Week 555 Review - More losses, but a few decent gains result in a positive week.

The gains exceeded the losses this week, so I clawed back £2,674 of the £27k value I lost over the last 3 weeks. The deficit between cost and value now stands at £157,704 and the deficit between injection and value is £67,693. Total portfolio value rose to £114,645.

Worst performer was RDT:Rosslyn Data which announced a discounted placing and dropped 24% to the placing price. I may have been foolish, but participated the minimum amount possible to get my average price down to something that stands a chance of getting my money back. It means my holding is down by 81% instead of 103% now.

III:3i Group gave a reasonable trading update, but not reasonable enough for the market as they dropped 14% to take my holding 26% down. I don't mind as I'm still accumulating each month, so the next batch will be cheaper.

IES:Invinity Energy have been drifting on no news and drifted another 9% this week. Even my recent holding is 29% down and I thought I'd bought those at a low.

OPTI:Optibiotix fell another 9% and are now standing at 5p a share. That's about 90% down. I'm increasingly losing faith in them ever turning around.

FDM:FDM Group fell another 7% and are 68% down.

FNX:Fonix are a very recent purchase, but they dropped 6% to go 23% down.

FSG:Foresight Group Holdings are another recent buy, and dropped 5% to go 20% down.

Now for the good news.

JLP:Jubilee Metals, PAF:Pan African Resources, RIO:Rio Tinto and THX:Thor Explorations all went up 5% after a slight recovery in metals shares.

EDV:Endeavour Mining did better, climbing 8% to go 12% up overall.

PBX:Probiotix Health reversed last week's inexplicable drop and climbed 20%. It may just be down to the dodgy spread from last week being rectified.

SBTX:SkinBioTherapeutics also reversed last week's drop and went up 50%. I'm not sure it deserves Share of the Week though, as it's all a bit of a shit show. I'll give the award to EDV:Endeavour Mining.

Here's the ISA and shares portfolio after week 35 of year 11.

			Weekly Change
Cash	£110.32		+19.00
Portfolio cost	£116,490.29		+£101.00
Portfolio sell value (bid price-commission)	£32,022.42	(-72.5%)	+£1,271.99
Potential profits	£126.08		+£7.56
Yr 11 Dividends	£69.36		+£0
Yr 11 Interest	£1.15		+£0
Yr 11 Profit from sales	£873.14		+£0
Yr 11 proj avg monthly profit	£108.97	(1.5%)	-£3.21
Total Dividends	£12,557.43		+£0
Total Interest	£9.72		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£18,433.41		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£237.13	(3.3%)	-£0.43
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

I added £120 to my ISA so I could take part in the RDT:Rosslyn Data retail offer. I'm fairly certain they will never make a profit, but I decided it was worth risking £101 at 2p a share to get my average price down from 792p a share to 9p a share. At least there may be an outside chance of getting my money back, whereas I may as well give up waiting for 792p.

Clawed back £1,271 of my recent losses and potential profit went up £7 so still a complete car crash.

Not much of a tick up, but better than continuing down.

Still below the trend line

The SIPP looks like this after week 538 overall and week 18 of year 11.

			Weekly Change
Cash	£922.97		+£23.29
Portfolio cost	£154,826.09		+£99.12
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£81,589.53	(-47.3%)	+£1,402.56
Potential profits	£9,306.66		+£1,016.78
Yr 11 Dividends	£708.43		+£59.91
Yr 11 Interest	£6.32		+£0
Yr 11 Profit from sales	£8,076.47		+£0
Yr 11 proj avg monthly profit	£1,986.31	(24.9%)	-£95.92
Total Dividends	£18,928.63		+£59.91
Total Interest	£27.02		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£32,742.98		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£401.94	(5.0%)	-£0.27

I had a tax rebate so bought 78 shares in IPX:Impax Asset Management at 120.668p costing £99.12 to try and get my average price down a bit. I still think these have been battered too much for losing the St James' Place contract as it wasn't that big a percentage of their portfolio.

I had a £9 dividend from GAW:Games Workshop and a £50 special dividend from BPM:BP Marsh & Partners. Potential profits went up almost as much as portfolio value as most of the gains were in my already profitable gold mines.

Again, a very tiny tick up

A long way to go yet.

Might have another 3 weeks or so until the trend line catches us up.

There's still no sign of my dividend from PAF:Pan African Resources, but it looks like the same is happening to most investors, so the transfer to brokers must be delayed for some reason.

My pension transfer has been processed super quick this time, so the money should arrive before Easter. I haven't decided what to invest in yet. The top-ranked share I don't own is FRP:FRP Advisory Group, but they've had a very recent big drop in share price. I can't see any particular reason for it other than the Iran conflict, so I may get some of those.

The next one on the list is BYIT:Bytes Technology Group. Their recent trading update was pretty good. They have double digit growth and £98m cash. The problem is their share price has been falling continuously for 2 years, so I feel I should wait for that trend to turn around.

Next on my list is TAM:Tatton Asset Management. They have been growing steadily for years, but have had a blip over the last few months. I think that could be a good buying opportunity rather than the sign of a down trend developing, so they are a contender.

The alternative would be to invest in something I already hold. The only one I'd be tempted to include is ATYM:Atalya Mining after the recent massive drop in price. I may do that if they stay at the current level.

