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 30 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.

Week 548 Review - Big drops across much of my portfolio

A week that saw some massive drops in value for some of my holdings, and big drops across 16 companies, against just 3 with a decent rise. The result was a widening of the deficit between cost and value of £2,780 to £128,418 and an increase in the deficit between injection and value to £42,968. Total portfolio value reduced to £139,800.

Worst performer was PBX:Probiotix Health which gave up all the recent gains after someone sold a massive chunk of shares. The price dropped 19% and was responsible for most of the losses given the size of my holding.

SCT:Softcat fell victim to scares over AI impacting tech companies and dropped 18% so my holding that was in profit recently is now 27% down. I would average down, but this has fallen out of my top 50 magic formula ranking so I will be selling if they ever get back into profit.

KNOS:Kainos Group fell 16% for the same reasons as SCT. My holding is now down by 16% after being profitable 2 weeks ago. This is still 24th in my magic formula ranking so I may add it to my monthly savings while the price is low, but not until it starts heading back up again.

W7L:Warpaint London was a new purchase this week after it entered my top 30 magic formula ranking. I was excited because a trading update was anticipated, but it never came. The share price dropped 13% in the few days I have owned it. All I can hope is the trading update comes next week and is better than expected, else this could have been a big mistake.

ATYM:Atalya Mining dropped 11% after a major shareholder dumped a large number of shares in a placing, so I'm now 10% down on the ones I bought last week at what I thought was a discount and 4% down on what was a profitable share.

TLOU:Tlou Energy dropped another 11% and I fear are heading towards zero.

AMRQ:Amaroq were hammered 10% possibly due to the gold price drop, but my other gold miners didn't do anywhere near as bad, so not sure what's going on with these.

AFC:AFC Energy are now sliding relentlessly and fell 7% for the 2nd week in a row.

AMP:Ampeak Energy dropped 7% for no particular reason.

FNX:Fonix is another new magic formula share that dropped 6% in the the few days since I bought them. No obvious reason for the fall unless it's part of the tech sell-off.

FSG:Foresight Group Holdings is yet another new magic formula share that also dropped 6% for no reason.

IES:Invinity Energy fell 6% and is determined that my recent purchase isn't  going to get into profit, taking a downturn just before moving into the black on several occasions now.

IPX:Impax Asset Management have been recovering lately but fell 6% this week.

N91:Ninety One has been doing really well recently, but a few institutions have been taking profits and it fell 6% this week.

CAML:Central Asia Metals fell 5% which was a surprise as I thought the copper price had rebounded.

FOUR:4imprint had gone into profit but a big fall last week and another 5% drop this week has seen them slip to a 6% loss. I'll be buying more in my monthly investment next week.

So 16 companies fell by 5% or more, including 3 I only bought this week. Not good!

In the very limited good news, POLR:Polar Capital climbed 5% which was a surprise given it is heavily invested in tech firms which all got hammered.

YU.:Yu Group climbed another 6% and has been making steady progress, and is now 14% in profit.

Share of the Week is ASHM:Ashmore Group which also climbed 6% but wins the prize because I've had it for years at a big loss and it is now only 9% down. It is in my dealing account and as soon as it gets profitable I'll be selling to help pay for my holiday, so I'm more happy than usual that it's going up. If you include dividends it's 10% up.

Here's the ISA and shares portfolio after week 28 of year 11.

			Weekly Change
Cash	£87.73		-£3.71
Portfolio cost	£116,875.69		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price-commission)	£45,486.84	(-61.1%)	-£208.10
Potential profits	£1,083.75		-£77.61
Yr 11 Dividends	£69.36		+£0
Yr 11 Interest	£0.80		+£0.04
Yr 11 Profit from sales	£527.06		+£0
Yr 11 proj avg monthly profit	£84.55	(1.2%)	-£3.72
Total Dividends	£12,557.43		+£0
Total Interest	£9.37		+£0.04
Total Profit from sales	£18,087.33		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£237.52	(3.3%)	-£0.46
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Cash went down due to monthly fees minus the 4p interest I earned. The ISA did pretty well doe to the small rises in JLP:Jubilee Metals and OPTI:Optibiotix, but that wasn't enough to completely cancel the big drop in PBX:Probiotix Health. Value only dropped by £208 and potential profits by £77 caused by the drop in AMRQ:Amaroq.

