Week 103 Review - Another good one

A second great week in a row, with the combined portfolios climbing £1,338 to a new record high of £68,162 and the buffer keeping me in the black up to £3,577.

There were no double-digit losers this week, and some good risers. CAML:Central Asia Metals wasn't quite double-digit but an 8% climb for this large holding was valuable. Given the soaring price of copper I was maybe expecting a little more, but can't complain.

I thought there was a risk that IQE:IQE would suffer from some profit taking, but instead my ISA holding increased in value by 10% and is now up by 259%. My SIPP holding only went up by 5%, but I did pay twice as much for those shares.

There's finally some momentum behind KIBO:Kibo Mining following an upbeat RNS showing progress towards full licensing and confirming interest in the coal to power project from major financial investors. These climbed 10% but are still down by 28% in my ISA.

Share of the Week is CWR:Ceres Power Holdings, up 12% and making paper profit of £594 (33%). I think recent publicity about energy storage and removing petrol and diesel cars has helped the share price. Personally I think the move away from huge turbine-driven power stations to small fuel cell-driven power stations has much more impending potential for this company.

Back where we belong with a nice healthy buffer.

Here's the performance of the ISA and share portfolios

			Weekly Change
Portfolio cost	£46,246.68		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£46,730.35	(+1%)	+£899.75
Potential profits	£7,045.36		+£565.76
Yr 2 Dividends	£500.59		+£0
Yr 2 Profit from sales	£2,872.24		+£0
Yr 2 Average monthly cash profit	£283.08	(7.3%)	-£5.66
Total Dividends	£1,168.52		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£6.712.50		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£327.290	(8.5%)	-£3.21
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

The increases in CWR:Ceres Power and IQE:IQE were the main reason for the £565 increase in profits, with KIBO:Kibo Mining a reason for the reduction in losses by over £300. There should have been a dividend from CMCL:Caledonia Mining but it hasn't appeared in the account yet.

Back in the black - but only just...

The SIPP looks like this after week 87

			Weekly Change
Portfolio cost	£17,853.50		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£21,110.02	(18.2%)	+£438.46
Potential profits	£5,026.91		+£430.71
Yr 2 Dividends	£294.96		+£0
Yr 2 Profit from sales	£1,596.81		+£0
Yr 2 Average monthly cash profit	£227.03	(15.3%)	-£6.68
Total Dividends	£708.15		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£3,946.67		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£226.43	(15.2%)	-£2.64
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

The increases for IQE:IQE and CAML:Central Asia Metals were all increased profits, and the only other change was WRES:W Resources gaining a small amount and reducing losses by £8. The year 2 performance has drawn level with the overall performance now, as it's been well ahead. I won't be selling anything soon so it will drop below overall performance but that's fine while it's so far above the target 10%.

That's more like it!

Drat - it's time for the dreaded trading account after week 53

			Weekly Change
Portfolio cost	£486.05		+£0
Cash	£79.63		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£321.65	(-34%)	+£0
Potential profits	£0		+£0
Dividends	£1.15		+£0
Profit from sales	-£22.85		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	-£1.77	(-4.4%)	+£0.04
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Nothing happened

Nothing happened

No results expected next week, but OPTI:Optibiotix confirmed that LP_LDL^® went on sale in Germany this week, supplied by HLH Biopharma, so revenue is coming in and there may be hope of more contract announcements next week.

If the bulletin board is to believed, JLP:Jubilee Platinum will be giving an update soon, but generally the bulletin board isn't to be believed so I won't hold my breath.

The graph has reached the point where it starts thinking about a big dip, but so far each time it has dropped, the next peak is a little higher. Let's see how high this peak can get, as there are quite a few shares chomping at the bit to take off.

