Week 481 Review - Magic Formula shares have a dreadful week.

A really bad week for my most of my magic formula shares and my SIPP despite a few good risers. The deficit between cost and value widened by £990 to £130,539 and the deficit between injection amount and value increased to £61,642. Total portfolio value dropped to £101,411, which was a relief at the end of the week as it had dropped below £100k at one point.

Worst performer was recent high-flyer ALU:Alumasc Group, which fell 13%, but fortunately is still 28% up. I'm assuming this is people taking profits after the recent rapid rise, as there's no other reason I can see.

IPX:Impax Asset Management did almost as bad, dropping 10%, but this was due to St James's Place dropping them from managing one of its funds. It was however a small fund and 10% seems a ridiculously big drop.

PSN:Persimmon has been on a good run lately but dropped 6% this week and are now only 8% up. All these falls in companies where I had potential profits was very damaging there, although it wasn't enough to completely wipe out last week's gains.

At last a change of fortune for AFC:AFC Energy, which had halved in value over the last few weeks. This week it turned around and went up 9%. Still a long way to go back to break-even though.

FXPO:Ferrexpo are really surging, and went up 9% this week, but are still 88% down. That does mean I can report on them again now they are better than 90% down.

SCT:Softcat had absolutely brilliant results and zoomed up 10% to go 3% in profit, and were one of the few good magic formula shares this week.

Share of the Week for the 2nd week in a row is SBTX:SkinBioTherapeutics, which went up 12% in anticipation of an imminent Croda deal. Experience tells me that nothing will happen before Christmas and this will drop like a brick.

Here's the ISA and shares portfolio after week 13 of year 10.

			Weekly Change
Cash	£76.90		+£32.85
Portfolio cost	£111,273.84		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price-commission)	£40,936.39	(-63.2%)	+£27.64
Potential profits	£0		-£61.84
Yr 10 Dividends	£53.50		+£32.85
Yr 10 Interest	£0.37		+£0
Yr 10 Profit from sales	£243.66		+£0
Yr 10 proj avg monthly profit	£90.81	(1.3%)	+£4.29
Total Dividends	£12,275.99		+£32.85
Total Interest	£7.17		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£18,121.50		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£269.48	(4.0%)	+£0.26
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)
Compound performance	37%		+0%

OPTI:Optibiotix dropped 0.5p but the rise in SBTX:SkinBiotheapeutics was enough to counter it, and the portfolio ended £27 better than last week. CWR:Ceres Power dropped yet again and all my potential profits are wiped out. The £32 dividend was from CAML:Central Asia Metals.

Flattened out from the relentless fall.

Still well below the trend line.

The SIPP looks like this after week 465 overall and week 49 of year 9.

			Weekly Change
Cash	£219.37		+£87.58
Portfolio cost	£118,243.38		+£194.97
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£58,934.06	(-50.2%)	-£1,059.71
Potential profits	£5,221.17		-£672.34
Yr 9 Dividends	£1,426.74		+£220.05
Yr 9 Interest	£6.45		+£0
Yr 9 Profit from sales	£5,606.15		+£0
Yr 9 proj avg monthly profit	£604.21	(9.2%)	+£7.28
Total Dividends	£16,061.62		+£220.05
Total Interest	£12.38		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£16,442.05		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£290.30	(4.4%)	+£1.43
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)
Compound performance	40%		+1%

I got a tax rebate plus a £220 dividend from CAML:Central Asia Metals, so although I prefer not to spend more than £500 in one transaction, because AJ Bell commission is only £5 I bought another 4,169 shares in JLP:Jubilee Metals at 4.5568p costing £194.97. They have frozen at 4.5p and I'm convinced that's the minimum the big seller will allow them to be sold for, so in theory we shouldn't drop below this price unless they get desperate and accept less.

Potential profits were hammered by £672 as lots of profitable shares had big drops, and the portfolio ended up losing £1,059.

So depressing that I came within a whisker of crossing the injection line a few months ago, but now it's as far away as ever.

Worst situation for the last 12 months at least, and I may have to adjust the Y axis next week if we cross £60k deficit.

The trading account looks like this after week 431 overall and week 15 of year 9.

			Weekly Change
Cash	£63.39		+£0
Portfolio cost	£2,073.87		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£1,180.98	(-43.1%)	+£41.43
Potential profits	£26.80		+£26.80
Year 9 Dividends	£0		+£0
Year 9 Interest	£0		+£0
Year 9 Profit	£0		+£0
Yr 8 proj avg monthly profit	£0	(+0%)	+£0
Dividends	£85.46		+£0
Interest	£0.03		+£0
Profit from sales	-£602.54		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	-£5.20	(-3.0%)	+£0.01
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

A great week, with JLP:Jubilee Metals up 1% and SBTX:SkinBioTherapeutics up 12%, so that resulted in a £41 improvement, but most importantly, SBTX is in profit by £26! It's at 16p and my target is 23p so I may have a while to wait.