It feels more like a flattening than a drop - maybe even a pause for breath?

Still well above the trend line

The SIPP looks like this after week 532 overall and week 12 of year 11.

			Weekly Change
Cash	£2,432.39		+£739.88
Portfolio cost	£148,823.35		+£1,064.01
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£91,793.75	(-38.3%)	-£2,571.94
Potential profits	£14,086.40		-£1,030.04
Yr 11 Dividends	£494.18		+£0
Yr 11 Interest	£6.07		+£0
Yr 11 Profit from sales	£4,162.12		+£1,626.53
Yr 11 proj avg monthly profit	£1,663.01	(20.9%)	+£483.01
Total Dividends	£18,714.38		+£0
Total Interest	£26.77		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£28,828.63		+£1,626.53
Average monthly cash profit	£373.80	(4.7%)	+£12.43

A lot happened here because I re-generated my magic formula spreadsheet, and quite a few things dropped off, so I sold them to re-invest in top 30 ranking companies, not that it did me much good! I made £1,626 profit from my sales and re-invested £1,064 of that, holding the rest as cash to give me more monthly investment opportunities. Potential profits only dropped £1,030 despite cashing in, so in effect they went up about £600. Long term performance increased to 4.7% and year 11 is looking very healthy at 20%, but we're only on week 12 so that will drop to 4.8% if I don't sell anything else this year. It will drop even further when TRX:Tissue Regenix goes bust.

My first sale was RNWH:Renew Holdings which has fallen to 75th in my magic formula rankings. I sold my 157 shares at 931.88p making £161.11 (12.3%) profit. I bought 186 shares in FNX:Fonix at 175p costing £1,154.48. They are 2nd in my magic formula ranking so it was rather depressing when they fell 6% straight away. They provide mobile payment services, so I can see why they are growing, but I don't see why the tech sell-off affected them.

My next sale was FSV:Fidelity Special Values which had fallen to 84th in my magic formula ranking. I sold my 320 shares at 435.7285p making £149.42 (12%) profit. I used the proceeds to buy 502 shares in W7L:Warpaint London at 228.75p costing £1,157.28. I sat in horror as they slumped 13%. They produce make-up and have a popular brand, so I really hope they turn around after the trading update else I've bought a turkey. They are 5th in my magic formula ranking so I hoped for much better.

Next I sold ALU:Alumasc Group, which is actually only 31st in my ranking so I should have kept them, but their interim results were pretty weak so I was certain they were about to drop out of my top 50 and wanted to sell them while still in profit. I sold my 562 shares at 260.22p making £343.11 (30.6%) profit. I used the proceeds to buy 280 shares in FSG:Foresight Group Holdings at 428.49p costing £1,208.72. They are 3rd in my magic formula rankings and are an investment company specialising in things like green energy. However, they dropped 6% straight away.

Next the takeover of BEZ:Beazley was agreed, and although I sold for about £100 less than if I'd waited, I figured it was worth it to take the profits now. I sold my 170 shares at 1260.801p making £546.00 (34.1%) profit. I used the proceeds to buy 82 shares in MSI:MS International, which is a defense contractor and 16th in my magic formula ranking. I paid 1330p a share costing £1,095.60. They went up 1% by the end of the week so are almost into profit. By this time I had all the profits from the other sales to spend, so foolishly bought 20,512 shares in JLP:Jubilee Metals at 4.875p costing £1,004.96. Needless to say, as with every time I buy JLP trying to make a quick profit, the shares dropped by the end of the week and are only 4.6p to sell.

My final sale was 30 of my shares in RIO:Rio Tinto. I had bought a load due to the prospect of a merger with GLEN:Glencore, but that fell through. I decided to reduce my holding and sold them at 6868.9071p making £426.90 (26.1%) profit. I used half of the proceeds to increase my stake in GAW:Games Workshop due to the recent sharp drop in share price. I bought 7 shares at 16862p costing £1,195.19. I also bought 918 shares in BEG:Begbies Trainor Group at 119.75p costing £1,108.26. They changed their name the day after to BTG:BTG Consulting and the share price ended up just down by the spread.

