On Another Level! (5/8/2000) Greystone
Apart from Tuesday, when I made the trip to London - not to see the Queen Mum, but someone almost of that era - Bullshare - life here has been a tedium of calls from solicitors and surveyors as my house sale progresses even more slowly than the share price of GIM. All in all, the ADVFN presentation was just a tad more interesting. It was good to meet some of my cyber chums again and make some new ones. The presentation was well received by the audience, although the press have been very quiet about what I see as something of a revolution in private investor terms. There were certainly some gasps from the audience when the price of Level 2 services was announced - mostly from representatives of professional firms who are paying hundreds (if not thousands) per month per desk for a similar service. I have a feeling that when the enormity of the jump in service soaks in, it will become apparent what a giant step this is. The technical problems on Wednesday were unfortunate but, for those of us who have spent any time in IT, understandable. With the system settling down and new names popping up on both BBs every day since, it bodes well for the future. At the launch day, I also had the pleasure to meet the head of the Paris office which will be operational soon and there were also some very inscrutable faces in the audience........

With renewed fears of an interest rate hike this week and continued caution over internet stocks, Monday began in a twitchy mood. A late rally helped the FTSE100 close a little higher. While many eyes (and ears) here were focused on the announcement of new services by ADVFN on Tuesday, trading was generally muted and defensive with only the banking sector achieving any wide support. It was enough to keep the main index in positive territory - just. On Wednesday, it was much of the same with the banking sector again setting the pace. Thursday saw a substantial fall in the FTSE100 caused mostly by bad news from the NASDAQ which rolled over into tech stocks in London. ICL's decision to further postpone its float did nothing to help the situation. On Friday all the main indices finished ahead, although off their day's highs. With the US markets looking marginally more positive than of late in the evening, perhaps next week will give us a smoother ride.

The Weekly BB Review

I think we all assumed that it was going to take some really momentous news to re-kindle the flame under ML Laboratories. Although Wednesday's announcement was rated big enough to make the BBC News and provoke Rayrac into sounding excited, it did nothing to move the share price in the right direction. ML Labs .......... something stirring began in September last year when the price was a mere 162p bid. And after this week's big news? 152p bid! Now, that's progress! Even praise from the experts, such as Lord Winston, Director of R&D at Hammersmith Hospital, "This remarkable work is a major advance in obtaining donor organs which could save many lives every year" was not enough to stir the imagination of City investors. Now, I wonder which of those words it was they couldn't quite understand? Pippin, helllv and northwards were equally surprised - the latter suggesting that more effective PR would at least give the company a fighting chance of having its efforts recognised. Bonzo has already doubled his share holding and is considering taking on more. I have been a long-term fan of this company but have been disappointed by the share performance on so many occasions, I've begun to lose heart. I guess we'll all have to beat the drum more loudly.

Back in the bullish days at the beginning of the year, Moggie was drawn into the convaluted series of takeovers which ended with Nextlink Communications Inc.(NXLK), which is listed on NASDAQ, taking control by default of Red Wave. In the early days, it had been the intention to launch Red Wave on the LSE but as sentiment changed away from tech stocks and the takeover picture became such a complicated colage, the share certificates were left to gather dust. biker too found some certificates in a dusty corner. Bushwacker thought that Wave Corp (WAVX) might be involved somewhere along the line but there is no evidence to suggest that Red Wave are listed anywhere at all. If anyone has any information relating to any of these companies, I'm sure the guys would be interested in hearing from you on Red Wave - any progress?. Can you help?

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and that applies to stock charts as well as anything. I was a little surprised when opening chart looks smashing, started by una, that it referred to Retail Decisions for it appeared to me a little early to consider it bullish. adamh kindly added the six month chart and capitalist and gumdrop also agreed with una that the signs looked encouraging. As the general ill-feeling for TechMARK stocks continued, the share price returned to its recent losing ways having bounced off 150p at the beginning of the week. With volumes having fallen away sharply since the announcement of their deal to supply X.Com with risk management services, I don't see any return to the "good ol' days" until the wider picture for tech stocks looks brighter. I would like to see a lot more positive signs before anticipating any further recovery. Worth keeping an eye on, but a bit too early in the cycle for me to get excited. Having said that, a move in the right direction Friday may prove me wrong if it rolls over the weekend.

Leetrade literally lives in a different world from the rest of use and began his own Leetrade's Weekend Thread on Wednesday - which is when his weekend begins. As he describes it, "in Saudi Arabia, weekend starts on Wednesday night right through to glorious Friday. So as I sit here on Wednesday night with a glass of red and I am feeling at ease with the world". His summary of the week to date included views on last weekend's "bb-terrorism" which forced E*Trade to take their BB service down for two days, an appraisal of the Tuesday ADVFN announcement (which sadly didn't have the beneficial effect on the share price we had all hoped for) and the subsequent teething troubles which now seem behind us. He also urged support for Dingley's marathon fund-raising effort for MENCAP - the response to date has far outreached Dingley's original hopes and, I'm sure encouraged her more (if ever she needed it!). He certainly persuaded crocodile to re-arrange his weekend arrangements too and it transpired that hawkeye's life is one looong (if damp) weekend. Maybe he should follow Mealiff's lead and jet off to the sun while the Emerald Isle dries out a bit.