It's a tick up, but still looking grim.

Still well below the trend line, and that's pointing down now.

It's the PBX:Probiotix Health general meeting this week. I've voted, so just a case of waiting to see whether the CEO managed to block OPTI:Optibiotix from voting. If he did then it's not a done deal that he'll be sacked, but there's still a reasonable chance.

The main question is whether the JLP:Jubilee Metals seller will finish and hopefully take the brakes off the share price. Ideally I need it to happen next week, as I want to buy back the CAML:Central Asia Metals shares I sold, and preferably double my holding.

Week 480 Review - What would have been a great week ruined by Optibiotix vs Probiotix spat.

There were some brilliant gains this week, but unfortunately OPTI:Optibiotix and PBX:Probiotix have gone to war and both suffered big losses which absolutely hammered my portfolio. The deficit between cost and value widened by £3,274 to £129,549 and deficit between injection amount and value went up to £60,966. Total portfolio value dropped to £102,086 despite a £2k injection.

Biggest faller was PBX:Probiotix Health which lost all its recent gains and dropped 20% because it's almost certain the CEO will be sacked in a few weeks. I've certainly voted to sack him after he has shown utter contempt for PBX shareholders ever since he's been in position.

CWR:Ceres Power had a miserable week, dropping 18% and wiping out virtually all the potential profits from the recent rise. Given they have just become a FTSE 250 company, this is rather shocking, and lays waste any arguments that FTSE shares are more stable than AIM.

OPTI:Optibiotix went down 11%, partly due to the spat with PBX, especially given the CEO is in hospital and won't be able to work for a few more weeks, just as his company is under the biggest threat it has ever suffered.

AFC:AFC Energy has been an absolute disaster and dropped another 9% this week to go 58% down, when they were in profit just a few months ago.

ATYM:Atalaya Mining had a bad week after lackluster results, and dropped 6% to go 18% down.

Those were the big fallers, and unfortunately a couple are some of my biggest holdings, so although there were loads of big gains, they couldn't compete with these big losses.

FXPO:Ferrexpo seem to be a perfect trading share at the moment. They went up 18% this week, but I report on them at the beginning because they were 90% down and so not being reported on, but now are 89% down so I figure I should give them a mention. If my trading account wasn't a disaster I think I'd be trading these as they go up and down by 20%+ on a regular basis.

CORE:Solidcore Resources went up 5%. Still no sign of them re-listing in the UK, and they are still down by 83%, but if they do re-list and re-instate the dividend then they may still work out ok in the long run.

GAW:Games Workshop hovered around break-even for ages, but now seem to have forged ahead. They climbed 5% this week and are now 28% up, so I'm hoping that's enough of a buffer to keep them in the black for good.

IHP:Integrafin are doing what GAW used to do and hovering around break-even. They also went up 5% this week and are only 2% down now.

PSN:Persimmon are another 5% climber this week, and are now up by 15%. I don't think that's enough to guarantee staying in profit long term, but it's not bad.

CMCL:Caledonia Mining went up 6% and are already up by 23%. Given I sold EDV:Endeavour Mining to buy these, they have only just recovered the losses from the Burkina Faso nationalisation scare, whereas I've recouped my losses and gained some more by doing the switch. These are also way higher up my magic formula ranking than EDV so I don't regret the change.

SAE:Simec Atlantis Energy have been quite volatile recently. They went up 6% this week but are still 79% down.

AJB:AJ Bell has been one of my best investments. They went up 8% after really good results and are now 59% up since I bought them.

PAF:Pan African Resources has been absolutely amazing, and went up another 9% this week. My first holding is now up by 118%, with my other holding up 47% after buying more at a higher price.

ASHM:Ashmore Group had a brilliant week, climbing 10% presumably as favour is returning to emerging markets. They are still 23% down, but I'm hopeful they will recover that.

Share of the Week is SBTX:SkinBioTherapeutics which went up 16% after going up 17% last week. They are still well down, but seem to have some great momentum, and any announcement of a Croda deal should rocket them into profitability.

Here's the ISA and shares portfolio after week 12 of year 10.

			Weekly Change
Cash	£44.05		+£3.70
Portfolio cost	£111,273.84		+£85.66
Portfolio sell value (bid price-commission)	£40,908.75	(-63.2%)	-£2,152.65
Potential profits	£61.84		-£360.16
Yr 10 Dividends	£20.65		+£0
Yr 10 Interest	£0.37		+£0.03
Yr 10 Profit from sales	£243.66		+£93.91
Yr 10 proj avg monthly profit	£86.52	(1.3%)	+£27.34
Total Dividends	£12,243.14		+£0
Total Interest	£7.17		+£0.03
Total Profit from sales	£18,121.50		+£93.91
Average monthly cash profit	£269.74	(4.0%)	+£0.25
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)
Compound performance	37%		+1%

There was some activity this week. I've been on a bit of an epic buying spree for JLP:Jubilee Metals, as if I interpret what's happening correctly, the institution that's selling everything has put a minimum sell price of 4.5p, because we've been sat at the same price for weeks despite there apparently being millions of sells. What's actually happening is there are millions of buys at around 4.524p, so I think the institution is selling at 4.5p to meet those buys. The market makers get the 0.024p for each transaction, but if they are getting through 4.5 million sells and buys a day, that's still £10,800 a day profit.

