The ADVFN Level 2 Training seminars are now under way and are being met with words of enthusiasm. If you want to keep up with where the events are held and when, pay a visit to the Success Events site now for details.

The big news to open the trading week was the Swedish offer for the LSE which finally seemed to get through to its members/shareholders that they had to do something positive if they were to survive intact rather than just bicker with Frankfurt about merger terms. Together with a falling pound and the potential for a EURO-land interst rate increase later in the week, the FTSE100 stuttered to a modest gain. A revivial in tech and comms stocks on Wednesday pushed the main index to a three month high but trading was thin and there was only limited confidence that the momentum could be maintained. Good news from the NASDAQ produced further gains in UK tech stocks on Thursday to keep the ball bouncing ever higher. A lower than anticipated increase in Euro interest rates also helped. Friday was more of the same with substantial gains across the board. The increase in confidence produced increased internet traffic and a few systems began to show signs of slowing down just when they were needed most. Let's hope a lot of weekend upgrades are scheduled to make sure that the facilities are available if the whole scene suddenly goes pear-shaped next week!

The Weekly BB Review

With early signs of a revival in the techMARK index, it was inevitable that some similarities would be drawn between this year and last year when, about now, the big surge in tech stocks began to take shape. The main argument in Has The Second Tech Bubble Started Early ?? was over terminology rather than substance. Both March and Sardine seem convinced that there is something on the boil for the quality tech stocks. Romeo and Wickhams Fancy thought "bubble" a misnomer, the latter pointing out that many of the stocks under discussion were now close to (or more than) double their valuations a year ago. So "bubble" is out and "boom" is in. I'm happy with that. I'm sure Mike993 wasn't the only one to note the sudden appearance of system problems both here and at Charles Schwab and others which (coincidentally) mirrored the sort of problems we all suffered during last year's surge in market activity. Spooky isn't the word!

The flat-earth crowd were out in force again this week as NXT plc began to show signs of erupting. Since getting out of manufacturing flat speakers to concentrate on pure development and licensing of the technology, the shares have progressed very well, despite getting caught up in the Springtime slide. The shares never dipped below double their twelve month high, even at the worst of times, but are now back to the sort of level seen in December last year when things were really flying. As Clueless points out, they have breached the 1450p sticking point and are now about at the level of last December when their progress was nothing short of meteoric! Whilst the 2000p level may be something of a dream at this stage, it certainly can't be ruled out. While NXT have the lead in this adaptable technology, there are new markets and applications opening up for them all the time. For the latest thoughts, check out This stupid market! NXT plc which goes back far enough to give a good historical view of the rise and fall and rise of the shares this year.

Whether you call it "bottom fishing" or "searching out potential recovery stocks", there are a lot of opportunities out there right now. Crocodile's RECOVERY Stocks Thread. SEP2000 should make interesting reading. His first suggestion, Diagonal, the IT consultancy and services company, certainly had a bright week. Alphameric which also had a good run, was picked by gumdrop while Mealiff enjoyed a quartet of telecomms opportunities and capitalist the same number of IT companies. Pitbull stuck with

First quarter results from 365 Corporation on Thursday were impressive, entitled by the company "Excellent Start to the Financial Year". The results statement included a rundown on the successful (and profitable) websites operated through the quarter which had the benefit of including the Euro2000 football finals. More substantive to my mind was the increase of business customers by 16% within the period. Rucksack posted other highlights on 365 Corp is this a ......hmmmmmmmmm. Orbit and rivets were equally upbeat, as was the market as the shares were marked up over 12% on Thursday and maintained the good run into Friday - presumably expecting some positive press over the weekend. March posted a cautionary note that "operating losses" had increased from the previous quarter. The share price, meanwhile, powered on impressively.

You can't keep a good dog down! :=) Celsis International was resurrected in the form of Celsis - Can anyone interpret this data? with Anthonyjb urged by Pitbull to vote it into the next ADVFN index list. Wickhams Fancy sounded a bit perlexed as there was no apparent reason for excitement but, despite AJB's interpretation of the MM's machinations which showed up on Level 2, there was nothing concrete to go on. The share price, however, reacted well enough, putting on almost 10% on Thursday and a little more on Friday - passing the important 35p mark.

It has been a long wait but MEDIA CONTENT - Breakout? (MDC) heralded something of a revival for the sports media licensee this week. market i seemed to have been watching patiently and researching hard and received plenty of support from soundbite and SkyLark. With the Olympics about to commence, quickly followed by the Paralympics for which MDC hold TV rights for almost 50 countries, there is bound to be some positive news to underline the general hype which has been the curse more often than not over the last year.

