Week 177 Review - Limp end to 2018

The year kind of petered out rather limply, with a good last day for the FTSE not reflected in my own portfolio thanks to a drop for OPTI:Optibiotix. I spent my £2,000 SIPP transfer, and it's a good job I did else the portfolio value would have dropped below £100K. It just held above at £101,395 and is in the black by £4,072 despite a drop of £3,777 this week.

As is often the case, the worst performer was last week's Share of the Week OPTI:Optibiotix, and when that performs badly my portfolio gets hammered. An 8% drop this week still leaves me well in the black, and I suspect was down to profit taking following the 17% rise last week.

CEY:Centamin had a flat week in my ISA despite the increase in price of gold, but in my SIPP it had a dreadful week and dropped 7%, largely due to issuing an RNS stating production would be 2% below forecast about one hour after I'd bought £1,000 worth. With a P/E ratio of about 7 and massive amounts of cash, I still see this as a great company to invest in, as production will increase next year and the shares are just stupidly cheap.

TAP:Taptica fell  badly last week and dropped another 6% this week. I thought about topping up, but decided it's just too risky.

KIBO:Kibo Energy is the first of the big risers, with a 5% increase this week. I'm really hoping this is the start of a recovery, as this is now one of my worst performing shares.

MTFB:Motif Bio has started to pick up, and may see continued buying at these levels with the FDA decision on Iclaprim not far away now. It would be nice for these to get back into profit, and I never envisaged this sort of drop given they have a product that has passed Phase III trials.

TEK:Tekcapital had an unexpected boost, climbing 8%. However, this remains 62% down and I suspect stands little chance of getting back into profit. I just need to decide at what point I take my loss.

Share of the Week was a big surprise. IKA:Ilika shot up 9% but is still 66% down. I guess there's a vague possibility someone knows something. There's certainly been nothing interesting in an RNS.

The gap narrows precariously.

Here's the ISA and shares portfolios

			Weekly Change
Cash	£46.66		+£0
Portfolio cost	£56,971.94		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£58,489.24	(2.7%)	-£2,257.20
Potential profits	£11,872.89		-£2,529.80
Yr 4 Dividends	£60.50		+£0
Yr 4 Profit from sales	£814.53		+£0
Yr 4 Average monthly cash profit	£176.69	(3.7%)	-£8.84
Total Dividends	£1,298.83		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£19,511.65		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£505.44	(10.6%)	-£2.87
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Potential profits dropped by £2,529 and OPTI:Optibiotix is the only share in profit, so no problem working out what happened there. The overall portfolio value fell by around £250 less than that, so everything else was up a tiny bit. Still no rush to sell anything as I'm comfortably over the long term 10% performance target.

At least it's the right side of the line

The SIPP looks like this after week 161

			Weekly Change
Cash	£138.92		+£0.28
Portfolio cost	£37,825.18		+£1,999.73
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£41,354.82	(9.3%)	-£1,527.41
Potential profits	£7,599.97		-£1,525.90
Yr 4 Dividends	£0		+£0
Yr 4 Interest	£0.01		+£0.01
Yr 4 Profit from sales	£0		+£0
Yr 4 Average monthly cash profit	-£13.06	(-0.4%)	+£3.28
Total Dividends	£1,342.25		+£0
Total Interest	£0.04		+£0.01
Total Profit from sales	£10,544.92		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£312.57	(9.9%)	-£1.95
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

My £2,000 transfer arrived and I spent it, so cost went up and the leftover pennies went into cash, along with the 1p interest payment. Potential profits got hammered and the rest of the portfolio stayed flat. The injection of cash means the long term performance dropped below 10% and I'll need to start thinking about selling something to stay on target. Sometimes I wonder if my target is too demanding - as it's based on an ever increasing portfolio cost, then it's going to be very difficult to keep above 10%, but I guess targets ought to be a little bit hard to meet.

My £2,000 went on two companies, both existing holdings. Firstly I bought 4,499 shares in SBTX:SkinBioTherapeutics at 13.175p costing £999.94. My other holding in the ISA cost me 20p and I thought that was cheap at the time, but there's been some unease lately after some poor PR and a worry that a placing is ahoy. However, there's still loads of cash in the bank and initial results of human trials are imminent. Given the stellar lab results I'm reasonably confident in the human trials, and based on the OPTI:Optibiotix model assume discussions are already advanced with major industry partners so that once the trials are complete, contracts can be signed quite quickly. With that in mind, the share price has multiple opportunities to spike. Given the pain I've endured watching OPTI:Optibiotix spike and plummet while holding throughout, I'll be shamelessly trading my SBTX:SkinBioTherapeutics shares as I've been a good boy with OPTI:Optibiotix but feel naughty with these.