Week 554 Review - Absolute misery as the drop of 2 weeks ago is exceeded.

It's getting worse. The deficit between cost and value widened by a massive £12,696 this week, having now dropped £27k in the last 3 weeks. Deficit between injection and value widened to £70,490 and total portfolio value dropped to £111,728.

SBTX:SkinBioTherapeutics was the biggest loser, dropping another 40% as the potential fraud enquiry continues. 

PBX:Probiotix Health dropped 23% for absolutely no reason whatsoever.

ATYM:Atalya Mining fell a whopping 18% to go 27% down when in profit a few weeks agio.

GGP:Greatland Resources fell 17% but is still 36% up.

THX:Thor Explorations fell 16% and is now down by 27%.

JLP:Jubilee Metals fell another 15% and most of my holdings are around 75% down.

FDM:FDM Group fell another 13% and is now 66% down.

PAF:Pan African Resources fell 13% but is still 309% up. Maybe I should buy some more!

EDV:Endeavour Mining, MSI:MS International and W7L:Warpaint London all dropped 10%.

PAGE:Pagegroup fell another 9% to go 74% down.

III:3i Group and OPTI:Optibiotix both fell 8%.

AMRQ:Amaroq and KNOS:Kainos Group fell 7%.

IPX:Impax Asset Management, MGNS:Morgan Sindall Group and RIO:Rio Tinto fell 6%.

AFC:AFC Energy and ASHM:Ashmore Group both fell 5%.

Not much to celebrate there!

SCT:Softcat clawed back 5% if its recent losses but is still 23% down.

UKW:Greencoat UK Wind also clawed back 5% of losses and are now 35% down but paying a massive divi.

Share of the Week for the 2nd week in a row is SBRE:Sabre Insurance, which climbed another 6% and is now 5% in profit.

Here's the ISA and shares portfolio after week 34 of year 11.

			Weekly Change
Cash	£91.32		-£4.25
Portfolio cost	£116,389.29		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price-commission)	£30,649.43	(-73.7%)	-£5,072.76
Potential profits	£118.52		-£158.44
Yr 11 Dividends	£69.36		+£0
Yr 11 Interest	£1.15		+£0.30
Yr 11 Profit from sales	£873.14		+£0
Yr 11 proj avg monthly profit	£112.18	(1.6%)	-£3.95
Total Dividends	£12,557.43		+£0
Total Interest	£9.72		+£0.30
Total Profit from sales	£18,433.41		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£237.56	(3.3%)	-£0.46
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Cash went down due to monthly fees, portfolio value dropped a massive £5,072 and most of my potential profits were wiped out, but good news - I got 30p interest!.

Absolute disaster

Doomed.

Don't care any more.

The SIPP looks like this after week 538 overall and week 18 of year 11.

			Weekly Change
Cash	£899.68		+£77.45
Portfolio cost	£154,726.97		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£80,087.85	(-48.2%)	-£7,523.33
Potential profits	£8,289.88		-£2,509.20
Yr 11 Dividends	£648.52		+£81.52
Yr 11 Interest	£6.32		+£0.06
Yr 11 Profit from sales	£8,076.47		+£0
Yr 11 proj avg monthly profit	£2,082.23	(26.1%)	-£102.75
Total Dividends	£18,868.72		+£81.52
Total Interest	£27.02		+£0.06
Total Profit from sales	£32,742.98		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£402.21	(5.0%)	-£0.12

An even more massive drop in value of £7,523 and £2,509 wiped off potential profits. I did get an £81 dividend from IPX:Impax Asset Management but I was also meant to get a dividend from PAF:Pan African Resources but it hasn't appeared yet.

One lousy week of happiness and now it's a wipe-out.

Just as the trend line was about to change direction, now we're at an all-time low.

I'm not going to be selling anything for a while, so this chart will start to slide and soon dip below the trend line.

Nothing more to say. Too miserable. I don't know why I even bother any more.

Week 553 Review - Another bad week with big losses in my SIPP.

Compared to last week, this week was really good, but it was still utterly horrid. The deficit between cost and value widened by £3,156 to £147,782 and the deficit between injection and value widened to £57,967. Total portfolio value fell to £124,251.

The worst performer was FOUR:4imprint after lackluster results. They fell 11% and are now 16% down.

All the miners were hammered, which was a surprise given gold is still about $5,000 and copper has hardly dropped. AMRQ:Amaroq was worst affected, dropping 10%.

W7L:Warpaint London also dropped 10% and have dropped to a 10% loss.

GGP:Greatland Resources and PAF:Pan African Resources both fell 9%, but at least PAF had the excuse of going ex-divi.

AFC:AFC Energy, ATYM:Atalya Mining, SBTX:SkinBioTherapeutics and THX:Thor Explorations all dropped 7%.

FDM:FDM Group, INVP:Investec and JHD:James Halstead fell 6%.

EDV:Endeavour Mining, N91:Ninety One and PAGE:Pagegroup fell 5%.

CKN:Clarkson are still benefitting from the shipping chaos near Iran and were up another 5% to go 28% in profit.

CORE:Solidcore Resources was a blip in the miners, as they went up 6%.

OPTI:Optibiotix recovered 0.5p which is 9% and helped limit the damage a little.