Based on that theory, I don't see the price dropping below 4.5p, which should mean it's reached the low point, and as soon as the institution finishes selling, assuming demand remains the same, then the price should rocket upwards. No doubt I'll be proved wrong next week, but I can't think of another reason for the current price action.

Meanwhile OPTI:Optibiotix is engaged in an absolute shit-show with PBX:Probiotix and I'm more nervous than I've ever been about the long term future of both companies. A couple of my OPTI purchases were below the current share price so I decided to sell them so I could buy some JLP. I sold 10,394 OPTI shares at 12.6211p and made £93.92 (7.7%) profit. Not a lot, but enough to buy 28,324 JLP shares at 4.518p costing £1,291.63.

Potential profits were almost entirely wiped out, losing £360 as the CWR:Ceres Power share price collapsed.

Huge £2k drop in value thanks to OPTI and PBX.

Might have known last week would have been a temporary blip.

Nothing if not consistent.

The SIPP looks like this after week 464 overall and week 48 of year 9.

			Weekly Change
Cash	£131.79		-£2.64
Portfolio cost	£118,048.40		+£2,152.79
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£59,798.79	(-49.3%)	-£1,170.22
Potential profits	£5,893.51		+£840.41
Yr 9 Dividends	£1,206.69		+£80.95
Yr 9 Interest	£6.45		+£0.10
Yr 9 Profit from sales	£5,606.15		+£71.79
Yr 9 proj avg monthly profit	£596.93	(9.1%)	+£1.15
Total Dividends	£15,841.57		+£80.95
Total Interest	£12.38		+£0.10
Total Profit from sales	£16,442.05		+£71.79
Average monthly cash profit	£288.87	(4.4%)	+£0.78
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)
Compound performance	39%		-1%

There was even more action in my SIPP this week, partly because my £2,000 transfer came through. I was planning to get N91:Ninety One and POLR:Polar Capital Holdings, but the JLP:Jubilee Metals story is too enticing so I bought 45,736 shares at 4.524p costing £2,081.05.

I didn't stop there though. Despite CAML:Central Asia Metals being one of my favourite companies, I have already qualified for the dividend and there's not another one until next year, so I decided to sell a big chunk of them to move into JLP. I sold 2,060 shares at 182.0365p making £71.79 (1.9%) profit. Quite a puny profit, but it would be 14% if you include existing dividends, and there's another big dividend next week so it will be 20%+. I bought 82,361 JLP shares at 4.524p costing £3,737.96.

My JLP holding across all account is now 571,879 shares costing £38,008.84. I intend to hold my ISA shares long term, but I will sell 268,516 from other accounts for relatively small gains. I already have target prices for selling all of those, ranging from 9p to 12.5p. If everything goes to plan, I should make £11,533 profit on these shares and liberate £29,675 for magic formula shares, while still sitting on £40k profit in my ISA and maybe some dividends. All that would happen if the JLP share price gets to 20p, which I'm absolutely sure it will. I have however been know to be wrong in the past... JLP has been good to me over the years, with total realised profits of £14,259 making it one of my best investments. Troubling that I would have lost the lot if I'd not sold them.

Although portfolio value dropped by £1,170, potential profits went up by £870 thanks to big gains for many of my profitable shares. I also got a £80 dividend from IGG:IG Group.

Don't be fooled by the injection-let up-tick

That's more like it! Not as grim as the ISA but still the worst position in the last 12 months.

The trading account looks like this after week 430 overall and week 14 of year 9.

			Weekly Change
Cash	£63.39		+£0
Portfolio cost	£2,073.87		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£1,139.55	(-45.1%)	+£48.04
Potential profits	£0		+£0
Year 9 Dividends	£0		+£0
Year 9 Interest	£0		+£0
Year 9 Profit	£0		+£0
Yr 8 proj avg monthly profit	£0	(+0%)	+£0
Dividends	£85.46		+£0
Interest	£0.03		+£0
Profit from sales	-£602.54		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	-£5.21	(-3.0%)	+£0.01
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

JLP:Jubilee Metals went up 1% and SBTX:SkinBioTherapeutix went up 16%, so the account gained £48 and SBTX is only down on commission. My target sell price is 23.5p and we're on 14.25p, so it may be a while yet, unless there's a Croda announcement.