Week 102 Review - New best ever week

The last time I wrote that it was the best ever week, the combined portfolios had increased by £3,185. Well that's just rubbish! This week they climbed by £4,207 - Woohoo!! It's not entirely thanks to IQE:IQE, although most of it is. OPTI:Optibiotix also staged a mini revival and the 3p increase was worth £900 of reduced losses. Four weeks of depressing posts and general gloom have been obliterated, and the buffer is back to £2,239 and we're back in the black, with a total portfolio value of £66,823 being a new record by £6, albeit on a higher cost.

Worst performer was TRX:Tissue Regenix which dropped 8% thanks to a 400 million share placing at 10p a share to raise £40 million in order to buy out CellRight Technologies. On one hand this is encouraging, as they are trying to position themselves as a world leader in this area. On the other hand it's massive dilution of a company that seems to be burning cash a lot faster than it's earning cash. I felt this was a great company with a niche market it could dominate across the world, but with contracts all over America, I thought a lot more revenue would be flowing in by now.

There's only really one share to talk about this week. After a stunning trading statement the IQE:IQE share price rocketed by 30%, but that was 30% from where it started the day. The effect on my holdings was a lot more impressive given the low purchase prices. My SIPP holding increased 51% and is now 119% up on the purchase price. My ISA holding climbed a whopping 81% and is now 249% up, going from a purchase price of 29.59p to the current 104.5p. Altogether the shares are making a £8,024 profit on an initial investment of £4,607.

I shouldn't have any regrets in this scenario, but I do wonder why I spent so much effort buying more OPTI:Optibiotix when maybe I should have been buying IQE:IQE. Come on OPTI - this is how you're meant to do it! What's quite exciting is that I genuinely believe OPTI:Optibiotix is going to be even more spectacular than IQE:IQE when it breaks. IQE:IQE has to manufacture its own product and is needing to expand into new factories to keep up with demand. OPTI:Optibiotix manufacture nothing - they just pile up the licence money when someone else sells it. Both companies do have a lot in common though, with extensive IP and patent protection, high barriers to entry, little competition, and a growing global market that's only just starting to develop.

Back into the black - kaboom!

Here's the performance of the ISA and share accounts

			Weekly Change
Portfolio cost	£46,246.68		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£45,830.60	(-0.9%)	+£2,615.61
Potential profits	£6,479.60		+£1,694.40
Yr 2 Dividends	£500.59		+£0
Yr 2 Profit from sales	£2,872.24		+£0
Yr 2 Average monthly cash profit	£288.74	(7.5%)	-£5.89
Total Dividends	£1,168.52		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£6.712.50		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£330.50	(8.6%)	-£3.27
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Massive increase in potential profit all down to IQE:IQE and £1,000 reduction in loss mostly down to OPTI:Optibiotix. Nothing more to say.

These accounts so nearly made it into the black - just a £85 deficit which will hopefully get obliterated next week

The SIPP looks like this after week 86

			Weekly Change
Portfolio cost	£17,853.50		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£20,671.56	(15.8%)	+£1,605.56
Potential profits	£4,596.202		+£1,416.19
Yr 2 Dividends	£294.96		+£0
Yr 2 Profit from sales	£1,596.81		+£0
Yr 2 Average monthly cash profit	£233.71	(15.7%)	-£7.08
Total Dividends	£708.15		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£3,946.67		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£229.07	(15.4%)	-£2.69
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Pretty much exactly the same story as with the other account, the two biggest shares doing rather nicely.

All back to normal again after a wee scare over the last few weeks.

It's the first year anniversary of the trading account after week 52 - what stunning successes can I report?

			Weekly Change
Portfolio cost	£486.05		+£0
Cash	£79.63		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£321.65	(-34%)	-£13.90
Potential profits	£0		+£0
Dividends	£1.15		+£1.15
Profit from sales	-£22.85		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	-£1.81	(-4.5%)	+£0.03
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

None!

