Who wants to be President anyway! (11/11/2000) Greystone
Although at times the rain was torrential, it did nothing to dampen the spirits of Somerset Carnival revellers on Monday. With a grandstand view from our upper floor windows and a goodly supply of wine and food, we enjoyed a spectacular two and a half hours of procession. And in the morning, there was not a single piece of litter to show what had gone before. The carnival organisers and the Local Authority did an efficient job of clearing up. I guess the rest of the week was colourless by comparison. The heavy rains eased off here midweek to give us some respite and allow the last cut of the lawns and the planting out of winter flowers. I know it won't last as we've been promised more of a deluge for the weekend. Travelling is still a problem with many West Country rail services still suspended and petrol in short supply but hopefully that too will improve soon. I'm now safely ensconced in my "shed" of an office and working on the logistics of ensuring that there is a constant supply of coffee available and that the mail gets through. It is nice to be able to seperate "home life" from "work life" but I do miss my late-night forays onto the internet. There is no way I'm hiking down the garden in the middle of the night to sit in front of a screen. Good job I kept the laptop up to spec for fireside use!

With the US Presidential election fiasco and the Chancellor's attempts to placate the fuel protesters and impress the "grey" vote, it was bound to be an unreal week. Adding in the monthly deliberations of the BoE on UK interest rates and there every reason for stock market activity to be mutes and directionless. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday each saw a modest rise in the FTSE100 in the expectation that there was more good news than bad around the corner. But there was little enthusiasm in trading. The prolonged Presidential soap opera in the US had the markets twitchy on Thursday and Friday on both sides of the Atlantic. With the US opening in a flurry of red on Friday afternoon, we could be in for a rough ride again next week!

There are a number of ways on the ADVFN site to prepare yourself for the day, week and month ahead. Not least the "Top Lists" feature which can be extemely useful in pointing out high and low points in the market and recent share performances. Within the BB itself, there are various regular threads which can also help. For instance, if you are interested in overseas stocks, there are a series of threads kicked off by TechNet which can keep you on top of what is going on in the major markets around the world. USA, EURO and ASIA are all covered, although the information available for European bourses is still a bit thin. I guess our mainland continental cousins will catch up soon enough. With the imminent opening of the ADVFN site in France, perhaps we will begin to take more interest in what is going on with the CAC Quarante.



The Weekly BB Review

When crocodile started XAAR Recovery Stock? in August, there was every indication that XAAR would, in fact, take off. However, since early September it seems to have been downhill all the way with the share price plunging from 270p to less than 170p. So is it now time? Even the strongest of supporters are beginning to have doubts. It is difficult to see why the company is having such a bad time on the market when it has a recognised state-of-the-art print technology which even the major Japanese printer manufcturers have been keen to licence. The company is also profitable and, by all accounts, still has quite a lead over any rivals. New and improved products are also in the pipeline. kemchosaruche was keen for any news this week whilst PitBull and Tortoise decided enough was enough - for the moment at least. There are plenty of potential investors (like me!) waiting for signs that the tide has turned. There were some fleeting signs of improvement early this week but I would like to see a sustained run over the 200p mark before getting too excited. As with so many other stocks, the share price took a hit on Friday but nothing too extreme, ending at 168p bid.

The long-awaited restructuring news from British Telecom began to emerge this week with some details of the proposed sell-off of some parts of the business as separate enterprises. BT Sell Off has all of the gory details and links to official (and unofficial) sources. While ajata remained hopeful that the price dip this week was a temporary phenomenum, Skinny sounded less than impressed. I think it will take quite a while for the smoke to clear and we all know where exactly the various elements of the corporation are heading. The BT share price ended the week struggling to keep above 700p - just under on the bid.

After spinning off from British Gas at the end of October, Lattice Group (LAT) has provided some good new sport in its short history. While I know nothing tried in vain to get some information out of the company regarding possible reabtes, cossie was happy to see HSBC still touting the shares as a buy on Thursday. Despite the generally poor end to the week in London, this was one of the few which showed blue on my screen. The chart shows a nice steady line back to the 155p mark. Well worth watching and waiting. One of the few to end the week with a little blue arrow.

Some big sellers of Surgical Innovations on Friday dragged the price down to a fragile low which had warrej sqealing. I guess there are a lot of others hurting too but suffering in silence. Delboy002 was playing it cool. The week's closing price was a lowly 2.25p bid.

There was a renewal of interest in Fayrewood this week as mcaw noted hot results from German company Computerlinks in which they have a sizeable stake. ARICHARD estimated the stake to be worth 470p per FWY share at current Euro exchange rates while the actual share price is languishing around 265p. Fayrewood - impressive prospects describes the anomaly.

Although wilbur presented the case well enough in Do the city boys like a women on top position, referring to the new CEO of Debenhams, no-one seemed to seriously take up the baton and run with it. I worked with this company for a year or so until earlier this year and can assure you that Belinda Earl is a shrewd cookie. As well as liking to roar around the City on a hunky motor-cycle, she has a good knack for motivating those around her and I'm sure will continue to make an impact. The company had its "one-day sale spectacular" this week which I understand was a good success and the share price continues to rise in a sector which has not been flavour of the month for quite a long time now. As wilbur implies, disgruntled M&S customers are going to go somewhere - why not Debenhams?