Share of the Week is SBRE:Sabre Insurance, which zoomed up 14% after excellent results and are now only 2% down.

Here's the ISA and shares portfolio after week 33 of year 11.

			Weekly Change
Cash	£95.56		-£20.35
Portfolio cost	£116,389.29		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price-commission)	£35,722.19	(-69.3%)	-£441.62
Potential profits	£276.96		-£178.16
Yr 11 Dividends	£69.36		+£0
Yr 11 Interest	£0.85		+£0
Yr 11 Profit from sales	£873.14		+£0
Yr 11 proj avg monthly profit	£116.13	(1.6%)	-£4.14
Total Dividends	£12,557.43		+£0
Total Interest	£9.42		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£18,433.41		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£238.02	(3.3%)	-£0.46
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

For some reason my SIPP charges were taken from my dealing account despite there being cash in the SIPP, so cash dropped a bit. I'll need to keep an eye on that to ensure there's always enough cash available for a month's fees.

The portfolio wasn't too badly affected thanks to the rise in OPTI:Optibiotix, but potential profits dropped by over a third.

Not the worst ever, but pretty close.

Back in our familiar place on the trend line.

The SIPP looks like this after week 537 overall and week 17 of year 11.

			Weekly Change
Cash	£822.23		-£217.08
Portfolio cost	£154,726.97		+£489.87
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£87,611.18	(-43.4%)	-£2,715.35
Potential profits	£10,799.08		-£1,715.09
Yr 11 Dividends	£567.00		+£25.08
Yr 11 Interest	£6.26		+£0
Yr 11 Profit from sales	£8,076.47		+£0
Yr 11 proj avg monthly profit	£2,184.98	(27.4%)	-£134.28
Total Dividends	£18,787.20		+£25.08
Total Interest	£26.96		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£32,742.98		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£402.33	(5.0%)	-£0.68

I did my monthly investments this week.

First I bought 115 shares in ESTC:European Smaller Companies Trust at 213.75p costing £248.54. I have 3 more months buying these until I have enough. They are down 7% so far.

Next I bought 8 shares in III:3i Group at 2982.99p costing £241.33. I have 2 more months buying these until I have enough. They are also down 7% so far.

Portfolio value dropped a hefty £2,715 and £1,715 of that was lost profit. I got a £25 dividend from GCP:GCP Infrastructure Investments and for a change didn't sell anything.

No prospect of getting back above the injection line any time soon with events in the Middle East.

Just as it looked like the trend line might flatten off, we're now well below it and pretty much level with the all-time low.

I can't see me selling much for a while now, so we will most likely slip below the trend line in about 5 or 6 weeks.

I'm really surprised how badly gold mine shares have been affected over the last few weeks, given the gold price hasn't really dropped very much. I guess people may be taking their money into cash and taking profits. I know I have with all my PAF:Pan African Resources sales. I must stop doing that now though, as it has a lot further to go in the next few years and it's likely to stay at an elevated p/e ratio. It's currently on 17, which is a lot for a miner.

Week 552 Review - Massive losses across the whole portfolio.

One of the worst weeks ever. The deficit between cost and value widened by £11,347 to £144,625 and the deficit between injection and value increased to £54,813. Portfolio value fell to £127,155.

There's no point trying to describe why each share fell, as it was all caused by America and Israel bombing Iran. I'll just catalogue the losses.

Having said that, PAGE:Pagegroup delivered rather rubbish results, so they dropped 17% to go 70% down.

JLP:Jubilee Metals dropped an incredible 14% and I have no clue why.

EDV:Endeavour Mining was the biggest gold miner drop, falling 13%.

ATYM:Atalya Mining and PAF:Pan African Resources both fell 12%.

OPTI:Optibiotix fell 11% and greatly contributed to the losses.

MGNS:Morgan Sindall Group fell 10%.

GGP:Greatland Resources and SOI:Schroder Oriental Income both fell 9%.

FNX:Fonix, III:3i Group, IPX:Impax Asset Management and RIO:Rio Tinto fell 8%.

AMP:Ampeak Energy, AMRQ:Amaroq, ASHM:Ashmore Group, PRU:Prudential and W7L:Warpaint London fell 7%.

CORE:Solidcore Resources and N91:Ninety One fell 6%.

DXRX:Diaceutics, ESTC:Eurpoean Smaller Companies Trust, RAT:Rathbones and RSW:Renishaw fell 5%.

There was a tiny glimmer of positivity.

CKN:Clarkson climbed 5% as they specialise in shipping logistics which may come in handy soon.

KNOS:Kainos Group climbed 8% for no obvious reason, other than the recent fall was way overdone.

MSI:MS International is a defence contractor, so no surprise they climbed 13% and went into profit.

Share of the Week is SBTX:SkinBioTherapeutics which climbed another 34% even after last week's massive rise.

Here's the ISA and shares portfolio after week 32 of year 11.