So it was definitely a busy week!

We stayed above the orange line for just one week, which is very sad.

That's a dreadful dip, but I have cashed in a lot of profits and we're still well above the trend line.

This is my favourite chart. To get long term performance up from just above £300 a month to approaching £400 a month is great. If only the portfolio value wasn't at a massive loss. The encouraging thought is that this is based on my magic formula strategy, which seems to be working, so if my JLP:Jubilee Metals and OPTI:Optibiotix holdings can reverse their declines, the magic formula foundations are pretty strong, and the sooner I can ditch my SIPP holdings in JLP and OPTI the better (aside from my foolish JLP purchase this week which broke all my rules and was bonkers!)

This week sees my latest monthly investment, and I have three lots of £250 set up. I'm continuing to buy III:3i Group as my holding is up 5% and they are slowly going up, I'm returning to buy FOUR:4imprint again as they have dropped to a 6% loss despite recent positive trading, and I'm starting a new magic formula share ESCT:The European Smaller Companies Trust, which are ranked 26th.

I also really want to invest in GCP:GCP Infrastructure Investments and THX:Thor Explorations so intend to sell another 32 RIO:Rio Tinto shares, as that will still leave me with 70 and make it one of my largest holdings, but get me another two of my new top 30 ranking shares. That will leave 5 more that I can potentially invest in, plus 4 that I can't invest in as they are oil or palm oil. I wonder if that means I should extend my top 30 to 34 so I maintain a list of 30 investable companies, but keep the top 50 cut-off for when to sell. Sounds like a good plan. I do still have a lot of companies to update in my magic formula, but they are the ones nearer the bottom of the ranking last time so it's unlikely they will get into the top 50 unless they've had a big turn-around.

Week 547 Review - Friday carnage as a great week turns bad.

A great week £3,100 up turned into a bad week on Friday, as all the profits built up during the week vanished and turned into a widening of the deficit between cost and value of £780 to £125,638. The deficit between injection and value widened to £41,738 and total portfolio value fell to £140,780.

I stopped posting the wild swings of TLOU:Tlou Energy, but this week's swing was down by 35% after they reported having run out of money and needing to do an equity raise. At this share price that will lead to massive dilution. I should never have re-invested because they will run out of money before they ever generate any power. My holding is down 66% and making a £854 loss.

CWR:Ceres Power continues to swing wildly backwards and forwards, losing 15% this week, but my holding is still up by 40% and making £452 potential profit.

GGP:Greatland Resources was the worst hit of my gold mines with Friday's drop in gold price. They dropped 10% but my holding is still 88% up and making £1,596 potential profit.

AFC:AFC Energy had been on a great run but dropped 7% this week meaning my holding is down 22% and making £446 loss.

FXPO:Ferrexpo dropped 7% so my holding is down by 84% and making a £854 loss.

The OPTI:Optibiotix recovery was very short lived, dropping 7% this week and costing me around £1,000 in lost value.

CORE:Solidcore Resources was another victim of the gold dip, falling 5% to take my holding down 65% and making a loss of £1,351.

FOUR:4imprint reversed recent gains and dropped 5%, and my holding dropped to a 1% loss, down by £30.

PAF:Pan African Resources dropped 5% which was very costly to me, but my holding is still up by 331% and making £6,672 potential profit.

JLP:Jubilee Metals was well up on Thursday night, but dropped on Friday to finish just 5% up on the week. It's still a long way from me being able to sell any though.

PRU:Prudential went up another 5% and is continuing steady progress. I'm now up by 23% and making £242 potential profit.

SBTX:SkinBioTherapeutics sneaked up another 5% and my biggest holding is only down by 10% making a £499 loss.

N91:Ninety One continues to make good progress, climbing 6% to go 30% up and making £312 potential profit.

CAML:Central Asia Metals went up 7% so I'm a bit peeved I sold most of my holding to buy shares that didn't go up that much. My SIPP holding is up by 37% and making £896 potential profit.