Nice to see one of the accounts showing signs of revival

It's a healthy up-tick, but still way below the trend line and that's likely to swing downwards next week or the week after.

I was really hoping OPTI:Optibiotix and PBX:Probiotix would get around a table and sort out their differences, but the circular sent out by OPTI:Optibiotix suggests relations fell apart months ago, with OPTI convinced the CEO is trying to take the company private at a pittance. That could very well be the case, as the recent investor got in at rock-bottom prices and may have the capital to try and buy up the rest if the CEO keeps the price low. Having said that, there have been more communications since the investor came on board than in the whole period since IPO, and the share price would have been almost double what he came in on if it wasn't for the emergency meeting and threat of sacking the CEO, so it makes me question if that's the long-term plan, or was it just to get his mate 25% of the company dirt cheap before making some effort at increasing the share price. Whatever the motives, nothing he has done was for the benefit of existing shareholders, so despite the short term issues it will cause for the business, he really needs to go. I do worry that we'll be mired in legal shenanigans for months, and neither company can really afford that.

Week 479 Review - A positive week, but Jubilee Metals continues to slide.

There wasn't much change this week, although the relentless slide of JLP:Jubilee Metals continued. JLP trading volumes were way up, so could it be that more people want to buy and so the institution shutting down their position can complete faster? I hope so! I may have bought some more...

The week was saved by a decent rise for PBX:Probiotix Health, so the deficit between cost and value narrowed by £1,055 to £126,274 and between injection amount and value to £57,931. Total portfolio value is £103,121.

AFC:AFC Energy was the worst performer, and dropped 16% after a 17% fall last week. The only possible reasons I can think of are a massive short or the recent rise was a blip following the cash raise. Unfortunately they have now halved since I bought them, so yet another failure.

SAE:Simec Atlantis Energy dropped 11% and the recent rally appears short lived.

AAL:Anglo American Mining fell furthest of my copper stocks, but all were down this week. AAL dropped 5% but are still only 8% down, so I'm hoping for them to go into the black soon.

PSN:Persimmon suffered from some panic selling in house builders and dropped 5% but are still 9% up.

Only two big risers this week, and both microbiome shares. OPTI:Optibiotix remained flat, but SBTX:SkinBioTherapeutics went up 17% after announcing another acquisition, and this time with sensible financing. There's anticipation of a Croda announcement this year too, so they may overtake OPTI if no news comes from there.

Share of the Week is PBX:Probiotix Health which zoomed up 43% after a decent set of results and announcing a few new deals. Let's hope some agreement can be made on the recent share issue to prevent half the board being sacked next month.

Here's the ISA and shares portfolio after week 11 of year 10.

			Weekly Change
Cash	£40.35		+£0
Portfolio cost	£111,188.18		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price-commission)	£42,975.74	(-61.3%)	+£571.09
Potential profits	£422.00		+£6.98
Yr 10 Dividends	£20.65		+£0
Yr 10 Interest	£0.34		+£0
Yr 10 Profit from sales	£149.75		+£0
Yr 10 proj avg monthly profit	£59.18	(0.9%)	-£5.92
Total Dividends	£12,243.14		+£0
Total Interest	£7.14		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£18,027.59		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£269.49	(4.0%)	-£0.57
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)
Compound performance	36%		+0%

Tiny increase in potential profits as CWR:Ceres Power nudged up, and although nice to see a rise in portfolio value, it's tiny compared to recent losses.

Will it last more than a week?

Well below the trend line still.

The SIPP looks like this after week 463 overall and week 47 of year 9.

			Weekly Change
Cash	£134.43		-£304.61
Portfolio cost	£115,895.61		+£329.95
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£58,816.22	(-49.3%)	+£473.14
Potential profits	£5,053.10		-£190.90
Yr 9 Dividends	£1,125.74		+£36.62
Yr 9 Interest	£6.35		+£0
Yr 9 Profit from sales	£5,534.36		-£136.28
Yr 9 proj avg monthly profit	£595.78	(9.3%)	-£22.34
Total Dividends	£15,760.62		+£36.62
Total Interest	£12.28		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£16,370.26		-£136.28
Average monthly cash profit	£288.09	(4.5%)	-£1.56
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)
Compound performance	40%		+0%

Quite a lot going on.

First there was the announcement by the President of Burkina Faso that they are contemplating revoking some mining licenses so they can produce their own gold. That caused a drop in the EDV:Endeavour Mining share price, as they have several of their mines there. I've been concerned about EDV for a while, as they should be way higher up my magic formula list, so I decided not to risk them losing out, seeing as I have a bad track record for this sort of thing. I sold my 51 shares for 1642.574p after paying 1942.548p and took a £181.84 (17.5%) loss. However, if you include the £65 dividends it's more like a 12% loss.

I wanted to keep gold money in gold, so added to my holding in PAF:Pan African Resources. I bought 2,834 shares at 35.2775p costing £1,016.71.