			Weekly Change
Cash	£115.91		+£8.89
Portfolio cost	£116,389.29		-£1,002.31
Portfolio sell value (bid price-commission)	£36,163.81	(-68.9%)	-£3,795.04
Potential profits	£455.12		-£124.56
Yr 11 Dividends	£69.36		+£0
Yr 11 Interest	£0.85		+£0
Yr 11 Profit from sales	£873.14		-£193.36
Yr 11 proj avg monthly profit	£120.27	(1.7%)	-£30.91
Total Dividends	£12,557.43		+£0
Total Interest	£9.42		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£18,433.41		-£193.36
Average monthly cash profit	£238.48	(3.3%)	-£1.95
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

CAML:Central Asia Metals released an update on the SASA mineral reserves and it wasn't good. SASA has been a complete disaster since they bought it, and their copper operation is near end of life. The CEO that made this one of my favourite companies retired a while ago and I have lost faith in the company. I decided to sell all my holdings immediately, and good job I did, as the share price plummeted all day.

In my AJ Bell dealing account I sold my 365 shares at 223p and made a £193.36 (19.2%) loss, although if you include dividends it was only a 1% loss. On selling the shares I pulled out £800 from my dealing account to go towards my holiday so the injection amount has reduced.

Sell value dropped a big £3,795, but that was a lot better than my SIPP.

Year 11 performance took a bit of a hit due to the realised loss.

Almost back to the lowest of lows.

Right back on the descending trend line.

This chart has always been a bit sad  and is sadder now than it was last week.

The SIPP looks like this after week 536 overall and week 16 of year 11.

			Weekly Change
Cash	£1,039.31		-£41.19
Portfolio cost	£154,237.10		+£1,795.01
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£89,836.66	(-41.8%)	-£8,554.62
Potential profits	£12,514.17		-£5,545.34
Yr 11 Dividends	£541.92		+£0
Yr 11 Interest	£6.26		+£0
Yr 11 Profit from sales	£8,076.47		+£1,753.83
Yr 11 proj avg monthly profit	£2,319.26	(29.1%)	+£352.05
Total Dividends	£18,762.12		+£0
Total Interest	£26.96		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£32,742.98		+£1,753.83
Average monthly cash profit	£403.01	(5.1%)	+£13.45

Not a happy set of figures, although I did take out £1,753 of profits. Some of those were selling CAML:Central Asia Metals. I sold my 1,500 shares at 224.4p and made £907.71 (36.9%) profit. I also top-sliced a few more PAF:Pan African Resources, selling 550 shares at 186.7842p to make £846.12 (466.9%) profit.

I wanted to move some of my PAF holding into something I thought had more chance for a significant rise, so bought another 1,176 shares in THX:Thor Explorations at 89.7p costing £1,061.82. I bought a further 1,241 with some of my CAML proceeds at 88.6p costing £1,106.48. That takes my total holding to 5,401 shares at an average price of 86.3p costing £4,694. They are down 6% altogether.

Although I was initially planning to keep all my CAML proceeds in metals, I decided to use the rest to buy other magic formula shares. I bought 26 shares in RSW:Renishaw at 4152p costing £1,091.87. They are 30th in my magic formula ranking, with very low debt and excellent 5-year growth. ROI and dividend were a bit more middling.

I also bought 1,612 shares in BPCR:BioPharma Credit at 71.1995p costing £1,160.43. They are 32nd in my magic formula ranking, with a superb dividend and no debt, but middling ROI and 5-year growth.

Portfolio value was battered, dropping £8,554, and £5,545 of that was potential profits, as all my most profitable shares dropped and many went out of profit into loss. The sale did raise my long term profits above 5% though, which is excellent.

Such a brief excursion above the injection line.

Below the trend line and almost back down to the worst ever position. Just as it looked like things were turning around.

One crumb of comfort among the misery.

I'm a wee late writing this after going to the Lake District, so nothing more to say other than steeling myself for another depressing write-up.

Week 551 Review - Metals shine in a positive week despite some big drops.

It was a mixed week, with some very big losses but also some very big gains. The gains won, and the deficit between cost and value narrowed by £3,299 to £133,278 and the deficit between injection and value dropped to £45,026. Total portfolio value increased to £137,742.

Worst performer was FXPO:Ferrexpo, which plummeted 21% after reports that its Ukrainian subsidiary has had bankruptcy proceedings opened, despite the court case that would trigger the proceedings not having been completed yet. It all stinks rather badly. Having said that, in my mind I've written off this investment already, and the 21% drop this week hardly affects my holding as it just goes from 86% down to 89% down.

AFC:AFC Energy gave up most of last weeks gains, possibly as people took profits. They fell 20% and instead of being on the verge of profit, are now down 21%.

MGNS:Morgan Sindall Group gave absolutely brilliant results with record earnings and a raised dividend, yet the share price dropped 9%. I don't get it. My holding is still up, but by just 3%. I have a feeling it will recover over the next few weeks, and I may consider buying more with my monthly savings.

YU.:Yu Group have had a great run but dropped 9% this week. My holding lost almost half its profits but is still up 10%. It's difficult to see any reason for the drop.

PBX:Probiotix Health widened its spread from 7p-9p to 6.5p-9.5p, which is an insane 32%. Not sure how anyone is going to be persuaded to buy at the moment. That widening caused the bid price to drop by 7%, but it feels like a false drop.

W7L:Warpaint London had a superb week last week, but dropped 7% this week, presumably as people took profits. My holding is still up by 7%.

MSI:MS International have gone down every week since I bought them, falling another 6% this week to go 11% down.

