Talking of Martini........don't forget to book with him early for Christmas. ADVFN Xmas Lunch - who wants to come? will give you all the details you need. This year is a floating theme - we tried that once before but on a barge which didn't actually go anywhere - this year will be a lunch on the move and include a three hour cruise along the Thames. If you haven't attended one of these functions before, believe me they are great occasions, especially towards the latter end of the day and especially if Sardine is drafted in to help with the accounting. The places are disappearing quick, so do it now!

WAP

The trading week began poorly with the FTSE100 falling largely in line with a decline in the Vodafone share price. With the LSE management in turmoil, it did little to soothe the nerves. The petrol boycott was the only headline news of any consequence. Tuesday saw the news that the London/Frankfurt rapprochement was off and the vultures began to circle. New from the US was marginally better than expected but there was little joy anwhere in London and a further fall in stock prices was received as though inevitable. The Pound hit a 14-year low against the dollar, retail prices hit a 15-year low and the crude oil price continued to rise. The FTSE100 fell again. On Wednesday, the markets seemed to be suffering from a lack of gas in sympathy with the rest of the country and trading was mediocre but enough to force the main index down 77 points. That figure was regained on Thursday, largely on the back of a better performance on the NASDAQ and a return to favour of telecomms shares. All indices were red on Friday morning with the techMARK reddest of all @@@@

The Weekly BB Review

Love it or hate it, Show Me the Money started a new series on Channel 4 Television this week. Monday's team of ladies didn't start off too well, but, as lucasb pointed out when the tipster of the day mentioned Forbidden Technologies, the share price soared 55p in 2 minutes. adamh was quick enough to turn a 14% profit in 30 seconds. Needless to say, the share price was falling away before even the programme had ended. A similar fate for Tuesday's selection Proudfoot Consulting. On Wednesday, Ian King (The Sun) tipped Arthur Shaw which is already a well worn subject here on the BB. The small initial gain generated by the tip quickly evaporated. Thursday was a bit of a non-event but Friday threw up Alphameric as a tip which I know has something of a following on the BB. The shares responded with a 7p gain.

The BREAKOUTS - Sept 11th to Sept 15th thread turned into more of an HTML exercise than anything but capitalist spotted an interesting possibility for Gooch & Housego to regain some former glory. His timing was spot on and the share price continued to show signs of renewed vigour throughout Thursday. Pitbull was pleased to see Celsis International rising again after a stutter which was put down to profit-taking but they levelled out to par on Friday. Still looking much healthier than a couple of weeks ago!

A lot has happened to Gladstone since Learjet began his Gladstone - break out !!! thread back in March, including a 10:1 consolidation and some interesting contract wins and an upbeat trading statement in June which suggested a move into profit this trading year. Then confirmation at the beginning of this month that they were in talks about a possible acquisition. All the stuff volatility is made of. They finished the week well with a suggestion of more to come.

It has been a struggle for Durlacher since their 9:1 share split in April but during September they have seen a modest renaissance, followed closely in Durlacher in this market. Rayrac has never sounded more confident of a winner and Zakalwe probably had to order a new shed to take the extra shares he took on board when the recovery began. Dr Doolittle and Sardine were pennant watching whilst Hamsterhunter just got plain excited as the price bubbled up. When on Thursday lucasb produced the announcement that preliminary results would be published Friday, I thought it a bit odd that the official word had been left so late. However, the share price continued to rise in advance, giving extra credibility to the good Doctor's prediction that a major breakout could be imminent. The results were good and the simultaneous announcement of an alliance with bmp AG brought the promise of more pan-European investment and opportunity. CIC was highly delighted with the news and market i was pleased that his faith had been rewarded. Although the initial surge petered out, the shares still ended the day ahead, having succumbed to some profit-taking earlier in the day.

The Stuffing Breaks Out of Sage! thread started at the beginnning of the month with threaders deciding the predecessor had been too bearish, but despite a temporary show of energy, the share price of Sage Group was caught up in the general demise of technology stocks and fell away sharply this week. romz reported a minor recovery on Thursday but Novision was under no illusions that the share was on a definite downtrend and K11TUN was peturbed that the price was falling away sharply on Friday, despite a lot of buying activity. BROCKMAN and guinea pig says seemed to anticipate a broker downgrade in the offing and some sound advice came from daniel, "If ANY share you are in is falling constantly,and you do not know why; SELL." I guess its back to chart watching and waiting for this one now.