Share of the Week is FDM:FDM Group, which has been a real stinker lately, but a trading update showed some hope of recovery and the shares went up 12%. My holding is still down by 51% and making a £559 loss.

Here's the ISA and shares portfolio after week 27 of year 11.

			Weekly Change
Cash	£91.44		+£0
Portfolio cost	£116,875.69		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price-commission)	£45,694.94	(-60.9%)	-£25.10
Potential profits	£1,161.36		-£313.80
Yr 11 Dividends	£69.36		+£0
Yr 11 Interest	£0.76		+£0
Yr 11 Profit from sales	£527.06		+£0
Yr 11 proj avg monthly profit	£88.27	(1.2%)	-£3.40
Total Dividends	£12,557.43		+£0
Total Interest	£9.33		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£18,087.33		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£237.98	(3.3%)	-£0.44
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Probably the flattest week ever. Distressing that potential profits fell by £313, but portfolio value only went down £25 thanks o the rise in JLP:Jubilee Metals.

I'd rather see it flatten then plummet.

Still well above the trend line. Pausing for breath or preparing to dive?

The SIPP looks like this after week 531 overall and week 11 of year 11.

			Weekly Change
Cash	£1,692.51		+£97.48
Portfolio cost	£147,759.34		-£57.40
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£93,301.68	(-36.9%)	-£812.87
Potential profits	£15,116.44		-£708.94
Yr 11 Dividends	£494.18		+£64.44
Yr 11 Interest	£6.07		+£0
Yr 11 Profit from sales	£2,535.59		-£24.37
Yr 11 proj avg monthly profit	£1,180.00	(14.9%)	-£100.63
Total Dividends	£18,714.38		+£64.44
Total Interest	£26.77		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£27,202.10		-£24.37
Average monthly cash profit	£361.37	(4.5%)	-£0.35

There was a retail offer for ATYM:Atalaya Mining so I sold my 70 PSN:Persimmon shares at 1421.4091p making a loss of £24.36 (2.4%), but if you take into account the £140 dividends, it was an 11% gain. That gave me the cash I needed to buy 95 shares in ATYM at 1000p costing £950. That was a decent discount until the price dropped on Friday when it became much less of a discount.

I got an £11 dividend from GAW:Games Workshop and a £53 dividend from IHP:Integrafin.

Value dropped by £812 and £708 of that was potential profit, mostly gold miners. I suppose a re-trace was bound to happen at some point.

It's hard to see, but unfortunately the green line has dropped back below the orange. Very sad.

Still well above the trend line.

I reckon another 2 weeks before the trend line catches us up.

We are about to hit February when I do my 6-monthly re-calculation of the magic formula rankings. I've already compared the FTSE 350 and AIM 100 lists and added all the new companies, so now just need to plough through and enter all the stats. It took a long time to compare the lists, so I need to come up with a more efficient method. Alternatively I could just trash the old list and replace everything. That might not be a bad plan as I can't see any great advantage in keeping the old data. I'll do that when I re-calculate AIM.

I'm hoping a few of my profitable shares will drop out of the top 50 so I can sell them and boost my profits, as well as finding some new shares to buy. Although I can't confirm until I put all the data in, a few of the new ones like BYIT:Bytes Technology and BEG:Begbies Traynor Group are looking quite promising. All will be revealed in a few weeks.

Week 546 Review - SIPP value crosses above injection line in the best week for years.

The best week for a very, very long time. A lot of shares were down, but the ones that went up did so in style, resulting in a reduction in the deficit between cost and value of £8,751 to £124,857. The deficit between injection and value reduced to £40,998 and that's all in the ISA because the SIPP is now above the injection line. Total portfolio value went up to £141,521.

Worst performer was KNOS:Kainos Group which dropped 6%. There's no obvious reason why, as they didn't go ex-dividend or anything.

ALU:Alumasc Group continue to drift, falling another 5%. My holding is still up by 17%, but it was up by over 50% not long ago. They are still near the top of my magic formula rankings so I'll ride it out, but will be very tempted to sell if they drop by another 10%.