PAGE:Pagegroup are showing no signs of reversing their decline, falling 5% this week to go 64% down.

There were a whole load of shares up by 5% this week, with CAML:Central Asia Metals, CORE:Solidcore Resources, JLP:Jubilee Metals and THX:Thor Explorations all benefitting from rising metals prices.

KNOS:Kainos Group recovered 6% of their recent losses but are still 16% down.

PAF:Pan African Resources went up 7%, GGP:Greatland Resources 12%, EDV:Endeavour Mining 12% and AMRQ:Amaroq 13% as gold bounced back up.

Share of the Week probably doesn't deserve it after the last few weeks, but SBTX:SkinBioTherapeutics went up 60%, proving that the drop was way over-done and no doubt making someone a lot of money. My holding is still down 64% and will need a few more weeks like this to recover.

Here's the ISA and shares portfolio after week 31 of year 11.

			Weekly Change
Cash	£107.02		+£0
Portfolio cost	£117,391.60		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price-commission)	£39,958.85	(-66.0%)	+£1,400.62
Potential profits	£579.68		+£200.24
Yr 11 Dividends	£69.36		+£0
Yr 11 Interest	£0.85		+£0
Yr 11 Profit from sales	£1,066.50		+£0
Yr 11 proj avg monthly profit	£151.18	(2.1%)	-£5.04
Total Dividends	£12,557.43		+£0
Total Interest	£9.42		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£18,626.77		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£240.43	(3.3%)	-£0.44
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Nice rise in value and £200 more potential profit is a much better performance than last week.

A reversal of the recent big drop, but still well below where we were 12 months ago.

A small tick up, but still very close to the descending trend line.

The SIPP looks like this after week 535 overall and week 15 of year 11.

			Weekly Change
Cash	£1,080.50		-£332.21
Portfolio cost	£152,442.09		+£997.00
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£96,596.27	(-36.6%)	+£1,899.03
Potential profits	£18,059.51		+£1,560.34
Yr 11 Dividends	£541.92		+£41.76
Yr 11 Interest	£6.26		+£0
Yr 11 Profit from sales	£6,322.64		+£560.52
Yr 11 proj avg monthly profit	£1,967.21	(24.7%)	+£45.90
Total Dividends	£18,762.12		+£41.76
Total Interest	£26.96		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£30,989.15		+£560.52
Average monthly cash profit	£389.56	(4.9%)	+£4.16

I sold some more shares. It was madness on Monday as I truly believed JLP:Jubilee Metals were on the verge of a massive re-rate upwards. I was completely wrong, but went against the rules of my SIPP yet again and sold a perfectly good dividend paying share to buy more JLP.

I owned POLR:Polar Capital in both my Hargreaves Lansdown and AJ Bell accounts and wanted to just have them in one account, so I sold my 380 Hargreaves Lansdown shares at 630.3471p and made £560.52 (30.5%) profit. It would be 41% if you include the £193 in dividends.

I used the proceeds to buy another 51,278 shares in JLP at 4.649p costing £2,392.86. I also used some of my AJ Bell pot to buy 8,947 shares at 4.75p costing £429.98. If I'd waited until the end of the week I could have bought them below 4.5p as Monday was the only day they went up. The bid price ended the week at 4.3p so I was well down. That has happened without fail every time I buy more JLP thinking it's about to go up. When will I learn?

The £560 profit increased my long term performance by 0.1% to 4.9%, and thanks to big rises in miners I added £1,560 to potential profits. I also got a £15 dividend from BPM:BP Marsh & Partners and £25 from UKW:Greencoat UK Wind.

I do believe we're back above the injection line - much joy! How long will it last this time?

Not quite back to where we were a few weeks ago, but higher than 12 months ago and pulling the trend line flat.

Keeping parallel to the trend line and still above it. Not sure I can keep this up any longer though.

I have now spent £14,756 on JLP:Jubilee Metals shares in my SIPP when I'm not supposed by be buying non-dividend shares in my SIPP. No more! If you add that to the £28,475 I have in my ISA, that's £43,000 I've spent on a pretty high risk share that has no track record at rewarding shareholders in any way. Why am I so convinced it's going to be different this time?

I suppose they are proposing a capital re-structure that will allow them to pay dividends and buy back shares, and the 2 main directors have just awarded themselves several million, so have some skin in the game at last, so maybe there is some hope. Ideally I'd sell the SIPP holdings for around £25k and put that into magic formula shares, and I'd sell some of the ISA shares, just keeping my AJ Bell holding which cost £19k.

I've written this after America and Israel attacked Iran, so haven't a clue what the impact will be on Monday. I suspect my shipping insurance company might not do very well, and probably a general crash, but gold may go even higher.

Hargreaves Lansdown are reducing commission costs from £11.95 to £6.95 from Monday. As I account for the sale commission in the value of all my holdings, that gives me £5 per HL holding, which adds up to £227 better off from the start of Monday. I'd mistakenly got one of the £11.95 as only £8.95 which explains why the savings are not £230. Given the number of trades I've made recently, I should only be paying £3.95 which is cheaper than AJ Bell. My £16.66 monthly SIPP charge should reduce to £12.50 but my £3.75 ISA change will increase, but I don't know how much by. The cap is £12.50 but I think my portfolio value is less than the cap level. We will see when fees are taken in a few days.