The rest of the cash went on CEY:Centamin as the main reason for transferring the money out of my work pension was Legal & General withdrawing the gold fund, and I want a percentage of my pension in gold. I bought 893 shares at 110.62p costing £999.79. About an hour after my purchase, and RNS was issued stating they were 2% below forecast revenue and the price dropped to 108p and I was miffed. The purchase takes my SIPP gold shares to 9% of that portfolio cost, although I'd like to increase it to 25% over the next few months.

The green line is at a much shallower incline to the red one, but the gap is still healthy.

The trading account looks like this after week 127

			Weekly Change
Cash	£18.80		+£0
Portfolio cost	£2,321.29		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£1,346.58	(-42%)	+£7.20
Potential profits	£0		+£0
Year 3 Dividends	£17.33		+£0
Year 3 Profit	£177.06		+£0
Yr 3 Average monthly cash profit	£36.62	(18.9%)	-£1.67
Dividends	£18.48		+£0
Profit from sales	-£64.29		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	-£1.56	(-0.8%)	+£0.02
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

A £7 rise is much more healthy than the recent misery, but certainly won't turn around the fortunes of this basket case.

Is there any hope? Maybe just a fool's hope...

CAML:Central Asia Metals is a superb company that's been unreasonably hammered, so I have no problem anticipating a major turnaround in the New Year when it's clear just how much cash they are generating. IQE:IQE will also turn around the share price as the shorters will give in at some point, and 5G infrastructure will make them loads of cash, especially when the new foundry comes on-line.

LION:Lionsgold will either come out of suspension and have a spike on excitement, or will never re-list and I'll lose the lot. TAP:Taptica have been wrongly hammered for the resignation of their CEO and are taking advantage by buying back shares. It's high risk, but I think there's potential to make a lot of profit buying at these prices - but could be wrong. TEK:Tekcapital was a big mistake. They'll come to nothing and waste away all my investment. I should have sold out immediately and would have only lost £100 but now I stand to lose £229 I can't bring myself to do it. Probably explains why I'm rubbish at trading!

Looking back at this time last year my combined portfolios were worth £74,900. Today they are worth £101,395. Granted that includes the recent addition of £10,000 from my pension, but even without that it's £15,000 up on last year, which smashes my 10% target, so although the final week was a bit lame, the final position is very healthy.

2019 is going to be shit or bust for some of my shares. JLP:Jubilee Metals is my biggest losing share, down by £2,246. They absolutely have to show that the profits from their existing projects are resulting in positive cash flow, and get Kabwe producing. If that happens then there's a reasonable chance of a turnaround. Next biggest loser is KIBO:Kibo Energy, down by £1,963. It needs to get a signed power purchase agreement else all hope is lost. I need to get out of this one anyway as they have moved from mining to coal fired power stations and with global warming we shouldn't be building new ones, so I shouldn't be investing in them. Solar, wind and tidal with vanadium redux storage is the way forward. Almost as bad is TLOU:Tlou Energy which really needs to win the tender for providing power to Botswana, and if they don't then I fear the company will be sold for its reserves at a steal, and I'll end up capitalising my losses. They are gas, which isn't as bad as coal, but I really shouldn't be investing in it.

In the SIPP TRX:Tissue Regenix is losing £1,248 and needs to show it's not just a mechanism for directors to earn a big wage, and IQE:IQE is losing £1,211 but I'm confident will bounce back when the shorts close.

Meanwhile MTFB:Motif Bio will soon know if the FDA have approved their NDA, and all eyes will be on OPTI:Optibiotix as deal after deal crosses the line and the revenues keep heaping up, the SBTX:SkinBioTherapeutics dividend is dished out, Sweetbiotix launches, ProBiotix is spun out and listed, and the share price reacts in the only way it can.

My New Years resolution is to get back into VRS:Versarian. I hoped the price would dip below 100p but it just keeps holding on. I don't want another OPTI:Optibiotix where I'm losing money for 3 years, so I'm determined to wait, but I may miss the boat. Let's see what 2019 brings...

Week 176 Review - Santa came after all

While the rest of the market was decidedly limp, OPTI:Optibiotix had a wonderful Christmas surge, climbing 10p on Thursday alone, and helping the combined portfolios improve by £8,635 over the week. They are now in the black by £7,849 and coming to a nice pre-Christmas total of £103,172.

