After the debacle of the England v Germany soccer game at the weekend, I decided to give the game against Finland a miss and watched instead a passionate performance from Scotland who surprised all the pundits (and themselves!) by coming away from Croatia with a good result. If only England could play with that sort of spirit and passion!

The trading week got off to the worst possible start on Monday with the FTSE100 losing 126 points. It was doom and gloom everywhere with interest rates and oil prices the main topics of conversation. The previous Friday's fall in the NASDAQ made sure tech stocks were sure to slide. With the banks squaring up for a battle for the high ground amid increasing warnings about interest rates hitting profits and inflation figures not meeting expectations, Tuesday was again a pretty negative day, although the fall in the main index was minor. However, Wednesday saw a return to red, red, red as the FTSE100 fell 130 points and everyone headed for the door. It was difficult to know where to look for a safe haven, so I rather think portfolios were turning more to cash in the hope of finding buying opportunities later in the week. With news from the Middle East getting worse by the day, the US markets continued to react negatively in the extreme and there were huge falls across the board overnight Thursday, guaranteeing a poor start to the final session of the week for London. To cap it all, it was Friday the 13th! However, things turned out to be more bouyant than might have been expected and a positive start to US trading helped the FTSE100 to end the final session blue.

The Weekly BB Review

sputnik sounded as though he couldn't believe his eyes when Bioquelle began to show signs of take-off! (BIOQUELLE (12 to 1 incline)). I'm surprised that they were only picked up on by crocodile and bones because they were under discussion on the Free BB last week (as reported in my review) and the chart certainly looked bullish. The share price maintained that steep elevation throughout this week until Friday when they pulled back a little in the bedlam which followed the big US sell-off overnight.

2BOB and probably0 continued their two way dialogue on Unusual share action at Vernalis without reeling in any new debaters, despite Vernalis holding up in the general melee at the begining of the week and a sudden surge in volume on Tuesday. If what 2BOB says about the current situation with possible imminent approval of the migraine treatment by the FDA is anywhere near the reality, then this one should be firmly established on your monitor and watched carefully.

"Perhaps there'll be an announcement tomorrow" is probably one of the top ten statements on the BB, regardless of which company is under discussion but this week it was Scoot.COM with ZORRO the perpetrator. Much discussion amongst those readers of the runes - the chartists - about when (and if) the fall in price might reverse with Limpsfield Chartist having set 100p as the final line before freefall in Downhill for Scoot.Com. An announcement on Thursday arrived (as ZORRO had predicted) and the share price showed a little more life with the price managing to keep its head above the 100p line. The further announcement on Friday of a three-year sales agreement with Ad2-one, the newly-formed ad sales agency, owned by VivendiNet, to syndicate the advertising and sponsorship came on the wrong day to have any impact. But at least it provided enough positive newsflow to keep the shares steady when everything else was turning red. They ended the final day on the right side of the line.

Since the end of September mac has been trying to persuade the BB of the potential of Wembley as an investment in Wembley A good bet! even starting with head-banging flashing smiley to emphasise the prospects. With Wembley Stadium itself so signiciantly in the news this week and a lot of TV publicity for the company, including good noises from SMTM and Working Lunch, the share price maintained its impressive performance, breaking the 600p barrier without breaking sweat. The only encouragement came from crocodile and mac was unperturbed by a more general lack of interest. The chart speaks for itself! Although the share price dropped off a tad on Friday, I'm sure fans will be holding on for more.

One way to get your thread noticed and read is to pick a snappy title like Smart cats could be getting the cream! as wanabee did here last week. For PitBull it looked like out-and-out bottom fishing but crocodile, although commenting about the weakness of the current position of Express Dairies, did give them a sort of two star rating. With interim results due in November and remembering this is a company which still pays dividend, they must be worth watching. Volumes this week have been good and the price has begun to show signs of a bounce (maybe another Dead Cat Bounce). Of course it could be that BBers have just been ordering an extra pint of milk each morning as was suggested as a remedy to the company's ills. They ended the week blue, unlike many others under discussion.

When the market is all doom and gloom, I either pick out the doomiest and gloomiest titles (just to cheer myself up!) or look for something which sounds encouraging. FFlying at last! fell into the latter category and tells the tale of banana giant Fyffes which until this week had been looking decidedly ill. The thread began with pippin just talking to himself but when adamh produced the chart on Thursday, it was easy to see what pippin was getting excited about. When Moneybags, our resident poor farmer, decided to join in the fun, I knew there had to be potential there. artful dodger was also quickly into the shares as the price ticked up, looking on it as a safe haven until the tech stocks come back to life - whenever that might be! Nice to see a bright note in an otherwise miserable week.

If you are an investor who likes to see plenty of detail in a thread (and are interested in the pharmacuetical industry), you will have to go a long way to beat SmithKline/Glaxo - new highs. which tracks the recent machinations of both SmithKline Beecham and Glaxo Wellcome, as they attempt to put their merger plans into place. gausie started the thread with enough charts to give a detailed picture of both companies on both sides ogf the Atlantic, beginning with hoping that the signs of a breakout were there. zzaxx99 was also looking for that elusive crescendo. Last week, all of the signs were there with rumours that SmithKline Beecham were about to buy the makers of Sensodyne toothpaste (amongst other things) seeming to be one of the things behind that company's recovery. When the FT eventually caught up with the rumour and it emerged as fact, the share price produced a healthy surge. This week the picture became a little less clear as questions were being raised about how the US authorities viewed the proposed merger, a point raised by PitBull. This, and general market sentiment, sent the share price back away from its recent highs but gausie found plenty of profit in arbitraging. A late rally on Friday saw both gain ground.