GAW:Games Workshop fell 5% for no particular reason. My holding is still 91% up so no need to panic just yet.

SCT:Softcat dropped another 5% to go 13% down this weekend. They have dropped to 43rd in my magic formula ranking, so I am allowed to keep them, but not allowed to average down unless they can get back into the top 30.

CAML:Central Asia Metals went up 6% and I sold a few more to diversify into other things. My SIPP holding is up by 27% and making £671 potential profit, so I'm happy to keep that holding long term now.

FDM:FDM Group went up 6% and have been increasing steadily since the update that caused the shares to crash. My holding is still 56% down and making £618 paper loss, but they are 36th in my magic formula ranking so I shouldn't average down even if they seem on an upwards momentum. However, maybe that's more of a guideline, as their P/E ratio is only 9 so averaging down if they have long term upward momentum would seem sensible.

ATYM:Atalya Mining went up another 7% as copper stocks continue to do well. My holding is up 8% and making £160 potential profit.

JLP:Jubilee Metals went up another 8% this week, and I did take advantage of the upward momentum to buy some more. I may have cursed it though, as the price dropped just after I bought some. My SIPP holding is only 6% down now, and I want to sell that, so the question is how long do I leave them before taking my profit? My target is 8p so they'd need to double. That could happen quite quickly if they give a positive production update.

EDV:Endeavour Mining was my worst performing gold stock, only climbing 9%. That does put my holding up 14% with £606 potential profit. I'm hoping these will start paying a dividend soon.

HSX:Hiscox zoomed up 9% with no explanation. It may have been a reaction to the attempted takeover of BEZ:Beazeley. It put my holding up by 5% making £51 potential profit.

CWR:Ceres Power continues to motor and justify me sacrificing my BOKU:Boku shares to buy them. They went up 11% this week and took my holding up by 66% making £741 potential profit.

GGP:Greatland Resources climbed 11% as the price of gold soared, putting my holding up by 88% and making £2,057 potential profit.

PAF:Pan African Resources went up another 12% to put my holding an amazing 354% up and making £7,134 potential profit. I do regret selling a load because they have gone up more than the companies I invested in, but I did want to spread my gold risk around a bit, so it was probably the right thing to do. I reckon I went about £1,000 too far that I should have left here instead of spending twice as much on EDV:Endeavour shares than PAF.

My last gold holding AMRQ:Amaroq wins the best gold stock this week with a 13% climb. I'm only holding this in my ISA as I still regard it as a higher risk junior miner. My holding is up by 61% and making £627 potential profit. I may buy some more if I can generate any cash in my ISA, but unfortunately there's nothing I can or want to sell, so I don't know where the funds would come from.

OPTI:Optibiotix gave a positive trading statement, and the subsequent rise of 21% would normally make it Share of the Week, but not this week. My holding is still about £100k under water.

PBX:Probiotix Health also gave a positive trading statement and went up 23%. Unfortunately my free shares given as a dividend are still down by 62% but my small purchased holding is now only down 2%, and given I should never have bought it in my SIPP I will likely sell as soon as it passes breakeven, as it will add £500 to my AJ Bell monthly investment pot.

Share of the Week is BEZ:Beazley which shot up 41% after a takeover bid from Zurich. The bid was flatly refused, and fortunately the share price held firm, possibly in anticipation of an increased offer and maybe even a bidding war. My holding is now up by 23% as it was in the red before the announcement, but there is £364 potential profit and it will be more if the proposed buy-out price is reached.

Here's the ISA and shares portfolio after week 26 of year 11.

			Weekly Change
Cash	£91.44		+£0
Portfolio cost	£116,875.69		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price-commission)	£45,720.04	(-60.9%)	+£3,848.48
Potential profits	£1,475.16		+£415.57
Yr 11 Dividends	£69.36		+£0
Yr 11 Interest	£0.76		+£0
Yr 11 Profit from sales	£527.06		+£0
Yr 11 proj avg monthly profit	£91.67	(1.3%)	-£3.67
Total Dividends	£12,557.43		+£0
Total Interest	£9.33		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£18,087.33		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£238.42	(3.3%)	-£0.44
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

A massive £3,848 increase in value and satisfying £415 rise in potential profits, for an account that until recently had no profitable shares at all before I introduced the new AIM magic formula ranking. It's just a shame I rarely get a chance to buy any new shares in the ISA. If I get a big monthly savings pot in my SIPP from sales, then maybe I should divert the £250 regular savings into the ISA for a while. The problem is, only FTSE companies are eligible for the monthly savings programme, so it's not really an option.