Worst performer was last week's Share of the Week TAP:Taptica, which gave up all of last week's gains and some as it dropped 11%. I can't help thinking this is massively under-valued now. I may have to re-think what to do with my £2,000 pension transfer...

IKA:Ilika continues to be rubbish and miles off ever making a profit, dropping another 7% this week to go 75% down on my purchase price. I'm glad I only dipped a £500 toe in this one as it's doomed unless a miracle occurs.

TLOU:Tlou Energy had yet another bad week and dropped 6%. This one's very disappointing, but I still think it will come good. It's very high risk though, and I think the sort of company I will avoid in future. My biggest fear is they will sell out the reserves while the price is this low, as I'm down 55% and I put in £2,700 so stand to lose a lot if they don't hang around until profitable.

Only three big losers this week, but 5 big gainers. WRES:W Resources recovered from last week's losses and climbed 5% probably as a result of a nice video showing the new crusher in operation. It is quite impressive, and they will be producing soon, but with massive share dilution and what appears to be a crippling debt facility, I won't be hanging around for the long term. I only invested £430 and that was mostly dividends and profits from another sale I was looking to do something with.

SAE:Simec Atlantis Energy is another of my small investments, and good job as it's dropped 65% since I bought them. I think they could be successful in the long term, but have one small source of revenue and potentially massive costs to get anything bigger coming in. They climbed 6% this week but there's a long way to go yet.

AMYT:Amryt Pharma have been surprisingly low for a while now, given they are revenue-generating and in Phase III trials. I guess there's a worry the trials will fail and that's spooked people out, and my recent experience with junior pharmas suggests that might be a prudent approach. However, these have several strings to their bow, and don't forget Harry Stratford as Chair. I made £400 profit when I sold my initial holding, and these are only 9% down and losing £139 so I'm up overall with this company and will be staying invested for the long term.

MAIS:Maistro climbed 16% on paper this week, but that's not entirely accurate as I took part in an open offer. I applied for 4,000 at 1p each but my allocation was only meant to be 40 and I managed to get 1,339 costing just £13.39 with no commission. My initial holding was from when this was BLUR:Blur Group and was 400 bought at 24.225p. They were down by 107% prior to the open offer. Now my weighted average has dropped to 6.34p and they are only down by 91% so all looking rosy! The chances of them ever making a profit are very slim, and they may very well go bust, but for a minuscule injection I've improved my chances of getting out without a loss. If the whole thing goes bust I'll only have lost £122 as I bought these before I understood the importance of commission and sensible minimum investment amounts - and not to back a complete donkey just because the share price is at a 12-month low.

I'm very happy to say that OPTI:Optibiotix wins Share of the Week with a 17% climb. That was 11p and added up to £8,800. So without OPTI:Optibiotix I would have been down £200 this week. The momentum is really building now, and although the promised "Christmas surprise" was a bit lame, there's clearly a ton of stuff about to happen in the New Year and revenue flow must be really building. After collapsing to a loss a few weeks ago, my paper profits are back up to £22,430. Traders must have made an absolute fortune out of this share as it's been up and down like a yo-yo. I just keep buying more on the dips, but I'm hoping there won't be any more dips. Now I have 79,877 shares I think that's probably enough. When they get to £5 a share (which they will) I'll have made well over £300,000 profit. They could quite easily get to £10 a share once Sweetbiotix takes off, and that will give me $750K. The plan is to spin out each division but retain 75% of the shares and act as a holding company - the model Berkshire Hathaway uses. Allow the subsidiaries to take all the risk and do all the work, then just hoover up the profits. Slimbiome Medical starts selling in January and that could be surprisingly lucrative, and was a complete bonus following the CE Mark award and medical device approval a few weeks ago. It's all getting very exciting!

Bouncing along the red line

The ISA and share portfolios look like this

	Weekly Change
Cash	£46.66		+£16.61
Portfolio cost	£56,971.94		+£13.39
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£60,746.44	(6.6%)	+£5,495.36
Potential profits	£14,402.69		+£5,565.56
Yr 4 Dividends	£60.50		+£0
Yr 4 Profit from sales	£814.53		+£0
Yr 4 Average monthly cash profit	£185.53	(3.9%)	-£9.76
Total Dividends	£1,298.83		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£19,511.65		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£508.31	(10.7%)	-£2.90
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Cash went up a bit as I added £30 for the open offer but didn't get to spend it all. Cost went up by the £13.39 for the open offer. All the increase was down to increasing OPTI:Optibiotix profits, and the rest of the portfolio slipped a bit but not a lot.