I also had my monthly investment this week, buying another 4 shares in FOUR:4imprint at 5249.1909p per share costing £212.52. They did their usual trick of increasing in value just before I bought them and dropping afterwards. I do wonder if the market makers are looking at all the monthly savings schemes and ensuring they have to buy as high as possible. Just another 2 month of buying these before I switch to something else.

The sell-off of JLP:Jubilee Metals has accelerated this week, with huge volumes, but the price is holding. That suggests the demand is as strong as the seller, and once the seller is finished, there could be a very rapid re-rate. I decided I needed to buy some more while they are so low, and looked at shares I could sell that don't qualify as a magic formula share but are in profit. The only one was NG.:National Grid. I know it's in my SIPP and I'm only meant to buy dividend-paying shares in my SIPP, but I see this as a rare opportunity to get cheap shares I can sell fairly soon and use the proceeds for more dividend-paying shares. I know that tactic has failed me in the past, but everything indicates the JLP share price should be at least double what it is now.

I sold my 126 NG.:National Grid shares for 992.934p and made £45.56 (4.2%) profit, or 7% if you include the £39 dividend.

I bought 28,736 shares in JLP:Jubilee Metals at 4.489p costing £1,301.91. They are 4.45p to sell, so not far below my purchase price. My target is to sell at 9p for around 100% profit and buy dividend paying shares with the proceeds.

I got £36 in dividends, made up of £15 from EDV:Endeavour Mining, £9 from GSK:GSK and £11 from PAGE:Pagegroup.

Potential profit actually fell by £190, but portfolio value went up by £473. My performance suffered a little due to taking the loss.

Same as ISA

A bit closer to the trend line in this one, but still below it.

The trading account looks like this after week 429 overall and week 13 of year 9.

			Weekly Change
Cash	£63.39		+£0
Portfolio cost	£2,073.87		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£1,091.51	(-47.4%)	+£11.12
Potential profits	£0		+£0
Year 9 Dividends	£0		+£0
Year 9 Interest	£0		+£0
Year 9 Profit	£0		+£0
Yr 8 proj avg monthly profit	£0	(+0%)	+£0
Dividends	£85.46		+£0
Interest	£0.03		+£0
Profit from sales	-£602.54		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	-£5.22	(-3.0%)	+£0.01
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

JLP:Jubilee Metals slipped a little, but SBTX:SkinBioTherapeutics went up more, so potential profit improved by £11. Seems like a long time since I could say that!

A very slight tick upwards.

Still very grim, but for this week I managed to avoid having to adjust the Y axis.

I've realised that my JLP:Jubilee Metals holding has now sneaked up to 415,458, making it by far my biggest holding in terms of number of shares, and at a cost of £30,898.20 my 2nd largest holding other than OPTI:Optibiotix by some margin. The way things currently stand, I'm less concerned about the long term future of JLP than I am for OPTI, which is saying something given they are an African miner! I guess it is still high risk, but surely the current seller has to run out of shares soon?

I have £2,000 arriving in my SIPP this week. Do I stick to my plan and buy N91:Ninety One and POLR:Polar Capital Holdings, or do I get a great big pile of JLP:Jubilee Metals? Decisions, decisions...

Week 478 Review - More misery as Optibiotix and Jubilee Metals both drop yet again.

Absolute total misery. Things are meant to buck up in September, but nearly everything fell in value this week, and most notably OPTI:Optibiotix and JLP:Jubilee Metals, my two largest holdings continue to slide. My deficit between cost and value widened by £3,733 to £127,324 and deficit between injection amount and value is now £58,887. Portfolio value dropped to £102,040 and is dangerously close to slipping below £100k despite a load of recent injections of cash.

AFC:AFC Energy was the worst performer, dropping 17% for absolutely no reason at all. These are now 44% down after being in profit not that long ago.

SAE:Simec Atlantis Energy slipped another 10% to go 78% down.

TLOU:Tlou Energy has been a dreadfully timed purchase, as it's clear the production of electricity is still a lot further away than I thought when I bought back in. They dropped 8% to go 31% down in just a few weeks.

OPTI:Optibiotix continue to slide relentlessly, dropping another 7% this week. There's no sign of any positive news and everything is going tits up with PBX:Probiotix Health where we either sack the CEO and half the board or allow dodgy dealings to dilute 25% of the company from us. I'm down over £84,000 on OPTI, £17,000 on PBX, and £4,800 on SBTX:SkinBioTherapeutics. That's a paper loss of £105,000 just on microbiome shares, after already losing £18,700 when DDDD:4D Pharma went bust. There is no prospect of any upside anywhere. I've never felt so bad about owning shares in these bloody companies!

FXPO:Ferrexpo are very volatile. They dropped 6% and are now 91% down so I don't need to report on them any more.