The return to favour of many of the the "e" companies this week caused a few fluttering hearts and raised a few eyebrows. The eVestment (EVC) thread found new life with ghhghh posting up the latest news on Monday. Whilst KDC was first to react with enthusiasm, it was dampened slightly by wannabee, although NickB and The Player quizzed him well over his reasons for doubt. buba entered as an enthusiast but wannabee continued to be gloomy about prospects. pommy seemed to think a cold dip would bring him round. As things panned out on Friday, the share price closed on the rise but still way short of respectability. Sink or swim? Too many rumours to make it easy to decide.

Anthonyjb shared some more of his perceptions with us in Interpreting Level 2 Info - have a laugh!, which seems a misleading title given the work which I know he puts into his research. Morgs sounded a bit cynical about Celsis (he isn't alone there), but there were some interesting comments to digest.

ADIPaul began investing after being hypnotised by a TV programme. Did you start investing through "Show Me The Money" tells it all. After following the tips on the show, he ended up 50% out of pocket and has since been working hard to redress the balance. With a new series starting in a couple of weeks, it will be interesting to see if it has the same impact as before and the same total lack of security. As Kayak and Clem pointed out, the programme content leaked like a seive and the shares to be discussed invariably hit the papers and the Bulletin Boards well before each transmission. At times, the show had a dramatic effect on some fairly obscure shares but generally the only winners were the MMs and the TV Company.

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

True or not, NTL to launch hostile bid (TWT) coincided with a couple of days of booming volumes and a steady increase in share price. gareth_ap reported the CNBC story to the BB, with davito and eugene1234 agreeing that any bid would need to be considerably more than 200p to attract the Telewest board. With the share price languishing at a level not seen for two years, the only way is up. Worth keeping a close eye on. If a bid does materialise, the price will, doubtless, move very quickly and the current benign spread will broaden proportionately.

The chart for Synstar looks pretty dismal and, although the share price slide has levelled out a little, I think it is a dangerous exercise to begin guessing where the bottom might be until there is some news to justify confidence that a recovery is possible. Quater seemed a bit late off the mark with Just an Idea! suggesting it was a shorting opportunity. As NickB pointed out, the best time for shorting was when the price was 200p and dropping like a stone. charlies cars was more interested in an MM conspiracy theory as it is difficult to see why the price should be at such a lowly level when their is nothing to suggest that the company is less than sound. The first half results showed a healthy profit when announced in June. Although there was a warning that full year results may not make target, that was hardly enough to encourage such a drastically poor share performance. Volumes have shown signs of picking up this week so I'm keeping this one on my Monitor - just in case.......

When she-ra started reflec about to take off? (REF) last week, it had classic ramp stamped all over it. And, as our mysterious poster never reappeared, I must presume that is exactly what it was. (I think boysie, grufty and stocker suspected the same thing at the time.) With r4x and matt1231 adding to the praise (and their holdings), I was relieved to see the price show a little improvement as the week wore on, ending the final session at 99p.

When the thread Retail Decisions - Interim results date announced was introduced by Terrygr last week, there was very little response from the BB. However, with the date now closer and volumes and price on the increase, I must agree with that the likelihood of further improvement ahead of the results announcement is on the cards. Love 'em or hate 'em, Retail Decisions is never a boring company. Next week will tell us how many firends they have here.

WINNER of my Poster of the Week competition this week is adam45 for a good and balanced response to TechNet in Irrational Exuberance !! (see post number 12). For such a potentially explosive subject, the debate was positive and politely forceful. I particularly liked, "...it is my firmly held opinion that the investing public have been duped. In March this year, through ignorance, or by design, the Market Analysts, and Journalists did a co-ordinated hatchet job on the very industry that has fueled the last few years of spectacular economic growth. It is particularly ironic that this techno-phobic-anti-hype should be unleashed on an industry that was (and still is) only just beginning to realise it's full potential." Congratulations to adam45. If you will e-mail me a delivery address, I will see that a quality bottle of Champagne wings it way to you very soon.

Good Hunting!

I would like to make a section available here to include any news from Investment Clubs which are either run by BBers or have BBers amongst their members. If any club organisers would like me to publish some details of their activities or pass on any messages to The Weekend! readers, please mail me by Friday noon for inclusion in that weekend's publication. (Please include Investment Club in the subject line to make sure I don't miss it!)

I still need more new entries for the ADVFN Who's Who! Why not let your fellow BBers know a little about who you are? 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.