What a complete and utter disaster. The initial sale of SLP:Sylvania Platinum was a success, making £61.57 (12%) profit. However, I then added some KIBO:Kibo Mining shares which I later stole back into my share account because I wanted to keep them for free KAT:Katoro Gold shares, and then bought JLP:Jubilee Platinum that I accidentally transferred to my ISA along with my other JLP shares in the account. I couldn't report that as stealing them as they were sold and bought back, so had to report a sell at an £84.42 (17%) loss even though I still have the shares in another account.

Meanwhile REDS:RedstoneConnect have been an unmitigated disaster as a trading share because I fell for a load of bulletin board ramping and bought them on a spike. That was a useful but frustrating lesson, as I'm either stuck with them until they recover or would make an even bigger loss if I sell them. I know a trader would take his loss and re-invest somewhere else, but I'm clearly a rubbish trader because I can't and won't.

So the upshot of all this is I made an average monthly loss of £1.81 and am losing £162 (34%) on the purchased shares. Well done me!

I should just give up - but I won't as I need this account to try and save me from myself - there has to be a fun outlet so I can focus on long term investing with the main accounts. Maybe I do need to stick another £1,000 in this one to pep it up a bit, but I don't have it so can't.

That's it for a wonderful week. I don't think IQE:IQE will collapse under profit taking next week, as that would have happened today. Even the reported 6.9% drop today was bollox as the bid price only dropped from about 106p to 104p and that's the one that counts.

Next week could easily see a few more OPTI:Optibiotix contracts come in, as they had the first one last week and have been in discussion with 30 companies. We're expecting the small ones first and the bigger ones later once all the due diligence has been completed.

Meanwhile in comedy land, AFPO:African Potash have farmed out their one remaining asset to African Agronomix Ltd in return for shares in the company. On one hand it's good news, because there was never going to be enough money to develop it. On the other hand I'm concerned the board may find some cunning way of getting their hands on the cash and leave nothing behind for shareholders. I will try not to be too cynical and foster a tiny glimmer of hope that this deal will allow debts to be repaid and a fresh start, but going by past performance, I suspect I'll never see my £700 investment again.

IQE you beauty!!

It's a very, very rare sensation to sit on the lav in the morning reading the day's RNSs and stare open-mouthed at how wonderful a trading update looks.

That happened this morning when I read the RNS from IQE:IQE, so I figured if we were really lucky there wouldn't be a massive drop in share price like there was after the last trading update, and maybe the slow but relentless creep upwards would continue.

I wasn't quite expecting a surge of 32.1%

Let's put this in perspective - IQE:IQE was already making £5,602 profit on a £4,607 investment so I was very, very happy.

Each 1p rise is worth an extra £121

Today the share price rose 27.5p, although the closing bid price rose 22.5p as the share price got ahead of both the closing bid and offer prices, which I'm rather hoping will rise to meet it tomorrow!

I do believe that's a rise of £2,724 paper profit in a day, even at the pessimistic end of the scale! The ISA holding is now up by 257% on purchase price, and the SIPP by 123%.

The portfolio was already up on the week, and OPTI:Optibiotix recovered another 1p, so with just tomorrow to go, the week is up by £3,817 and we're back in the black!

I guess I should be a tad concerned that without the £8,297 profit from IQE:IQE my combined portfolios would be doing pretty shit, but for tonight I just don't care and I'm going to the pub for a celebratory pint.

The last 4 weeks of misery have just been (temporarily) forgotten...

Week 101 Review - Deeper into the red

Another really poor week, with the combined portfolios losing £1,478. The only crumb of comfort is that £471 of that was taken as profit, so the loss is more like £1,000. That's still the fourth big loss in a row, so I've sunk into the red by £1,968 compared to the cost price, with a total value of £62,616.

Worst performer was AMYT:Amryt Pharma, falling 11% which accounts for over £500 of the losses on its own. CWR:Ceres Power Holdings dropped 9% which was expensive and RED:RedT Energy dropped 7% after a truly dreadful trading statement confirming that they haven't sold anything ever.

Although OPTI:Optibiotix only fell 3%, the 2p drop cost me £600 now these make up 33% of the portfolio. The encouraging thing with this situation is that they could spectacularly turn around my current deficit if they get back to their 80p range.