It has been a long wait for The Player on IMS Maxims - Whats's the verdict? but IMX Maxims have finally come up with the goods and their long-awaited results. Although the results were not exactly inspiring, the share price reversed the downward trend on better volumes shortly afterwards, raising some suspicions that there may be something else in the wind. KDC showed some interest in these earlier but it has been something of a lone vigil for The Player. Good to see his patience rewarded. Although the shares finished the final session off a point, this may be one worth adding to your monitor for future reference.

ducatiman noted the present demise of Whitbread this week in Will bass move in and found some support from hilt who pointed out that the company are still sitting on something of a cash pile after disposing of their brewing arm, despite their investment in Punch Taverns. A quick look at the chart in relation to Bass shows an interesting picture. In early June, both companies were sitting pretty at about 600p. The lines then part dramatically as Bass have surged on to 640p bid while Whitbread have drifted off to 452p bid. Whether that makes Whitbread a bargain is debatable but I don't see Bass needing them with their current liaisons and steady performance. There may be a predator out there, nevertheless. Worth keeping an eye on.

A very successful training course was held in Northern Ireland this week with the general concensus a big thumbs up. Despite Mealiff trying to goad everyone into excess, the team who took part look to me like a most sensible and sobrious bunch - not easily swayed by the lure of hard liquour. As for Bullie being "on the wagon" that might be a bit harder to swallow. (The picture below is courtesy of Mealiff)

Absolutely nothing to do with stocks and shares, DODDDY for new prime minister comments please gets the vote for best laugh of the week. I was particularly taken by charter troll's manifesto. Monster Raving Loony Party, look out! You have serious competition here!

Meanwhile, in the Land of the Free.......

TV Programme "Show Us The Money" came in for some flak from a number of BBers. First valid point fom ARGY2 was the fact that NMS isn't taken into account. ducatiman has his own conspiracy theory about prior warning of tips to be made (the programme certainly lends itself to to people in the know taking advance advantage) whilst hightone can't understand anyone making a choice on the strength of the programme's content. This one will run and run - until the series finishes - but I guess a few BBers are quietly hoping that one of their holdings gets a positive mention one of these days.

I must admit that Vislink (VLK) is one of my long-term favourites and I have been in and out of them succesfully on a number of occasions. This time, in view of the positive vibes surrounding the company, I am in for a longer term than usual. matt1231 has been reading some of the same press coverage that I have, by all accounts. So too have Knobbo and Morally bankrupt. adonis, hightone and johnathan_bh have also been picking up the news. One of a rare breed this week - a winner! Looks like I'm in good company.

nightshift came out of the soft furnishings closet this week with Laura Ashley (ALY). With results due next week (20th) and an announcement that the company is moving into e-commerce with Blueberry.Net Ltd., the share price began to move early and volumes took on a healthy look. First Blueday and then Sir Losethelot were quickly onto the change and Skinny was kind enough to supply the charter's evidence. The shares saw a 10%+ rise on Friday. Any reasonable press over the weekend could give the price an even bigger boost next week, although I think 200p is aiming a tad high! Good luck guys!

Winning Poster of the Week this week is The Player whose perseverence in following IMX Maxims and providing plenty of detailed research for perusal seemed to be largely overlooked by the Bulletin Board. It just shows that if you have faith in a company and a little patience you will often be rewarded well. It is difficult enough when the thread is interactive, but when you seem to be the only one in the world who is interested, it takes a special type of doggedness to stay with it. Congratulations to The Player. If you will e-mail me a delivery address, I will see that a quality bottle of Champagne finds it way to you very soon - petrol shortage or not!

Good Hunting!

Don't forget to make a visit to The Classifieds. If you are not interested in a domain name or a semi-automatic shotgun, there is always Moneybags' former favoured mode of transport. Unfortunately, its only likeness to a Ferrari is the colour - but if you think a tractor is your style, check it out.....

More entries are always needed for the ADVFN Who's Who! Let your fellow BBers know a little about who you are. If you haven't sent me your bio yet, 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.