JLP:Jubilee Metals went up last week for the first time in ages, and I hoped the big seller was gone. However they are still selling, and results this week were underwhelming, with a huge drop in earnings per share due to recent placings. They dropped 6% this week.

GSK:GSK are still being rubbish and dropped another 5% to go 11% down.

CMCL:Caledonia Mining did really well last week, and went up another 5% this week to make me very happy. They are now 12% in profit.

PAF:Pan African Resources went up 7% and one holding has turned purple as it's now up by 102%.

Share of the Week for the 2nd week in a row is CWR:Ceres Power, climbing another 12% to go 27% up. I really hope this isn't a short-term spike, as I'd like one ISA share to be capable of staying in the black.

Here's the ISA and shares portfolio after week 10 of year 10.

			Weekly Change
Cash	£40.35		+£17.11
Portfolio cost	£111,188.18		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price-commission)	£42,404.65	(-61.9%)	-£2,241.42
Potential profits	£415.02		+£202.42
Yr 10 Dividends	£20.65		+£20.65
Yr 10 Interest	£0.34		+£0.23
Yr 10 Profit from sales	£149.75		+£0
Yr 10 proj avg monthly profit	£65.10	(1.0%)	+£1.02
Total Dividends	£12,243.14		+£20.65
Total Interest	£7.14		+£0.23
Total Profit from sales	£18,027.59		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£270.07	(4.0%)	-£0.41
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)
Compound performance	36%		+0%

Big drop in portfolio value as usual. I got £9 dividend from CAPD:Capital and £11 from WHR:Warehouse REIT, and potential profits went up another £202 thanks to CWR:Ceres Power.

Still the relentless decline

I can now safely say the rise a few months ago was nothing more than a blip.

The SIPP looks like this after week 462 overall and week 46 of year 9.

			Weekly Change
Cash	£439.04		+£322.90
Portfolio cost	£115,565.66		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£58,013.13	(-49.8%)	-£1,444.27
Potential profits	£5,244.00		+£209.99
Yr 9 Dividends	£1,089.12		+£87.72
Yr 9 Interest	£6.35		+£1.37
Yr 9 Profit from sales	£5,670.64		+£0
Yr 9 proj avg monthly profit	£618.12	(9.7%)	-£6.77
Total Dividends	£15,724.00		+£87.72
Total Interest	£12.28		+£1.37
Total Profit from sales	£16,506.54		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£289.65	(4.5%)	+£0.05
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)
Compound performance	40%		+0%

Cash increased due to monthly investment cash being paid in, the usual big drop in portfolio value, but the usual increase in potential profits, this week by £209. Lots of dividends, with £13 from AAL:Anglo American Mining, £31 from APAX:Apax Global Alpha, £10 from CAPD:Capital and £32 from CEY:Centamin. One more bad week and I'll be down by over 50%.

Very familiar story.

Blip blippety blip.

The trading account looks like this after week 428 overall and week 12 of year 9.

			Weekly Change
Cash	£63.39		+£0
Portfolio cost	£2,073.87		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£1,080.39	(-47.9%)	-£47.84
Potential profits	£0		+£0
Year 9 Dividends	£0		+£0
Year 9 Interest	£0		+£0
Year 9 Profit	£0		+£0
Yr 8 proj avg monthly profit	£0	(+0%)	+£0
Dividends	£85.46		+£0
Interest	£0.03		+£0
Profit from sales	-£602.54		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	-£5.23	(-3.0%)	+£0.02
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Absolute carnage, with a big drop in JLP:Jubilee Metals showing I was completely wrong thinking things had turned around last week. In fact they are much worse, and it's looking like a long wait for any reversal. I'm dreading news that they are placing a load more shares to buy more copper reserves - it's going to happen at some point, which is probably one of the reasons for all the selling.

Nearly 6 months of continual decline.

If things don't turn around next week I'll have to adjust the chart axis as we'll go bellow £1,000 in the red.

I have at least written this update on time, and also completed the 2 previous weeks that I couldn't bring myself to write. Suffice to say I'm extremely miserable, and wish I'd adopted my new strategy a long time ago so I didn't have any crappy microbiome shares in my SIPP. I should be getting a £2,000 pension transfer this week, but Legal & General have become incredibly slow at processing the transfer requests recently. They always send me a questionnaire afterwards, so I think this time I'll complete it and have a moan. 

I was planning to get N91:Ninety One with half the transfer, but they have gone up 15% in the last few weeks so I may have missed my chance. Having said that, they are still half what the were a few years ago and with a P/E ratio of 10, so although I've missed out on 15% I may still get them in time. Knowing my luck they will plummet the day after I buy them.

My other target purchase is POLR:Polar Capital Holdings, which I've held in the past. They pay a great dividend. They've had a bit of a drop recently, but are fairly stable with P/E ratio of 13, so no worries about buying back into them.