The eagerly awaited announcement of when ADVFN interim results would be published was broadcast on Friday - 20th October. That should provoke a bit of chatter on both BBs for the next week! (RNS Announcement)

Getting the best performance out of your PC could be made easier if you take a look at Explorer Tips. This began with DocProc offering advice on establishing quick links to your favourite views and expanded into a more general advisory session with good input from Lom, Kayak and roog. (The comments here relate to later versions of Microsoft Explorer - if you are a Netscape Navigator enthusiast, you will need to investigate the different routing methods used there, but the principles still apply.) Whatever you do, take care to safeguard yourself by making a note of your current settings before you begin to experiment. It sounds as though there is enough expertise on the BB to help you out if you get stuck. Good thread!

Dodddy and Smellybogbrush are still working on their latest night-out and have had a good take-up of BBers, although it would be good to see more "newbies" on the list. Catch up with the latest on Brian Winterflood to be guest speaker at Dodddy + Smellies London nightout. So, if you are free on 26th October, I'm sure the guys can handle a few more visitors. And you also get an opportunity to meet the head of one of the biggest Market Making firms in the City. I'm sure it will be a great night out and a perfect chance to put a few faces to BB names. This has to be a two-way exercise. I am sure many of the newer users of ADVFN are very experienced traders and investors who could add a new dimension for the old hands here and maybe provoke some lateral thinking. There is a tendancy for established groups to become a bit insular which is certainly not healthy. Do come along and see what you think.

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

PAN ANDEAN RESOURCES - PRICE ABOUT TO MOVE BIG TIME (PRE) was started by CONVERS at the beginning of August when the share price around the 40p mark. After a brief peak they fell away sharply and bottomed in September since when they have recovered well. Anyone who got the timing right has made a lot of money following them back up this month. Thoroughbred resurrected the thread this week, having been in and out of the stock a few times already. The company also had a couple of mentions on SMTM this week, but was sold by one of the teams on Friday as a profit-taking exercise. cagney15 remembers the swift fall when a previous drilling exercise proved fruitless and there was a fear that the slightest negative news (or sentiment) would have a similar effect again. Cheek and Wicky were in for the long haul - regardless of anything coming out of the TV game show - and Thoroughbred was quickly back in after taking a slice off the top. The share price wobbled a bit but bounced back to 36p bid by end of play. (There are quite a number of threads on this subject at the moment - too many to mention individually.)

Mintosbs started argonaut games any thoughts ? as a plea for information but looked as though he had already done his research and made his decision. moregas suggested the recent improvement in share price could be down to a mention in Investor's Chronicle. Whatever the reason, Argonaut Games continued to impress this week when most tech stocks (no matter how vaguely you apply that description) were suffering badly. Good to have faith!

Oil is still the name of the game - although the present political/military situation in the Middle East might change the picture somewhat. soco-relatively good 's contributors don't seem to think it will damage the opportunities for Soco International". selber82 obviously thinks the company has big potential although questioning why current figures should differ so much from those published in the interims. CWA1 sounds as though he hopes a bid is on the cards while jrjeff is reluctant to make a profit out of war, although it is a sad fact of life (and death) that political and military crises always make somebody money. Soco International shares continued to rise during the week, adding over 4% on Friday alone.

There was a good thread on Ashtead Group this week - (Ashstead (any views)) - kicked off by drave and finding immediate support from nick15. kjc has obviously done his homework on this one and likes the company management setup, which is a point often overlooked and undervalued by investors. Good management makes a good company, regardless of the product. Camp Freddie was pleased to see substantial institutional investment in the company, whilst jellytots is happy to see them getting a lot of publicity. tywocky has a wonderful description for them - "a sleepwell share". Oh for a few more of those! Although the share price fell away a bit on Friday, the chart looks interesting enough to keep them on the Monitor.

There was plenty of good stuff on both Bulletin Boards this week, despite the pain a lot of BBers were suffering. I want to award the Poster of the Week prize to crocodile who has been particularly prolific and positive this week when it was needed most. I know that sending a bottle of champagne to croc is a bit like "coals to Newcastle" but I hope he will enjoy it. Congratulations Croc! If you will e-mail me a delivery address, I will see that your prize finds it way to you very soon.

Good Hunting!

It is the final The Weekend! Trivia Quiz of the series this weekend, so make sure you have a look. The top prize is a classy bottle of Champagne and there are 10 runners-up prizes of tickets to the Investor's Chronicle Expo Show on 20/10/00 (face value £30 each). The quiz will be in two parts. A total of 20 questions on various subjects, 10 on Saturday and 10 on Sunday. If the quiz results in a tie, the winning name(s) will be drawn from the hat. Last week's winner docProc managed 20 out of 20 - a great performance. The runners-up varied down to 12 correct. With the internet at your fingertips to help you, I'm sure you'll enjoy the challenge. Please take a look at the Quiz threads running on the Bulletin Boards for the questions and details of how to enter. The first set of questions will be posted up at 10am on Saturday and the final set at 10am on Sunday. The deadline for entries will be 7.30am on Monday morning and the winners will be announced later that day. Have a go! You have nothing to lose. This week the subjects are General Knowledge, Ships & The Sea, History and "B" Sides

More entries are always needed for the ADVFN Who's Who! Let your fellow BBers know a little about who you are. If you aren't yet on the list, 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 by you.