Week 550 Review - Dreadful week for the ISA, great week for the SIPP, ended up flat.

This week was kind of flat, but taking some profits meant the deficit between cost and value widened by £886 to £136,578, and deficit between injection and value increased a fraction to £48.990. Total portfolio value only fell around £100 to £133,778. It was a tale of two portfolios though, with the ISA crashing and the SIPP leaping.

Worst performer for the 2nd week in a row was SBTX:SkinBioTherapeutics, which dropped 59% after it was revealed that the CEO was being investigated for mis-reporting revenues. This was on top of last week's 39% drop, which has sent my holding down by around 78% when they were fairly close to break-even just 2 weeks ago. All I can hope is that they get to the bottom of the issue and that it doesn't affect the fundamental promise of the company.

My next worst performer was a bit of spectacularly bad timing. Although I haven't anywhere near finished re-doing my AIM magic formula ranking, DXRX:Diaceutics scored very well and was right near the top. They appeared to have good momentum and had forecast being profitable in 2026. They had recently shot up after a big drop, and I figured momentum was with them and now was a good time to buy, so I did. I was wrong, and they promptly fell 12% for no reason I could fathom. They do seem to have a history of volatile price movements, so I just hope they reverse this drop soon.

FDM:FDM Group continue to slide. They fell another 10% this week to go 56% down, but I think it's way over-done and will hold for when people start hiring staff again.

AMRQ:Amaroq announced they were moving from AIM to the LSE main market and de-listing from the Canadian market. I thought that was good news, but it resulted in loads of sales and the price dropped 8%. I took advantage of the drop and bought some in my SIPP, as I reckon this qualifies now it's moving off AIM and will hopefully soon be paying a dividend.

IHP:Integrafin was profitable and doing well a few weeks ago, but has been slipping and dropped 5% this week to go 8% down. I won't be buying any more though, as they have slipped out of the top 30 ranking.

IPX:Impax Asset Management dropped 5% so any hopes I had of these staging a recovery have been put on hold.

JLP:Jubilee Metals gave what I thought were pretty good results in their operational update, but still fell 5%. I don't know if it's because no financial figures were mentioned, but there was good growth in production so I really thought it would trigger some recovery, but no.

CAML:Central Asia Metals had another steady week, climbing 5% to go 39% up in my SIPP with £949 potential profit.

GAW:Games Workshop also rose 5% and the top-up from last week is now contributing to potential profits of £893 as my holding is up by 40%.

PRU:Prudential crashed unexpectedly last week, but recovered 6% this week to go 15% up with £166 potential profit.

ATYM:Atalya Mining went up 8% and although they are still below what I paid in the recent placing, they are in the black by 5% and back into potential profit of £156.

PBX:Probiotix Health recovered 8% after distancing themselves from the antics at SBTX:SkinBioTherapeutics. My holding is still down by 66% though and losing around £13,500.

AMP:Ampeak Energy went up 11% but are still 62% down and losing £623.

PAF:Pan African Resources is really my star share, and went up another 16% after results, so my holding is up by 449% and making £7,950 potential profit. Imagine if I hadn't sold so many on the way up!

I really thought AFC:AFC Energy were going to win Share of the Week as they continue to charge upwards after the announcement of the JV to modify diesel engines to run on ammonia and hydrogen. They went up another 21% this week and my holding is only 1% down with a loss of just £20. Will it go into profit next week or will the profit-takers strike?

The unexpected Share of the Week is W7L:Warpaint London, which zoomed up 29% on the back of last week's trading update. My holding went into profit and is 16% up making £186 potential profit. A very rare bit of good timing.

Here's the ISA and shares portfolio after week 30 of year 11.

			Weekly Change
Cash	£107.02		+£19.29
Portfolio cost	£117,391.60		+£515.91
Portfolio sell value (bid price-commission)	£38,558.23	(-67.2%)	-£2,931.78
Potential profits	£379.44		-£659.36
Yr 11 Dividends	£69.36		+£0
Yr 11 Interest	£0.85		+£0.05
Yr 11 Profit from sales	£1,066.50		+£539.44
Yr 11 proj avg monthly profit	£156.22	(2.1%)	+£74.59
Total Dividends	£12,557.43		+£0
Total Interest	£9.42		+£0.05
Total Profit from sales	£18,626.77		+£539.44
Average monthly cash profit	£240.07	(3.3%)	+£3.78
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

When I said I was going to have a quiet week, I lied. Partly due to discovering DXRX:Diaceutics and partly due to JP Morgan appearing to borrow a load of CWR:Ceres Power shares presumably to support shorting activity, I decided to sell CWR. I sold my 538 shares at 309.8408p making £539.44 (48.5%) profit. I bought 643 shares in DXRX at 167.8p costing £1,083.95 and I planned to keep the rest to buy back into CWR when they next drop significantly. However, when AMRQ:Amaroq announced they were moving to the main market, I bought 490 shares at 112.1333p costing £554.45. I don't fancy playing games with shorters for CWR, as it's going to be a stressful ride.

