With the sun shining kindly on us, we took the opportunity to visit the local "Picnic in the Park" to listen to some big band jazz and sink a couple of bottles of cool Chablis. Its amazing how much more cheerful and friendly folk are when the sun is shining. It was impossible to escape the election build-up this week, no matter how hard I tried, and the only issue which sparked any emotion locally seemed to be the hunting question. Now that the political circus has left us for another 4 or 5 years, it will be nice to get back to normal and see the disappearance of the gawdy posters plastered all over most of the windows in the street. We have just taken delivery of a new TV and VTR so I suppose I will have to spend a good chunk of the weekend figuring out how it all works - or get my eight-year-old grand-daughter round to fix it up for me!

The trading week began well enough with the market driven by the potentially higher oil prices around the corner following Iraq's decision to withold supplies. The FTSE100 gained 46 points to 5856. On Tuesday the main index rose a further 66 points, spurred on by hopes of a UK interest rate cut on Thursday. The day will probably be best remembered for Railtrack's crash from grace to new depths which threatened to relegate them from the FTSE100. Although we didn't know it then, there was much worse to come. Wednesday looked like being another winning day until late in the session when the FTSE100 went into reverse and ended down 21 points. Uncertainties on the FOREX stage gave a dull slant to Thursday as it became apparent that we might soon be facing a referendum on joining the Euro. However, while Sterling took a knock, the FTSE100 resumed its upward march and finished the session at 5944, 43 points to the good. Post-election uncertainties kept the market quiet on Friday and the FTSE marked time, closing the week at 5950.



The beta test of streaming Level1 and Quote data was extended this week and by the look of things it won't be too long before it is in a production state and ready to roll - I expect Level 1 streaming could be on general release as early as July! I've been involved in testing for some time now and the system has gone from strength to strength. It is quite addictive - once you have been using it for a while, it is difficult to see how you can do without it. For regular traders, seeing trades on-screen as they happen is a must. (see New Feature - ADVFN Streaming Services - BETA TESTERS WANTED! and Streaming Beta Tester Feedback Thread for details and BBer comments.)



The Weekly BB Review

Gerard J was a bit ahead of the game when he started HAMLEYS...Clear signs of a recovery!!!!!!! two or three weeks ago. Since then the share price of famous toystore, Hamleys, has done rather well. Resident retail specialist, Scripophilist, saw them as "...an opportunity if you have a fair mix of investments." and niggle and news were soon converted. bilbo was just happy he wasn't alone. At the time, the price improvement was driven by takover rumours but latterly the rise was attributed to a good set of results and a statement from the Chairman that he was happy to see the company as a PLC. On Thursday much of the UK press had caught up with the BB and were tipping the shares. The chart since this thread was started, illustrates the point rather well that BBers can often spot a good play long before the financial pundits catch on. Nice one! Shame the Friday blip has spoiled the pattern. @@@@

After a period of recovery for QSP Group during May and the beginning of June, they were hit for six this week with the shock announcement of the resignation of their CEO and Finance Director, as reported by PUGUGLY in SUDDEN!!. Resignation of GCE and Finance Director. Lowtrawler's initial reaction was "shock, horror" but rb252, posting the reasons behind the decision as "....disagreements over group sales and workforce strategy between the two directors and chairman Bateman....appointed to the role in late December...", thought that if the Chairman was the right guy for the big seat, then maybe it wasn't such a bad thing. cyan anticipated some panic selling and loginname duly obliged. dabiz received some support for his theory that a bid might be behind the resignations. The consequence of the news was a modest (1.75p) fall in price on Thursday, patially recovered on Friday. If the company structure is right, then all will be well. It would have been a disaster if the Chairman had resigned when so much is expected of him, but CEOs and FDs can always be replaced without rocking the boat too much if the hand on the tiller is firm enough.

The Aquarius Group Chart for the last month resembles the trajectory of a three-stage rocket. As danthomas25 posted in Aquaries group (not mining)- recovery?, all of this activity was sparked off by an AFX item at the end of May which quoted the company as saying it planned to split the group up by separating the furniture and bathroom businesses into two new stand alone AIM companies to be called Collins & Hayes abd Airbath. The company also admitted it was in talks with Gartland, Whalley and Barker regarding a possible offer for the remaining Homewares operations. Biomax, for one, was surprised that it wasn't picked up by anyone at the time and suggested (tongue-in-cheek) that they would hit £1 by the end of June. hornet boys predicted profit-takers would step in long before the £1 was reached but the share price continues to rise at an alarming rate. As cossie spotted, 50p came and went on Thursday and still no sign of a slowdown. It has been a scary ride since colinc57 began the thread back on 1st February but patience is now being rewarded. Up to 56p by Friday close and still roaring.

After a big slump earlier in the year, Sage has shown signs of life lately but, as many of the posters to Sage a takeover target discovered, the share price has struggled to find support aboove the 300p level. pawpaw saw a lot of potential once that barrier was broken, while Monkeymil and psps were looking for 350p before they would be happy. Murrison was being much more ambitious (or optimistic?). The week's chart shows just how difficult SGE has been finding it to keep its head above the line. Friday's spike and subsequent dip will probably appear as something very deep and meaningful to our charting experts but it just makes me feel nervous.