Our old friend Desire Petroleum made a re-appearance this week thanks to nijo. The thread, Desire Petroleum was sparked by unexpected movements in the share price early in the week. Pooh pointed out the difficulties (and expense) faced in getting additional rigs to the Falklands area but agreed that should that ever be the case, we might see the sort of frenetic activity which such rumours provoked last time around. I did a bit of trawling of my own but couldn't find any explanation for the price rise.

There were high hopes for another surge from GEO Interactive Media Group as news came out of their release of a Symbian compatible version of the Emblaze product. (See GEO joins the Symbian Inner Circle) pommy was disappointed that there was so little response from either the market or the BBers, although gundwane could think of at least four good reasons why it was so quiet. Even jmehmet's introduction of a further mention for GIM as Energis announced a further extension to its interactive TV offerings provoked no comment. There was much more interest on the Free BB when fda began Geo Interactive : leading from the front - his maiden speech! He is certainly a fan, along with Rogerthat and ck. Another new FBB user, Jipster was on the ball with wondering when the Stabilisation period would end. He also recognised that the timing was unfortunate at a time when tech stocks were having a particularly hard time (again!). Friday saw some positive movement but too little to satisfy anybody. This one will run for a while yet but the company seems ideally placed to take advantage of the first signs of confidence returning to the market.

What appeared to be an attempt by Dil to placate the BB fundamentalist movement (Here's One For Fundamentalists .......) threw up Comprehensive Business Services as one to watch. The preliminary results and upbeat Chairman's statement were certainly encouraging. Unfortunately Dil had no response so, in true PBB fashion, the thread was invaded by resident chartist, Limpy who gave his expert translation on the various possibilities. Throughout the week the share price hovered around the 300p mark (identified as the crucial level) and both chartists and fundamentalists alike are waiting anxiously to see which way it moves.

Meanwhile, in the land of the Free.......

Despite being hauled up before the English Language Examination Board, new BBer bigman managed to keep his composure with One to watch and new to the market and explained some of the close relationships between directors of newcomer Kingsbridge Holdings and Medical Solutions. Since coming to the market last week, the shares have risen in value from 25p to over 40p. Certainly worth watching. Personally, I don't care how many punctuation marks are missing from a thread if it brings me good information to work from. Thanks bigman.

The appointment of a new CEO for Bula Resources was all it took to move the price a quarter point on Friday as predicted by watcin in new chief executive. Intfluf was all ready and waiting. As he said, "Companies with interests in Libya and Iraq sit comfortably in my ethical investment policy". A buck is a buck, although thoughts of 10p per share in the imediate future are maybe a little ambitious!

FII Group - Announcement due? was instigated by GrinningSwede when the share price jumped Wednesday on good volumes. For adamh, the magic had worn off some time ago and the suggestion of ringing the company had no appeal as it generally gleans so little of substance but yuffrouw reckons that is the FII corporate style (smoke-screened by LSE rules). He still advocates holding on - news or not.

It may not be a model of propriety, but I thoroughly enjoyed the animated debate in The truth about Fuel Cell Technology. "It was the best of threads, it was the worst of threads" to paraphrase George Orwell. bighead certainly lit the blue touch-paper on this one. And Ashley James actually went two postings in before mentioning Minmet. :=) freaknasty posted some hard facts about the current use of the technology. He found favour with the wah who is obviously about to research the subject in detail whilst BRAVE advocated looking beyond that single alternative to petroleum as a fuel. RBM also entered the fray, leaving me with the vision of running my car with a power station in the boot to fuel it. the wah took the whole debate way over my head but it somehow sounded plausible to generate my own hydrogen using the method described. His parting shot, "ignorance is bliss" possibly applies to quite a large number of us. Not a lot to do with private investing this thread, but an interesting way to pass some time. I look forward to the next episode.

Winner of the, Poster of the Week competition this week is adamh for his treatise on backwardation in Bid/Offer why wrong way round at close ?. You may have noticed in the past, but using Level 2 certainly makes it more obvious, that there is often a confusing situation at close of play while the final trades are published and the books are balanced. This can lead to some mighty strange anomalies. A good thread this which explains how that situation is allowed to arise. (Thanks are also due to Tromso for starting the debate.) Congratulations adamh! Just drop me a line with your postal address and a bottle of quality champagne will soon be winging its way to your doorstep!

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! For those concerned about security, any e-mails sent to me are held securely on my own system and only an edited version of the entry appears on the public pages of ADVFN's system. No e-mail addresses are published unless specifically requested.