It wasn't all doom and gloom, with JLP:Jubilee Platinum posting a really upbeat interview with the CEO boosting confidence that the next trading statement could be a good one, although still no news about Tjate. This led to a 7% rise in share price.

Share of the Week is back to IQE:IQE following a brief stint as worst performer last week. This week the shares climbed back by 12% to recover half last week's losses.

Bad news - just a few short weeks in the black, but last time it took a similar dip it was back up again within a few weeks. Only 3 weeks before the year 2 review though, so it would be really nice to be in the black for that.

Here's the combined ISA and share accounts

			Weekly Change
Portfolio cost	£46,246.68		+£631.79
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£43,214.99	(-6.6%)	-£1,307.34
Potential profits	£4,785.20		-£1,141.47
Yr 2 Dividends	£500.59		+£0
Yr 2 Profit from sales	£2,872.24		+£471.18
Yr 2 Average monthly cash profit	£294.63	(7.6%)	+£36.40
Total Dividends	£1,168.52		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£6.712.50		+£471.18
Average monthly cash profit	£333.77	(8.7%)	+£17.08
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Portfolio cost up by £631 after re-investing the proceeds of selling SXX:Sirius Minerals and TLOU:Tlou Energy and some old dividends into more OPTI:Optibiotix. Sell value is down by £1,307 when you factor that the cost went up £631. Most of this was reduced paper profits, with the £471 from the sales and the rest a combination of AMYT:Amryt Pharma, CWR:Ceres Power and GVC:GVC Holdings all dropping. Losses deepened a small amount, but it was nearly all reduced profits this week.

Average monthly performance improved thanks to the sales, but only enough to go from 8.3% to 8.7%. The policy of selling fewer shares in year 2 has clearly had an impact, with year 2 performance only 7.6%, but at least there's some hope of the portfolios getting into the black unlike last year when I kept spending any profits.

A horrible drop, but I've had them just as big before so lets hope for a repeat of the rise that started in week 91.

The SIPP looks like this after week 85

			Weekly Change
Portfolio cost	£17,853.50		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£19,066.00	(6.8%)	-£157.48
Potential profits	£3,180.01		+£61.53
Yr 2 Dividends	£294.96		+£0
Yr 2 Profit from sales	£1,596.81		+£0
Yr 2 Average monthly cash profit	£240.79	(16.2%)	-£7.53
Total Dividends	£708.15		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£3,946.67		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£231.76	(15.6%)	-£2.76
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Potential profits are actually up a little thanks to IQE:IQE, but this was reduced by declining paper profits in CAML:Central Asia Metals and LGEN:Legal & General which lost most of last week's rise. The 2p fall in OPTI:Optibiotix is responsible for turning the increased profits into a £157 loss. Performance is still well above 10% target and will be for some time.

Still in the black, but the gap has been narrowing for a few weeks now.

The pointless trading account looks like this just one week before the first year aniversary

			Weekly Change
Portfolio cost	£486.05		+£0
Cash	£79.63		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£335.55	(-31%)	-£13.90
Potential profits	£0		+£0
Dividends	£1.15		+£1.15
Profit from sales	-£22.85		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	-£1.84	(-4.6%)	+£0.14
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

The usual yo-yo by REDS:RedstoneConnect continues, with a 3% swing in each direction every single week. Much excitement though - the fragments from the share consolidation have been returned, so I counted it as a £1.15 dividend. This improved the average monthly loss by 14p a month - stunning!

I look at the graph and reflect what could have been, if I wasn't really crap at picking trading shares.

No planned announcements that I'm aware of next week, so the big hope is that OPTI:Optibiotix release some form of news to help it bounce off the 60p zone. Both JLP:Jubilee Platinum and KIBO:Kibo Mining were looking upbeat last week, so there's hope that momentum will continue, and CWR:Ceres Power are getting more publicity at the moment so that could be a boost to the share price, with a 35% increase being forecast by analysts. Fingers crossed...

