Mrs Greystone took a one-day course at the local college on the subject of "antique porcelain" and has decided she is almost ready to become a resident expert on The Antiques Roadshow. After dragging me around an Antiques Fair at the Bath & West Showground last weekend, she has decided that old cups and saucers are far more interesting than stocks and shares and has thrown herself into her new passion with ghusto. (She has quickly accumulated enough volumes and catalogues on the subject to relegate my bookcase section on Roman History to the dusty confines of the (never used) boxroom. As she quickly turned a profit on one of her first purchases, I'm beginning to wonder if.....? Naw! It will pass. I'll stick with shares certificates instead - they don't damage so easily and you can always use them as wallpaper when they become useless for anything else!

A few bargain hunters kept the market alive early in the week, although sentiments were mixed and trading a bit aimless. By Tuesday night, the FTSE100 had stumbled to 5467. The bears were out in force on Wednesday with no good news about to create any sort of rally. The main index lost 76 points on the day, dropping to a sad and significant 5391. It was largely thanks to US giants Motorola and Microsoft that the FTSE100 was rescued on Thursday as a little confidence returned to the tech sector. The market, keen to grasp any straw, rose an impressive 89 points, taking it clear of the 5400 level again. (Sighs of relief all round!) Friday was relatively quiet and, despite a bout of profit-taking getting the US markets off to a red start, the FTSE100 held its ground well and finished the final session at its highest close of the week - 55 pts better today at 5537. The FTSE100 Week

The Weekly BB Review

itmak is determined to get us all interested in the movies. METRODOME - NEW ALLIANCE - POTENTIAL 10 BAGGER (MRM) dulay was loudly pessimistic but Matt gave some support while StewJames seemed more worried that the noise was keeping him awake! :) goodfella was constructive but wary and quickflutter found the whole prospect too scary. As StewJames reported, the results when they came were not startling but did show signs of improvement, particularly in cost-cutting and mattcop gave a good analysis of his view of the figures and divulged that Westcombe Investments were the secret buyer of 100k shares last week, now owning 4.4% of the company. The share price has remained flat with no signs of a return to the 50p+ mark of earlier this year. I guess until the cash-flow situation is sorted out, this one is too risky for many in the current climate. Still worth keeping an eye on, though. Especially if you like "B" movies.

Dead Cat Bounce went shopping early with £1.20 by Christmas Carillion (CLLN) at the end of June. Only Robbb seemed to take any notice at the time but Baden and dymaxion have picked up on it since as it begins to look like a prophetic call. As Lucas Buck says, the construction sector as a whole looks under pressure at the moent. With CLLN ending this week at 146p and the chart looking dismal, Christmas might come ahead of schedule this year after all!

This week was, at last, time for Friends Provident to join the party. After all the hype it was destined to be a focus of attention for many. (The fact that ADVFN.com supply them with financial data provided an extra interest for some.) In First day predictions etc, Eurosceptic sounded as though he expected great things but The Blacker Prince and psps were settling for a modest 10%. Bob A Job agrees with those who see this as a takeover target but guesses it will be a few months down the line. djmoggy was taking a contrary stance, seeing a gradual decline ahead. With a few blips (just to let the MMs buy some cheap stock as small holders took a quick profit), the share price seemed to settle down to around the 242p level - not quite the 10%, but near enough for jazz. It will be interesting to see if momentum flags as the press attention turns to other targets. (The Chart)

The present demise of the markets as a whole has brought "Value Investing" to the fore. Resident expert Scripophilist started Must be a value investors market... to stimulate some interest in the subject (and mention in passing that Success Events now run a training course about it). By the response, he is preaching to the converted, although most people need to know more about how to recognise value when they see it. As VS pointed out early on "...it is a timeless investing methodology which can applied year after year after year, and that it is not dependent on fads...". Both theblackmamba and Martini are keen to find these opportunities amongst the FTSE350 but the trick is to spot them. VS maintains that there are still many valuable companies at the lower end but they should only form a small part of one's overall portfolio. crocodile is adamant that the trend is still down and maintains that stocks across the board are being revalued DOWN as the FTSE falls. Both biker and hawkeye have a penchant for dividends which, I guess figures highly amongst what many of us regard as "value" companies. This turned into one of the most constructive debates I have seen on the PBB - much appreciated by seapainter too who is still finding his landlegs. Must get round to doing that course one day...