Even without me taking profits, the portfolio value would still have dropped over £2,000, mainly due to all my biggest holdings dropping and the massive collapse in the SBTX:SkinBioTherapeutics share price, but it's the first time I've sold anything for a profit in a while.

Annoying that the upwards surge was so short lived.

Virtually back down to the trend line.

A teensy tick up but not enough to get back to the position I was in 12 months ago.

The SIPP looks like this after week 534 overall and week 14 of year 11.

			Weekly Change
Cash	£1,412.71		-£3.59
Portfolio cost	£151,445.09		+£244.48
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£93,700.24	(-38.1%)	+£2,057.00
Potential profits	£16,499.17		+£2,424.82
Yr 11 Dividends	£500.16		+£0
Yr 11 Interest	£6.26		+£0.19
Yr 11 Profit from sales	£5,762.12		+£244.80
Yr 11 proj avg monthly profit	£1,921.31	(24.1%)	-£67.50
Total Dividends	£18,720.36		+£0
Total Interest	£26.96		+£0.19
Total Profit from sales	£30,428.63		+£244.80
Average monthly cash profit	£385.40	(4.8%)	+£1.23

A great week for the SIPP, climbing in value by over £2,000 even though I took £244 profits. Once again I fibbed about having a quiet week, but that was directly caused by the announcement that AMRQ :Amaroq is moving off AIM to the main market. I had to get some in my SIPP.

First I sold HSX:Hiscox because although still in the top 50 in my magic formula, it's only just in the top 50. I sold my 75 shares at 1445.5756p and made a stunning £5.87 (0.5%) profit. I didn't mind because I was just liberating finds for AMRQ. I also sold another 15 shares in RIO:Rio Tinto at 7108.5132p and made £238.94 (28.8%) profit. That still leaves me with 55 shares and a value of £3,904, so I won't want to sell any more.

I used the proceeds to buy 2,027 shares in AMRQ at 104.75p costing £2,132.23. I'm happy to say they recovered to 107p by the end of the week, so my new holding is £27 in profit.

This account wasn't impacted as badly by the drops in JLP:Jubilee Metals, OPTI:Optibiotix and SBTX:SkinBioTherapeutics, in fact potential profits went up a massive £2,424, so it was a really good week.

Although a good week, it wasn't quite good enough to take us back above the injection line, but we're almost touching it.

A welcome reversal of last week's drop, and the trend line is pretty close to going flat.

Just enough profit to keep the long-term performance flat and still comfortably above the trend line.

JLP:Jubilee Metals staged a late surge after the bell on Friday, but too late to impact the bid price I use for my valuation. I don't know if it will immediately drop back again on Monday, or if we have finally got to the point where it starts going up. The value of the JLP operation massively exceeds the share price, and I really think the time has come for it to start climbing. If it does start breaking out, then my SIPP will liberate £18,700 for investing in magic formula shares and make £6,860 profit. That same rise to 11.5p would mean my ISA holding would be worth £45,500 and be making £22,000 potential profit. Even with all my microbiome shares in the depths of despair, that would massively improve my outlook. Here's to JLP hitting 11.5p.

I guess I should also mention that if it ever gets to the same value as PAF:Pan African Resources at 167p, then my ISA holding would be worth £661k and I could afford to retire!

Week 549 Review - Disastrous end to the week as SkinBioTherapeutics CEO resigns and my SBTX and Optibiotix shares plummet.

This week went rapidly downhill towards the end and resulted in one of my worst weeks for a while. The deficit between cost and value widened by a whopping £7,284 to £135,703. The deficit between injection and value increased to £48,892 and total portfolio value fell to £133,876. Just as I thought things were turning around, we're sinking like a brick once more.

Worst performer was SBTX:SkinBioTherapeutics, which dropped 39% on Friday after the CEO resigned, but it turns out he had been suspended by the board as they carried out an investigation into his conduct. This was my only microbiome share that was looking like it would get to break even, and now even my best holding is down 45%.

There was an immediate drop in OPTI:Optibiotix after the SBTX news, as that fell 16% and contributed to a big chunk of the weeks losses. I thought this had some upwards momentum now, but we're right back at recent lows with no sign of anything happening to change that. I don't think this is going anywhere unless we move to profitability, which may still be several years away.

PRU:Prudential dropped a massive 10% and halved my potential profits in a week. I don't know why, as they don't seem to have any links to the AI sell-off. They do have a competitor that reported underwhelming performance, so it may be linked to that.

THX:Thor Explorations is one of my new magic formula shares, purchased on Monday. They promptly dropped by 8% despite my other gold shares going up this week. That did enable me to buy some more. Their current P/E ration is 4, which makes me think they probably have more upside potential than my other gold stocks.

JLP:Jubilee Metals appeared to be gradually climbing, which is why I bought more last week. I was wrong, and as has happened every single time I buy some for a perceived quick profit, they immediately dropped in value. They fell 7% this week and were a large contributor to my dreadful performance.

KNOS:Kainos Group fell 16% last week and fell another 7% this week to go 22% down after being in profit 2 weeks ago. This AI scare had better bugger off soon!

HSX:Hiscox fell 5% and are no longer in profit. I don't know what has driven the fall, but as they are 49th in my magic formula ranking they are very close to falling out of the top 50. I'll keep them for the next 6 months though, until my next ranking review, as I hope this is just a  blip, but as they are no longer in the top 30 I won't be buying more.