Boost to profits - and a few more Optibiotix

I've been growing increasingly concerned that my average profits from sales and dividends in my ISA and share accounts has dipped well below 10% at 8.3%. However, my new priority was to get the combined portfolios into the black and keep them there, and there was nothing I particularly wanted to sell.

Last night I decided there were a few shares I could sell, and with the combined portfolios plunging into the red on Friday, my morale needed a boost.

I sold my 3,949 shares in SXX:Sirius Minerals at 28.077p making a modest £90.21 (10.1%) profit. I bought back into these when they were about to enter the FTSE250 expecting a rise as tracking funds bought them. There was a really good rise, but it's been tailing off ever since. As it's at least 5 years before they make any profit, and there are lots of risks between now and then, I decided to put my money elsewhere. I will watch and may return though.

My other long-burner that's quite a few years from revenue is TLOU:Tlou Energy. I sold half my holding a while back for £328.55 (63%) profit, and since then the price has been quite low. After a recent rally I sold my remaining 10,000 shares at 9.322p making a £380.98 (69.1%) profit. A total of £700 profit has been really good from these, and I'll keep an eye on them with a view to buying again in the future.

The effect of the sales was to boost my average monthly profit to £337 which is 8.7%. Still below my 10% target, but not as much below as 8.3% and the portfolio cost has gone up by £600 too. The downside is that the £418 profit immediately reflects as a paper loss for the week, and with a luke-warm performance in the markets my combined portfolios are already £1,049 down on last week. That's £5,000 down in the last month!

However, I was left with over £2,000 sitting in my ISA when you added old dividends that were lying around - what on earth could I do with it?

Here's an out-of-the-box suggestion. Why not buy some more OPTI:Optibiotix shares while they're even cheaper than they were the last time I bought them?

Oh go on then...

I purchased another 3,402 shares at the ridiculously cheap price of 63.66p costing £2,177.66

That takes OPTI:Optibiotix up to 33.1% of my entire portfolio - gulp!

The great news is the purchase brought the average price down from 73.83p to 71.83p in my ISA, which is excellent considering how many I bought in the early days at 90p.

Maybe one day I'll average the price down to one that's below the actual selling price!!

In the meantime my 30,052 shares are losing £3,057.

However, the good news is that each rise of 1p is now worth £300, so when the imminent news of forecast revenue is published, and with only 78 million shares in circulation, and with a load of free SBTX:Skinbiotherapeutics shares on the way, and with Sweetbiotix launching within months, and with very little cash burn, and with solid IP and patent protection, I am still convinced that one day soon, this deep winter of share price misery will blossom into a spring of gamboling and frolicking through hay meadows as the profits pile up in great heaps.

Here's waiting and hoping...

Week 100 Review - Back in the red

What a disastrous centenary week!

Slumps in some of my biggest holdings caused an overall drop of £2,439 taking the combined portfolios £489 into the red and obliterating the buffer. The portfolio value now stands at £63,463 and has lost more than £4,000 in value over the last 3 weeks.

Worst performer this week was IQE:IQE which had to suffer some profit taking sooner or later, and it's happening big-time now, with a drop of 23% this week. Fortunately that still leaves my ISA up by 156% but has hammered the potential profits.

KIBO:Kibo Mining is the only other double-digit loser, dropping 11%, but falls of 8% for AMYT:Amryt Pharma, 6% for CAML:Central Asia Metals and 4% for my biggest holding OPTI:Optibiotix all contributed to the massive drop in portfolio value.

There were a few good news stories, with LGEN:Legal & General up by 5% which is a lot for this normally stable share, CWR:Ceres Power Holdings up 6% and Share of the Week by miles was TLOU:Tlou Energy, up 28% but on a relatively small holding

Bye bye buffer. Such a short time in the black. I'll just have to hope the current 3-week cycle of dips has finished and we go back into profit next week.