I'm also due my monthly investment in FOUR:4imprint where I'll buy another 4 shares. They are fractionally below what I've already paid for them, whereas a few weeks ago they were well below. As usual my monthly investment target surges just before I buy them then drop just after! I normally get the same share for 4 months to take me to £1,000, but these are leaving quite a lot of change and I'll be well under that, so I'll continue buying them for a 5th month to make sure I invest over £1,000.

Week 477 Review - Optibiotix drags the portfolio down yet again.

It was a mixed week, with some big fallers but plenty of big climbers. Unfortunately the biggest faller was OPTI:Optibiotix, which dropped 2p and that took over £4,000 off my portfolio value. Fortunately gains elsewhere meant the deficit only widened by £3,372 to £123,591 and deficit between injection amount and value went up to £55,243. Total portfolio value dropped to £105,434.

OPTI:Optibiotix was the worst performer, dropping 12% after predictably underwhelming interim results. Given the fiasco with the way both SBTX:SkinBioTherapeutics and PBX:Probiotix Health are being run, and given the vast losses I suffered when DDDD:4D Pharma went bust, I'm concerned that my faith in microbiome shares was horribly misplaced. I guess it was a binary chance. I was either going to do really well or really badly, but it's currently looking like none of the promises being made are ever coming to anything. There have just been a relentless series of disappointments, and nothing is pointing to that ever changing. Buying more in my ISA the other week was a daft thing to do, as my SIPP holdings will never be sellable other than at a huge loss.

SAE:Simec Atlantis Energy fell 9% and are now 75% down, and the brief excitement of a few weeks ago seems to have been forgotten.

TRX:Tissue Regenix dropped 9% completely out of the blue. I thought this had turned a corner, but once again I was wrong.

CORE:Solidcore Resources was Share of the Week last week, climbing 10%, but gave back a significant proportion, dropping 6% this week.

APAX:Apax Global Alpha fell another 5% to go 26% down, and is one of my poorly performing magic formula shares. I have had £145 dividends though, so I'm only really down 13%.

PAGE:Pagegroup reversed their serial decline and went up 5% and are now 22% down.

ATYM:Atalaya Mining had a great week as commodity prices surged, climbing 8% and are only 9% down now.

CMCL:Caledonia Mining went up 8% and into profit, with my holding up by 7%. That's while CEY:Centamin is standing still, so I think selling was the right thing to do.

RIO:Rio Tinto went up 11% after slipping for months. They are only 11% down now.

AAL:Anglo American Mining did even better than the other miners, climbing 14% to go just 3% down.

Share of the Week is CWR:Ceres Power, who produced a terrific set of results and zoomed up 29% to go into profit by 14%. One of my speculative ISA shares is finally doing something positive!

Here's the ISA and shares portfolio after week 9 of year 10.

			Weekly Change
Cash	£23.24		+£0
Portfolio cost	£111,188.18		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price-commission)	£44,645.74	(-59.8%)	-£1,723.79
Potential profits	£212.60		+£212.60
Yr 10 Dividends	£0		+£0
Yr 10 Interest	£0.11		+£0
Yr 10 Profit from sales	£149.75		+£0
Yr 10 proj avg monthly profit	£64.08	(0.9%)	-£8.01
Total Dividends	£12,222.49		+£0
Total Interest	£6.91		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£18,027.59		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£270.47	(4.0%)	-£0.57
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)
Compound performance	36%		+0%

Big drop thanks to OPTI:Optibiotix, but potential profit up from £0 to £212 thanks to CWR:Ceres Power.

And still the decline continues.

Horrid.

The SIPP looks like this after week 461 overall and week 45 of year 9.

			Weekly Change
Cash	£116.14		-£105.65
Portfolio cost	£115,565.66		+£503.47
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£59,457.40	(-48.5%)	-£1,664.68
Potential profits	£5,034.01		+£102.69
Yr 9 Dividends	£1,001.40		+£22.82
Yr 9 Interest	£4.98		+£0
Yr 9 Profit from sales	£5,670.64		+£0
Yr 9 proj avg monthly profit	£624.89	(9.8%)	-£11.95
Total Dividends	£15,636.28		+£22.82
Total Interest	£10.91		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£16,506.54		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£289.60	(4.6%)	-£0.41
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)
Compound performance	40%		+0%

I had built up around £250 cash from tax rebates and dividends, so I added another £250 and topped up my holding in IPX:Impax Asset Management, as they are top of my magic formula rankings and the price is still very low. I bought 127 shares at 392.497p costing £503.47. They promptly fell in value some more.

Portfolio value dropped for reasons already stated, but despite that, potential profits grew by £102 and are now above £5,000. I also got a £22 dividend from RIO:Rio Tinto.

Grumble grumble...

Well below the trend line and dragging it lower.

The trading account looks like this after week 427 overall and week 11 of year 9.