MSI:MS International are one of my new shares and dropped 5% this week for no obvious reason.

RIO:Rio Tinto continue to surge, probably because I keep selling them. They went up 5% this week so my holding is now 30% up. I still have £5k invested so it's one of my bigger holdings.

W7L:Warpaint London did put out their results this week and they were OK, so they went up 5%, but that didn't make up for the 13% drop last week and my holding is still 10% down after just 2 weeks.

PAF:Pan African Resources went up 6% and my holding is now up by 373% so I did top-slice a few to re-invest in lower valued gold share THX:Thor Explorations.

YU.:Yu Group have been making very steady progress since I bought them and went up 6% this week to go 20% up altogether.

MGNS:Morgan Sindall Group released excellent results and went up 8% to go 12% up altogether.

EDV:Endeavour Mining had a brilliant week, gaining 10% to go 20% up with £835 potential profit.

Share of the week is AFC:AFC Energy, which announced a new joint venture and reversed the recent declines to gain 12%. My holding is still 18% down, but given the new venture is looking at re-purposing existing diesel engines to run on ammonia/hydrogen, it could be a very big earner.

Here's the ISA and shares portfolio after week 29 of year 11.

			Weekly Change
Cash	£87.73		+£0
Portfolio cost	£116,875.69		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price-commission)	£40,974.10	(-64.9%)	-£4,512.74
Potential profits	£1,038.80		-£44.95
Yr 11 Dividends	£69.36		+£0
Yr 11 Interest	£0.80		+£0
Yr 11 Profit from sales	£527.06		+£0
Yr 11 proj avg monthly profit	£81.63	(1.1%)	-£2.92
Total Dividends	£12,557.43		+£0
Total Interest	£9.37		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£18,087.33		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£237.09	(3.3%)	-£0.43
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Massive drop in value but only a tiny drop in potential profits as TRU:Trufin gained 2%, but CWR:Ceres Power dropped 1% and AMRQ:Amaroq dropped 4%.

Nasty

I knew it was too good to last

The SIPP looks like this after week 533 overall and week 13 of year 11.

			Weekly Change
Cash	£1,416.30		-£1,016.09
Portfolio cost	£151,200.61		+£2,377.26
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£91,398.76	(-39.6%)	-£2,772.25
Potential profits	£14,074.35		-£12.05
Yr 11 Dividends	£500.16		+£5.98
Yr 11 Interest	£6.07		+£0
Yr 11 Profit from sales	£5,517.32		+£1,355.20
Yr 11 proj avg monthly profit	£1,988.81	(25.0%)	+£325.80
Total Dividends	£18,720.36		+£5.98
Total Interest	£26.77		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£30,183.83		+£1,355.20
Average monthly cash profit	£384.17	(4.8%)	+£10.37

I went through with my plan to sell some RIO:Rio Tinto shares on Monday. I sold 32 shares at 6889.8923p making £463.47 (26.1%) profit. As planned, I bought 1,265 shares in THX:Thor Explorations at 86.9p costing £1,108.24 and 1,433 shares in GCP:GCP Infrastructure Investments at 76.72p costing £1,108.35.

Then I had my monthly investment, which first bought 110 shares in ESTC:The European Smaller Companies Trust at 226.497p costing £251.90. Then I bought my third installment in III:3i Group, which was 7 shares at 3306p costing £234.08. I have another 2 months of buying these. Finally I topped up FOUR:4imprint by buying 6 shares at 3895.9941p costing £236.43.

I was dismayed at the end of the week when THX:Thor Explorations tanked 8% for no apparent reason, while my other gold stocks were up. I decided to switch some of my PAF:Pan African Resources shares into THX because it appears to have more capacity for rapid growth, and it would allow me to take some profits. I sold 800 PAF shares at 143.1586p and made £891.73 (351.7%) profit. That enables me to buy another 1,719 shares in THX at 81.94p costing £1,417.50. Let's just hope they grow as much as I hope they will.

Cash dropped partly due to the monthly investment and partly using up some spare cash for the THX purchase, value collapsed by £2,772 but potential profits only fell by £12 despite cashing in £1,355 thanks to some decent rises mainly in my gold mines. I got a £5 dividend from SOI:Schroder Oriental Income and very happy to say that long-term monthly profit over the last 10 years went up by £10 a month and to 4.8%. That's still half my target, but I've only been using my magic formula for just over a year. I wish I'd discovered it right from the start.

One lousy week above the injection line - the world can be very cruel.

Absolutely plummeting back towards the trend line - and right back to the level we were at 12 months ago.

There's at least one chart that lifts my heart. I do need to be careful I don't cash in all my profitable shares though. I think a little break on selling is required.

I need a quiet week next week. I've been on a selling and buying frenzy for the last few weeks, but I now have all the new magic formula shares I want to buy in the short term. The others will be picked up gradually either as monthly investments or if I ever get to sell any JLP:Jubilee Metals shares. What is frustrating is that some of my SIPP JLP holdings were in profit last week, so I could have sold them and invested in magic formula shares, but I was holding out for more profit. I could have had £4,500 to invest if I'd sold last week, but I was hoping to have £9,000 before I sell them. That might be wishful thinking.