There are times when it takes a long period to prove an observation correct. Take Jardine Lloyd Thomson......Super Suspicous !!!! for instance. This thread was started almosty exactly a year ago by liverbird and, although there were some peaks and troughs along the way, the current picture shows that it was a timely call. Cat MaN and speed showed early interest, although liverbird bowed out. It wasn't until Biffer picked up the baton in April this year that JLT received any real PBB recognition. (Which is when I last review the thread.) For a while it was the Aquila and Biffer show but dondee was happy to recognise the credit due to the thread originator for his foresight. With the share price now standing at an admirable 458p bid, it has been an interesting trip and there is nothing to suggest that the good news has ended yet. The slip on Friday seemed to be as much down to a single cross trade as anything - the only large transaction of the day. Monday's opening will tell.

The demise of Railtrack has been well publicised and well-documented but has the thud been overdone? In Over reaction over, now for the correction, bigspenner certainly thinks so and is looking for 650p by the end of the year. In a way, the RTK story has turned into a "battle-of-the-brokers" with ABN Amro and Deutsche taking totally opposing stances. lazymonkey sees a government conspiracy as a possibility. (Renationalisation, Takeover, Bankruptcy or Recovery?) With Moody's coming out positive on the credit-worthiness aspect of the company, the share price took a turn for the good as the week wore on and after two successive days of gains, the share price recovered to 397.5p, having dipped to 350p following their relegation from the premier division.

If you've followed Bentalls for any length of time, you will know not to get tooooo excited when talks of a takeover emerge. It has all happened before without anything substantive appearing at the end of it. However, if you think TIME has run out for BENTALLS, (as ukskins did in January when he started this thread), the latest rumblings may be interesting. Flasher Mac has performed beyond the call of duty to sniff out the goodies on this one - visitng the various hostelries of Kingston-on-Thames in search of rumour. On Friday, the company was forced into making an announcement that it was (again) in takeover talks to account for the surge in price this week. Since the beginning of May, this one has gone up like a seagull which has just gorged itself on a discarded vindaloo and suddenly realised its mistake! Wheeeeeee! If all of the chatter comes to nothing again this time, there will be questions asked in the house. Someone is making a lot of money......

If you ever had doubts about the usefulness (or otherwise) of WAP-enabled phones in relation to trading, take a look at Daytrade with a WAP where you can catch up with the experiences of varous users - some more successful than others. There are lots of hints and tips for getting the best out of WAP with some good input from MrWildjuice, bj444, 2wild and Crooke amongst others. Like DREAM OPERATOR, I didn't realise there were so many options about. (Don't forget to check out ADVFN's offering!!)

Come on you PBB fuddy-duddys - what happened to the radical opinions and in-depth analysis of prospects? Have you all become too complacent because the ADVFN tools do all the ball-aching work for you? Where's the old originality which was a hallmark of the site in the early days? humphbumph, a new PBB entrant, sees it that way and it is hard to argue against. Maybe it is just a subtle ramp for DTL (Why no discussion on Digital Sport?) but I don't believe so. LESLAS and hilt are on the case but where are the rest of you? The share price has bumped about a lot and it isn't a stock I'm particularly interested in, but I think the sentiment expressed in the opening statement bears more than a modicum of truth. The rise and rise of Motion Poster is another example of a great opportunity which has had reams of discussion on the FBB and not a single word on the PBB. As for answering humphbumph's original criticism - not a whimper!

There is often a need to let off steam - it is good to have a shout at the world now and again. ROOM 101 (RANT) was created by peterreidsmith for just that purpose. It also has the advantage of keeping the stock threads free of ire. The list of dislkes is wide and varied - ranging from personal stereos on trains to Windscreen washers and including split infinitives, Chartists and The Richard & Judy Show. If YOU have a hang-up and want to get it off your chest, this is the place. Good fun. Good idea.

Poster of the Week this week goes to FAnTA for his input to Chapelthorpe - Fundamental & Tecnical Analysis on the Free BB. He gives a good overview of his thoughts on the company and covers both fundamental and technical aspects. Whilst Chapelthorpe may not be your "share of the week", there is no questioning the comprehensive nature of the postings. Congratulations FAnTA! Please drop me a line with a delivery address and I'll get your prize on its way. Now you are famous, how about including a few lines about yourself for the Who's Who?

I am kicking off a new weekly competition from this week - "Quote of the Week". I would like YOU to decide the winner! Please send me a mail with Quote of the Week in the subject line and the nickname of the BBer responsible for the gem. At the end of play each Friday, either the most popular quotation of the week (or the best in my opinion in the event of a draw) will win a special prize for its originator...... (The quotation should be original but need not necessarily be stock related, as long as it appears in an active thread during the week in question. For the purposes of the competition the week ends at close of Friday trading)


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.