ADVFN has been nominated in two categories of the Online Finance Awards 2000, to be held at the Hilton Metropole Hotel on 12th October. The two particular categories are Best Bulletin Board and Best Investment Site Tools. It would be a terrific achievement to win a category but just to be nominated after such a short time in existence is an accolade in itself. ADVFN have a table booked at the presentations (of course!) and have reserved two places for BBers whose names will be drawn from the hat. If you want to be included in that particular lottery, please make sure your name appears on the Online Finance Awards 2000 thread.

As part of the ongoing development of the services available, this week saw the introduction of an aditional feature in the Charting software. It is now possible to enter start and end dates for your chart - although remember to choose the date option on the pull-down menu or you will end up with the default result. I don't know why the default year shown is 1997 though. 2000 would have seemed more appropriate to me. Call me old fashioned!

With the City still focused on the effect of continuously increasing oil prices on Monday, investors seemed uncertain where to find safety and the FTSE100 fell off slightly. A similar result on Tuesday but more to do with fears about UK interest rates with the IMF warning that UK domestic demand was running too high. By Wednesday it had sunk in that the high price of crude could impact heavily on future industrial earnings and with no support from the US markets the FTSE100 slumped over 120 points. With no good news from any quarter on Thursday, all sections of the market suffered. A further poor overnight peformance from the NASDAQ was exacerbated by an after-the-bell announcement by Intel warning of worse than anticipated trading figures in Europe. All of this guaranteed the red opening to the market on Friday morning which duly emerged. Morning trading was a bit of a nightmare, but there was the odd opportunity about. When the NASDAQ opened up close to 300 points down there was pandemonium in London for a while. However, as selected stocks rallied and the index came off its floor, a little confidence returned and the markets closed on the rise but only the FTSE100 managed to finish blue. How next week begins here will depend very much on how much confidence US investors are able to muster this and whether they can hold their nerve.

The Weekly BB Review

Are you shaw? has been running for some time - as has the, as yet unfulfilled, promise of fortunes all round for investors in Arthur Shaw. The company's idea is simple enough in principle - broadcast events, shows and concerts over the internet and charge customers on a pay-per-view basis. The situation with the technology to achieve this is less clear. The technology exists, for sure, but is restricted by bandwith limitations, ISP service levels, etc., etc., This hasn't stopped SAW becoming one of the most traded shares in London. Last week the share got a mention on the Show Me The Money which gave it a brief and unsustained hike in share price and this week, on the same show, the Chairman was invited to explain why it was such a good investment. He gave an advance mention of the formation of a new subsidiary in the US - Interactive Entertainment Network (see the RNS News piece for details. He also suggested that their were further announcements imminent. The market wasn't too impressed. Volumes rose but the price stayed pretty stable - not an uncommon phenomenom as noted by AlanBee earlier in the thread and rued by Skinny. On Thursday the share price fell away a tad in the general melee and further yet early on Friday but adriansd's posting that it was already planning to launch its new subsidiary on the NASDAQ suggested a straw to cling to - when the NASDAQ shows signs of recovery itself. It closed the week off its low point which must be a good sign.

When PicGuru began Soco International (SIA) back in February the shares were trading at about 50% of their current level. The interim results were published on Thurdsday but did little to give the price any extra boost. dr agon and dcarn may have been disappointed that the announcement of a profit over 10% ahead and turnover up 140% could not encourage more out of investors but as they have had such a good run, maybe it was predictable that the bulk of the good news was considered to be already factored in. The fact that operating costs had been reduced and that the oil price has risen considerably since the end of June (the interim accounting period end) could lead the way to further improvement when the markets return to some sort of normality. Certainly a good bet for anyone who took and interest in February! They finished the week a creditable 135p bid, dropping only 1p on what was a bad, bad day.

Maybe computer games companies are not flavour of the month, but Argonaut Games has shown good signs of recovery during the past few months, prompting RedEye to ask Does this look like a 5 minute wonder ?? back in July, another thread which has lain dormant until this week. Ginger_bomber put the recent increased activity down to rumour-mongering which was quickly quashed by the company. However, the share price still continues to recover and even in a bad week for tech stocks in general, they came away looking a great deal more healthy than many of their rivals. There must be some reason for it. Is this the one that got away? I watch and wait.

A thread on NXT without Sardine is like fish without chips. So it was a good bet he would pop up somwhere in large movement but no news which PDW started on Thursday. Blueflame expected them to be caught up in the general downtrend and was correct. Sardine's advice to stay in bed for a week sounded about right. This company has a unique product with an ever increasing number of applications and will, doubtless, succeeed. But, IMHO, now is not the time to be putting a toe in this particular pond. 50p down and still looking weak at Friday's close.

