openness for which the ADVFN Bulletin Boards are famed for. Congratulations petec! Please drop me a line with a delivery address and I'll get your prize on its way. As you are such a rare bird, how about including a few lines about yourself for the Who's Who?


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.