Franceys was in analytical mood in Protherics sells CAMD...now for the future (PTI), buoyed by the sale and news that the company was making re-assuring noises about its CroFab and Angiotensin products. Gazza likened them to Premium Bonds - but even they produce big winners....occasionally. The market was not moved by the announcements and the share price stayed fragile, ending the week at 26p bid.

Day-traders are not superstitious at all! DAY TRADER'S THREAD- FRIDAY THE 13TH but on the FBB BP53 thought it wise to remind everyone of the date - just in case! The worst luck was that two threads were started on the same subject almost simultaneously! Initial thoughts here were of Baltimore who were trading up significantly pre-market and continued to do well throughout most of the day, tailing off to a 1p gain by close. CURRYPASTRY was long on Just Group (out quickly with a good profit - just in time!) and Thus (equally brave!) and was bullish on the September FTSE. As Tony14 said, the market got off to a sluggish start and Staffware took a helluva beating after a profits warning - enough to ring a few alarm bells all round. (42.6% down on the day!) peterreidsmith was being ultra cautious on all things Japanese - as he says, so long as investors there are in cash, the market will suffer. Meanwhile on the PBB DAY TRADERS' THREAD FRIDAY 13th JULY, 3i Group were an early target for attention with Robbb hoping they might break the 1000p line. And they did it - just! Up 7p at 1000p bid by close of play. crocodile was waiting for Barclays to fall off its perch but it defied gravity and gained 9p early on in the day only to run out of steam during the afternoon and fall. Then a final flourish in the dying moments took them back into positive territory, closing up 7p - Intraday Chart. Quite a share to day-trade. :)

When brain smiley suggested on Monday that it was Time To Check Out Of The Hilton Group ? (HG.), it seemed, on the face of it, that it was a ligical step - given that most hotel groups in the UK are telling us how difficult things are right now. liveinhope was convinced that their class would shine through, but lemming1 and goatbreath were shorting. As dondee says, as Stakis, this was a well run and profitable company which often defied gravity. So it proved this week, bouncing well to finish the week looking pretty healthy on good volumes. (The Week's Chart)

There was an interesting discussion this week emanating from ExecLine's Recording of Telephone Calls - Gadgets, Techniques, Advice. In these days of denial and recrimination, it is not a bad idea to have the ability to record phone conversations which might be dealing in matters which are either extremely private or potentially expensive. ExecLine was thinking primarily of conversations with brokers when there can often be a disagreement about prices, instructions, etc., but the implications are far wider. As stustu and Kayak rightly point out, you must always advise the other party that the call is being recorded otherwise the "evidence" will be inadmissable. There are lots of different gizmos out there to choose from if you are looking for something to help you record "appropriate" conversations - Scripophilist invested less than £3 on his! Some are obviously more sophisticated than others - just like BBers! :) Lesk has some sound advice - suggesting that all sensitive conversations should be followed up via fax or e-mail. He also suggests that it needs nothing elaborate - "....I don't think you need a particular fast PC. They got to the moon on an IBM XT 8088 CPU and 10Gm Hard Drive with 256k RAM...I think we have the technology to handle a few phone calls to North Abergavenny...." Great line!

The Rampometer (for entertainment only - not for investment decisions!) has a new leader this week with fans of Bula Resources pushing it way ahead of the pack. I'm afraid all of that enthusiasm hasn't done anything for the share price - still stuck at 1.5p and looking as though it is fairly permanently entrenched there.

Poster of the Week prize this week goes to VS whose input to the Must be a value investors market... thread was a good example of how to debate a subject and bring ideologies together constructively. Congratulations VS! 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 ADVFN 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.