News that 3i Group have a 21.77% of their issued ordinary share capital, began a good run for Actinic After falling away sharply earlier in the month, the share price suddenly took off again on a day when most of our screens were largely red. Actinic on the move tells the story. Only Metris seemed to follow Plunger's lead on this one initially, but it wasn't long before Braindrain and Novision were on the case too. It was interesting to get the diferent views from Tortoise who has used the company's software build tool, and Richard Green who appears to have evaluated it and, although it didn't get his five star rating as a product, he sounded vaguely positive about its potential as an investment. Plunger and Braindrain got out on the dip Myles was determined to jump aboard. crocodile's analysis system must have kicked this one to the top of the heap on Friday. As he suggested, something is afoot! Although the momentum was maintained, there was a hint of doubt about the length of time such a rise could be suported with so little volume. lucasb was preparing for all out war, ensuring essential supplies were at hand when needed. The shares ran out with a 10% price gain in the final session. My only worry with this company, mid-term, is that they are spending a lot of money trying to establish a market presence and I just wonder if the cash will run out before the products begin to generate renewable revenue. Take care in the lead up to results.

You need a good head for heights and either plenty of nerve or none at all to take advantage of the first hour trading on a day like Friday when it was easy to anticipate the market would open down but uncertain as to how far it would fall and whether or not it would show any revoery. As the MMs tend to over-react in their opening positions, there is always a chance of a quick buck, but you need to be on the ball not to get caught out. Aptly named Vertigo was quick out of the blocks on Friday with I love mornings like this!! He saw the early recoveries as buyer driven but Robert didn't see any such pattern and was worried about more panic and further falls ahead. Vertigo was quickly out of at least two of new positions at a profit in a very short time. Mealiff and Kayak were watching NASDAQ futures closely, the latter reporting them suspended as they hit their floor limit. He anticipated a severe opening fall and was exactly right. As Harry Kaplan highlighted, the UK market always seems to take the hit twice when anything goes wrong in the US. Once on anticipation of the news and then again on the actuality. (We ended up with about three different threads running on Friday on what was essentially day-trading. It would be good if everyone could agree on a set form.) I haven't had time to cover them but FRIDAY 22nd Sept DayTraders Thread and Anybody got a long one ?are worth a visit. It will be interesting to look back on them when we are next faced with similar circumstances to see if we have learned anything from the experiences of the day.

On a day when all the focus was on bad news, I thought we had a winner with Orbis - breaking out on the back of very good news but when I opened it, I was a tad worried to see it referred to the position in May. However, on investigation, it was a good call. After an initial drop, the share price has shown steady recovery, with a rare blue arrow today amidst the blood-bath. toadtrader (like me!) was a bit behind the news as Orbis had announced a big deal with Vodafone to develop security tracking for mobile phones. Good ol' Foot Loose was on the ball to save our blushes and the shares continued their progress.

The pic below (again, courtesy of Mealiff was supposed to show what a sobrious and hard-working MD we have at ADVFN, but it looks more like he's shutting his eyes against the storm! At least that way he can't see the bloodshot eyes of his compatriots.....


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

When Daddu started looking at Colt Telecom (CTM) in August, it had dropped off a recent high to around the 1800p mark and was beginning to seem to some quite a bargain. Sure enough the price bubbled up over 2400p in early September but has since tailed off. Even a liaison with Hewlett Packard announced this week failed to halt the slide as techs and telecomms took a battering. Ashton Villa, Agony, coltbt and Pfalco must have been upset to see the fall continue, as they were convinced there was a bounce in the offing. Friday was redder than usual and the price headed back towards the 1900p mark with a fall on the day of some 68p.

For as long as I can recall, BBers have been Looking for the bottom for Axis-Shield. Recently it was Morally bankrupt asking the question with hayseed suggesting that a delay in the development of Abbots diagnostic software may push any recovery prospect back to Christmas. By last weekend, 650p was a target buy price with millcanned dreaming of 550p as a more attractive level. This weekend's closing offer was 630p - so where do we go from here guys? From a charting perspective, if they break below 600p, it is a long way to the next support level. Its a jungle out there! :=)

dates obviously thought MEDISYS MAKES FTSE 250 AFTER ALL was worth shouting about. In truth, Medisys has had a lot of air time recently - another of the SMTM favourites - with many analysts seeing them as a good growth stock. The move to the main market helped them maintain the bullish chart pattern but the general weakness in the markets this week has humbled them a little. juggis is another fan (looking at that portfolio list of his, this is someone who likes to live life in the fast lane!) as is money loser who was upset to see a stutter in the price this week. gwenmajbrid offered some comfort in a sensible explanation. This type of stock is still relatively small in its field and the whole pharmaceutical and biotech industry is almost as volatile as the tech sector. There will be hiccups along the way but there is nothing to suggest that MDY have finished yet.

Winning Poster of the Week this week is PW for the considerable work he puts into the FTSE Challenge thread - which I read avidly. Like poor mg today, I am too good at calling it wrong. Now who would have believed the FTSE100 would show blue on Friday night? I know has been under the weather recently so maybe a nice bottle of Champagne will lift his spirits. Congratulations to PW! If you will e-mail me a delivery address, I will see that your prize finds it way to you very soon.

Good Hunting!

The ADVFN SETI Team has grown condsiderably this week with a number of BBers joining the Team and more new registrations at advfnbbers@lycosmail.com. Many thanks to all who have taken the trouble to sign up or transfer. I know its only a bit of fun but it would be quite a coup to be the first Team to find an alien. We must surely be the best equipped to recognise one! :=)

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.