A very nice sight, but such a long way to go to even reach the injection line. 

Still worse than 12 months ago, but should start to flatten the trend line if we can stay at this level.

The SIPP looks like this after week 530 overall and week 10 of year 11.

			Weekly Change
Cash	£1,595.03		+£1,036.80
Portfolio cost	£147,816.74		-£712.44
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£94,114.55	(-36.3%)	+£4,190.55
Potential profits	£15,825.38		+£2,104.29
Yr 11 Dividends	£429.74		+£0
Yr 11 Interest	£6.07		+£0
Yr 11 Profit from sales	£2,559.96		+£261.86
Yr 11 proj avg monthly profit	£1,280.63	(16.1%)	-£16.21
Total Dividends	£18,649.94		+£0
Total Interest	£26.77		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£27,226.47		+£261.86
Average monthly cash profit	£361.72	(4.6%)	+£1.46

I sold my AJ Bell holding of CAML:Central Asia Metals because I wanted to boost my cash pot for monthly investments. I have enough now to be able to buy shares in 2 companies a month for 8 months when you include the £250 per month I inject. I sold my 477 shares for 206.55p and made £70.81 (7.7%) profit. That liberated £980.24 for my cash balance, and I also added £62.50 tax refund.

I also wanted to take advantage of the surge in JLP:Jubilee Metals, so sold another 500 of my remaining CAML holding at 205.6158p making £191.05 (22.8%) profit. I know I'm not supposed to hold JLP in my SIPP, but this was a short term purchase in the hope of doubling my money in a relatively short period. I admit that every time I have attempted this with JLP I have failed, but this time it feels like we have some momentum. I bought 22,082 shares at 4.5744p costing £1,022.07. Not surprisingly the price did slip slightly just after I bought them, but lets see what next week brings.

Portfolio value soared £4,190 and potential profits went up a very impressive £2,104 and the sale finally moved my long term performance up from 4.5% to 4.6%. I need to cash in a gigantic profit to make that move any appreciable amount.

Well I thought I would never see this day! The value line has crossed the injection line for the first time in years. My portfolio is now just as good as sticking it under the mattress. It's a hell of a long way to the cost line, but I feel this is a significant milestone. The big question is how long will it last?

We're better off than 12 months ago, but this does reveal how far there is to go to break-even.

Somehow staying above the trend line.

I'm getting excited that we've nearly reached February and I can soon re-calculate my magic formula rankings. Which companies will have dropped out of the top 50 so I can sell them, which new companies will pop up in the top 30 so I can buy them?

There are 3 companies in the current top 30 that I still don't own. MONY:MONY Group is 26th, but I avoided buying them because the share price had been on a downward trend for about 7 months. However, they are up over the last 7 weeks and the p/e ratio is only 12.4, so it may soon be time for a dabble.

The next one is ASY:Andrews Sykes Group, which I've invested in before. They are an odd share because they have very low liquidity due to nearly all the shares being in the hands of the owners. Apart from a blip upwards in September, they are on a long term decline for 2.5 years, and although their p/e ratio is only 12.2, I'm not planning to invest unless there's a clear upwards momentum.

Finally there is BAG:A G Barr. That was on a fairly long term rise from 2021 to the middle of last year, but has been dropping since September. The p/e ratio is 14.82 so they are not over-priced, but this is another I will avoid until there's a change in direction for the share price.

I'm still re-investing in III:3i Group as my main monthly investment, and have switched from RAT:Rathbones to BPM:B P Marsh & Partners for the next 2 months as they are paying a special dividend in March and 2 more months will get me up to £2,000 invested. If MONY are still heading higher after that, then I'll switch to investing in that. Having said that, who knows what the February re-ranking will promote to the top 30?