			Weekly Change
Cash	£63.39		+£0
Portfolio cost	£2,073.87		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£1,128.23	(-45.6%)	+£15.95
Potential profits	£0		+£0
Year 9 Dividends	£0		+£0
Year 9 Interest	£0		+£0
Year 9 Profit	£0		+£0
Yr 8 proj avg monthly profit	£0	(+0%)	+£0
Dividends	£85.46		+£0
Interest	£0.03		+£0
Profit from sales	-£602.54		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	-£5.25	(-3.0%)	+£0.01
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Amazingly this went up thanks to a 0.1p rise in JLP:Jubilee Metals. Is this the start of the turnaround?

Onward and upwards from here!

The trend line still points up...

A week late writing this up. It would be nice to have a positive week so I actually want to write this!

Week 476 Review - Dreadful week for all microbiome shares widens deficit.

A mixed week with some big risers and fallers, but a dreadful week for all my microbiome shares led to a widening in the deficit between cost and value of £4,951 to £120,218 and the deficit between injection and amount and value grew to £52,014. Total portfolio value dropped to £108,413.

SBTX:SkinBioTherapeutics plummeted 16%, PBX:Probiotix Health dropped a similar 13% and OPTI:Optibiotix dropped 8%, so looks like the microbiome is well out of favour. It could also be that there's no demonstrable progress from any of the companies.

GSK:GSK has been utterly rubbish lately and dropped 6% this week, which is a lot for a big global company.

IGG:IG Group has been on a really good run, but gave up 6% of recent gains this week. They are still up by 10% though.

ALU:Alumasc Group continue to impress, with a 6% rise taking them to 46% up in a very short amount of time.

ASHM:Ashmore Group have been realy struggling, but climbed 8% this week. They are still 28% down though.

Share of the Week is CORE:Solidcore Resources, which finally reacted to the increase in gold prices and went up by 10%. This puts them 83% down, but I can start reporting on them again. I still await their London re-listing now all ties with Russia are gone.

Here's the ISA and shares portfolio after week 8 of year 10.

			Weekly Change
Cash	£23.24		-£4.56
Portfolio cost	£111,188.18		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price-commission)	£46,369.53	(-58.3%)	-£3,137.13
Potential profits	£0		+£0
Yr 10 Dividends	£0		+£0
Yr 10 Interest	£0.11		+£0
Yr 10 Profit from sales	£149.75		+£0
Yr 10 proj avg monthly profit	£72.09	(1.1%)	-£13.13
Total Dividends	£12,222.49		+£0
Total Interest	£6.91		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£18,027.59		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£271.04	(4.0%)	-£0.61
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)
Compound performance	36%		+0%

Very little happened other than the portfolio value dropping horribly. The drop in cash was partly monthly fees and partly doing a cross-check to the actual accounts. Not sure where I lost 81p, but it's probably an AJ Bell fee.

Looks better than it really is

Looks as bad as it really is

The SIPP looks like this after week 460 overall and week 44 of year 9.

			Weekly Change
Cash	£221.79		+£18.58
Portfolio cost	£115,062.19		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£60,623.61	(-47.3%)	-£1,754.45
Potential profits	£4,931.32		+£402.77
Yr 9 Dividends	£978.58		+£21.21
Yr 9 Interest	£4.98		+£0
Yr 9 Profit from sales	£5,670.64		+£0
Yr 9 proj avg monthly profit	£636.84	(10.0%)	-£12.94
Total Dividends	£15,613.46		+£21.21
Total Interest	£10.91		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£16,506.54		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£290.01	(4.6%)	-£0.46
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)
Compound performance	40%		+0%

I got £7 dividend from ATYM:Atalaya Mining, £2 from my miniscule holding in FOUR:4imprint and £11 from GAW:Games Workshop. Potential profits went up £402 thanks to my gold miners and magic formula shares, but portfolio value dropped significantly. I want to lose my microbiome shares from the SIPP but need them to increase by quite a lot before I'm prepared to sell.

Getting quite a long way from the injection line after coming so close a few months back.

Even this account has dropped below the trend line.

The trading account looks like this after week 426 overall and week 10 of year 9.

			Weekly Change
Cash	£63.39		+£0
Portfolio cost	£2,073.87		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£1,112.28	(-46.4%)	-£71.96
Potential profits	£0		+£0
Year 9 Dividends	£0		+£0
Year 9 Interest	£0		+£0
Year 9 Profit	£0		+£0
Yr 8 proj avg monthly profit	£0	(+0%)	+£0
Dividends	£85.46		+£0
Interest	£0.03		+£0
Profit from sales	-£602.54		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	-£5.26	(-3.0%)	+£0.01
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

What can I say - everything fell.

A progressive failure for around 4 months

I'm amazed the trend line is still pointing upwards.

I'm 3 weeks late writing this. The next 2 weeks don't get any better...