The Yahoo Messanger service had a lot more coverage this week as TechNet suggested it might fill the gap until the ADVFN Chat facility is available. There was quite a take-up of BBers joining and my "Friends" list has suddenly doubled in size. If you want to catch up with who is using the service, take a look at ADVFN Chat ... until it comes, try this instead !! but beware that ADVFN user names and Yahoo user names are different more often than not. If you want to "voice chat", it may pay you to invest in a reasonable quality microphone and a comfortable set of headphones. And don't forget to keep your Yahoo status up-to-date - if you are in the middle of a phone call or business meeting or you trot off down to the pub for lunch, let your "Friends" know that you aren't available. It is a good way to see who is about at the weekend when it is too wet to go out and there is nothing on TV.

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

Tuskar Resources had a welcome boost this week with a mention on SMTM but the big questionmarks are always over their small capitalisation, large number of shares in issue and the political chaos which reigns in the Countries where they are prospecting. In Tuskar Resources on the move!!!, sweetlips tried to persuade us of the potential back in August, as did mammoth in Oil stocks and Tuskar. Carlile sees the latest exposure as the booster to get the share price moving but I am a little more circumspect having followed the company's progress (or lack of it) for some years now. The current chart pattern looks encouraging - a gentle and sustained improvement rather than the boom and bust before. With a limited downside and the chance of more news in the pipeline, maybe it is worth sticking back on the Monitor. Ask Rayrac!

The share price of Scoot.COM re-commenced its tumble this week. Back in October, johnmfrancis was concerned that panic selling was exacerbating what was only a temporary glitch. An ominous warning from Limpsfield Chartist that he saw a major fall in price if the 100p was breached has proved to be spot on. hamedk saw it as a tree-shaking exercise but it turned into more of a hurricane as time progressed. Davb, with some insight from a conversation with one a Director of the company, was an early bird to declare his short position but was soon joined by others, including dodddy. Hands up if you're panicking out of Scoot ? tells the story. Amongst others, flashcat61, hamedk, mkaraokeking, Jaafar1 and TQ were for hanging on - stop loss gone or not. matt1231 had some good advice for all, including "....if a share loses 90% of it's value it has to go up by a whacking 900%! Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet, cut your losses and move on to a fresh start." Until the end of the month, the BB balance seemed fairly evenly spread between bailing out and sitting tight with Douglas-Davies and Dorsey leaning to the latter strategy. After a few bumps which might have suggested a turn for the better, the downward trend continued as general market sentiment wilted. I can't see any end to the fall until the market picks up across the board. thatsmart was fortunate enough to turn a quick profit on Friday as the price bumped around lunchtime (a great time to catch the MMs on the hop!). There seems nothing to suggest a support level is in sight. If you are still in long, I wish you good luck but I fear it may be a lengthy haul back. If you are short, time to renew.....?

Katie Finn was a tad upset that BB noises about Pacific Media were confusing. (WHY U LOT SELLING?) Rickster and emmit21 advised sitting tight whilst Gombie was in a buying mood. With sentiments running high, charter troll closed out with the perfect ending - "to answer your original question, there are 13m buys against 3m sells. "Us lot" are therefore not selling!". Have fun!

MotionPoster is not a company which I have looked into at all so it was interesting to see such detailed discussion on the subject this week in Whoops - MotionPoster Research. Whoops has obviously spent considerable energy researching the background. For those who (like me) have not come across this company before, it floated on the AIM at the end of March to market a new advertising product consisting of illuminated posters fixed to rail and metro tunnel walls which give the effect to passengers of a silent cinema film screened in the centre of each window of a train as it travels through. In August they announced that they were operating test sites and talking with the managers of various metro systems. They had also commissioned independent market research in two major cities to demonstrate that the new medium could achieve comprehensive coverage of big audiences. pod joined Whoops in his interest in the company but alpha1 appeared to have some conflicting information about test sites and options. Deep-C-diver raised the question of non-disclosure agreements relating to some of the information posted but, as I know from past experience, such documents are difficult to maintain the integrity of. By the end of the week, talk was turning to Hong Kong as a potential target and terry91 had joined the list of interested parties. The share price fell away half a point today in the general malaise but has shown good recovery since its summer slumbers. If the product is half as good as it sounds and the company management and marketing is right, there may be a lot of potential here. I will definitely be adding them to my Monitor, if not yet to my Portfolio.


My Poster of the Week this week is Whoops, a relative newcomer to the Free BB, who demonstrated that there is no end to the energy which can be applied to research - provided you have a strong enough belief in the company and the self confidence to make a few phone calls to check on your theories. Congratulations Whoops! If you will e-mail me a delivery address, I will see that your prize finds it way to you very soon. Keep up the good work!



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Good Hunting!