Here's to performance of the combined ISA and share accounts

			Weekly Change
Portfolio cost	£45,614.89		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£43,890.54	(-3.8%)	-£1,599.54
Potential profits	£5,926.67		-£595.40
Yr 2 Dividends	£500.59		+£14.30
Yr 2 Profit from sales	£2,401.06		+£0
Yr 2 Average monthly cash profit	£258.23	(6.8%)	-£4.52
Total Dividends	£1,168.52		+£14.30
Total Profit from sales	£6.241.32		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£316.69	(8.3%)	-£2.74
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Value absolutely clobbered, with £595 reduced profits and £1,000 of deepening loss. There needs to be some news for some of the key holdings to have a reversal in fortunes. £14.30 was a welcome dividend from TND:Tandem Group.

Ouch!

Here's the SIPP after week 84

			Weekly Change
Portfolio cost	£17,853.50		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£19,223.48	(7.7%)	-£854.28
Potential profits	£3,118.48		-£531.57
Yr 2 Dividends	£294.96		+£0
Yr 2 Profit from sales	£1,596.81		+£0
Yr 2 Average monthly cash profit	£248.32	(16.7%)	-£9.06
Total Dividends	£708.15		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£3,946.67		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£234.52	(15.8%)	-£3.22
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

A huge drop, mostly reduced profits but also some deepening loss. Still no need to sell anything to keep performance stats up though.

A worrying narrowing of the gap in an account that's been in the black for well over a year.

The pointless trading account looks like this after week 50

			Weekly Change
Portfolio cost	£486.05		+£0
Cash	£79.63		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£349.45	(-28.1%)	+£13.90
Potential profits	£0		+£0
Dividends	£0		+£0
Profit from sales	-£22.85		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	-£1.98	(-4.9%)	+£0.04
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

The share prices toggles up and down by 5p almost every week but never goes any higher, so it's looking like after 1 year this account will have made a loss and be well in the red - a great advert for trying to trade rather than invest!

Rubbish!

A torrid week. All I can hope is that there will be a bounce back this week to get back into the black, but it will take news rather than an upturn in general market sentiment.

Week 99 Review - the buffer narrows further

Another bad week causing much stress to the buffer between being in the black and the red. A loss of £914 has reduced the buffer to £1,950 so there needs to be a turnaround else it will be gone. Total portfolio value has dropped to £65,903

Worst performing share was SXX:Sirius Minerals, dropping 11% but it had to suffer profit-taking at some point after the recent rise. They are still 16% up making £159 potential profit, and this is a very long-term investment.

Another stellar share that was bound to have a bad week sooner or later is IQE:IQE, down 8% this week as the nervous bottle it and sell up. I'm not nervous, I'm excited. This is still my Star Share by a long way, and if anything I want more so the tick down could present an opportunity.

No double-digit risers in this generally dismal week. Share of the Week is CAML:Central Asia Metals which staged a mini rally and climbed 6%. My holding is up by 36% since purchase, but it was 50% a few months back so hopefully the current good copper price will stick for a while and these will make a recovery.

Eeek - it's getting tight!

Here's the combined ISA and share accounts performance

			Weekly Change
Portfolio cost	£45,614.89		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£45,490.08	(-0.3%)	-£845.97
Potential profits	£6,522.07		-£454.01
Yr 2 Dividends	£486.29		+£0
Yr 2 Profit from sales	£2,401.06		+£0
Yr 2 Average monthly cash profit	£262.75	(6.9%)	-£5.71
Total Dividends	£1,154.22		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£6.241.32		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£319.43	(8.4%)	-£3.26
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Once again this account fails to stay in the black and slips back into the red. Half this week's losses were reduced profit, with IQE:IQE being the main culprit, and deepening losses were spread throughout the portfolio.

The trend seems to be 3 bad weeks then a couple of good, so I won't anticipate a turnaround next week.

The SIPP looks like this after week 83

			Weekly Change
Portfolio cost	£17,853.50		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£20,077.76	(12.5%)	-£68.55
Potential profits	£3,650.05		+£68.86
Yr 2 Dividends	£294.96		+£0
Yr 2 Profit from sales	£1,596.81		+£0
Yr 2 Average monthly cash profit	£257.38	(17.3%)	-£8.58
Total Dividends	£708.15		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£3,946.67		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£237.74	(16.0%)	-£2.90
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Potential profits were up thanks to CAML:Cental Asia Metals big rise being enough to cancel out the IQE:IQE drop. Unfortunately deepening losses were twice the gains and we end up £68 down.

Still happy with this. Nice wide gap and helps out the other accounts to keep the combined portfolios in the black. Things could get very saucy with this account in a few months when I transfer my work pension into it!

Let's take a look at the nasty trading account after week 49

			Weekly Change
Portfolio cost	£486.05		+£0
Cash	£79.63		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£335.55	(-30.8%)	+£0
Potential profits	£0		+£0
Dividends	£0		+£0
Profit from sales	-£22.85		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	-£2.02	(-5.0%)	+£0.04
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Boring!

Boring!

No results expected next week so the performance of the portfolio is very much news dependent. OPTI:Optibiotix contracts, KIBO:Kibo Mining plans for KAT:Katoro Gold share distribution or licenses, JLP:Jubilee Platinum revenue from Hernic or plans for Tjate are all long-awaited.

Following on from my update about AFG:Aquatic Food shares suspending and the relief that I got out when I did, their Finance Director has resigned with immediate effect. Probably in disgust at the way the board have treated their shareholders. It's an absolute outrage that companies are still getting away with screwing their investors in this way. Interesting that a few days before suspension the share price shot up - I wonder if that was shorts closing? If it was, then such a coincidence they timed the closure just before the shares suspended! How lucky for them...

I have lost all trust in AIM shares. I will be looking at every single one with a big dose of cynicism, especially for signs that the directors are taking the piss. That's colouring some of my existing shares too.

WRES:W Resources are the worst offenders, pumping the share price with "great" news just before a placing but conveniently timing their own big purchases for when the price is low. If this company ever makes money it will be interesting to see if shareholders see any of it. I'll be selling out of this as soon as my holding gets into the black, but I only have a tiny amount to offload.

I'm more concerned about JLP:Jubilee Platinum, as I had high hopes, but my faith in the directors has been hammered by their astounding ability to do something daft just as the share price looks like it might start to rise. Just as Hernic was about to make money they did a placing out of the blue. Tjate seems to have no strategy whatsoever despite years waiting for the licence where they could have been preparing. The share price is lower than it was when we were granted the "game-changing" mining licence. My confidence is shaken and I wonder if buying £4,600 worth of shares was such a great idea. They are losing £782 at the moment. I need something to happen soon to boost my confidence that the directors are considering their shareholders.

There are also my basket case shares that I gave up on a long time ago. AFPO:African Potash are dodgy as hell, and I can't believe I fell for the bullshit. BLUR:Blur Group are deluded and can't stop spending money despite hardly making any, and TRK:Torotrak have obsessively continued to push a technology nobody wants.

I have concerns with RED:RedT Energy who have an amazing, groundbreaking product but haven't sold any - at all - ever! TLOU:Tlou Energy have given opportunities for investors on the Australian market but not on AIM which makes me wonder how committed they are to UK shareholders, and RDT:Rosslyn Data may very well turn into another BLUR:Blur Group.

I think it's a positive change that makes me question the quality of the leadership of companies I'm invested in, and when looking for new companies, I intend to spend a lot more time researching the directors.

Compare the above with companies like OPTI:Optibiotix, CAML:Central Asia Metals and GVC:GVC Holdings, where the directors have continually shown they have shareholder interests at heart. These companies may have waxing and waning fortunes, but I have confidence as an investor I'm not likely to get screwed.