Sad to say that OPTI:Optibiotix is the only share in profit. The other 16 are all making a loss. JLP:Jubilee Metals and KIBO:Kibo Energy are both down by over £2,000 and TLOU:Tlou Energy by £1,487. All of them are mining/energy companies in Africa!

Looks like I have 7 months until my average monthly performance drops below 10%, which is perfect as I either don't want to sell, or for the majority I won't sell at a loss.

Back in the black, but the heady days of almost £80,000 are looking quite a long way in the past

The SIPP looks like this after week 160

			Weekly Change
Cash	£138.64		+£0
Portfolio cost	£35,825.45		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£40,882.50	(14.1%)	+£3,200.45
Potential profits	£9,125.87		+£3,210.63
Yr 4 Dividends	£0		+£0
Yr 4 Interest	£0		+£0
Yr 4 Profit from sales	£0		+£0
Yr 4 Average monthly cash profit	-£16.34	(-0.5%)	+£5.45
Total Dividends	£1,342.25		+£0
Total Interest	£0.03		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£10,544.92		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£314.52	(10.5%)	-£1.98
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Nearly all the rise was OPTI:Optibiotix, but both CEY:Centamin and PAF:Pan African Resources contributed small rises in profits too. Unlike the other portfolio, four shares are in profit and six at a loss in the SIPP. Unfortunately, when I invest my £2,000 transfer next week it's going to increase the cost of the portfolio and that's likely to bring my average monthly profits down below 10% as the target is based percentage return against the current cost of the portfolio.

Although the value is at an all time high, it's on the back of an £8,000 injection a few weeks ago, so still a way to go to match the amazing position 3 months ago.

The trading account looks like this after week 126

			Weekly Change
Cash	£18.80		+£0
Portfolio cost	£2,321.29		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£1,339.38	(-42.3%)	-£60.19
Potential profits	£0		+£0
Year 3 Dividends	£17.33		+£0
Year 3 Profit	£177.06		+£0
Yr 3 Average monthly cash profit	£38.29	(19.8%)	-£1.82
Dividends	£18.48		+£0
Profit from sales	-£64.29		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	-£1.58	(-0.8%)	+£0.01
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Yet another rubbish week. This account really is cursed. Everything dropped this week. The only glimmer of light is that year 3 is actually almost 20% up on projected profits after 5 months. All it takes is one of these to turn around and I can get the entire account into long term realised profit, despite paper profit being so bad. I'm still confident everything in this portfolio will come good, but in the long term, and that's not what a trading account is meant to be about. This has been a very tough and long lesson, and certainly hasn't been a profitable one - yet...

This is just too depressing to even look at! Pretty colours though...

Not quite the end of the year yet, so I guess that round-up can wait until next week. I'll have spent my £2,000 although I'm no longer sure what I'll spend it on. I desperately want to trade SBTX:SkinBiotherapeutics for a bit, as I've not been able to do it with OPTI:Optibiotix for fear of missing out on dividends. Given I have my longer term holding in SBTX:SkinBioTherapeutics (because it's at a loss), I want to use half my pension transfer to buy some while they're cheap, with the intention of selling around 20p then waiting for the next dip before buying more. I intended to do that with my other account but bought way too soon as the dip continued.

The other £1,000 was destined for CAML:Central Asia Metals, but I have a lot of these now and it would increase my average price, so I'm looking at both IQE:IQE and TAP:Taptica which are good companies that have been hammered recently and should bounce back. The question is, which is most likely to bounce back quickest? My decision will be revealed next week...

Week 175 Review - There's no such thing as a Santa rally!

It's been a mixed week, with some shares having a small bounce back, but OPTI:Optibiotix took a tumble, so the portfolio value dropped by £4,066 and back into the red by £785. Total value now stands at £94,506.

Worst performer was PAF:Pan African Resources which lost 9% and most of the recent gains. The price action seems very odd on this one, with quite wide swings and an odd spread. I think the general direction is up, and when production starts on the new project I expect a significant re-rate. It remains quite a high risk though.

OPTI:Optibiotix was the second worst performer, dropping 5p which is 8%. It still has a healthy profit, so all we can do is hope the promised Christmas surprise appears next week. If it doesn't, then the Christmas surprise will be that there's no Christmas surprise!

SBTX:SkinBioTherapeutics dropped 5% and is now in prime territory for a purchase. My initial plan for spending the £2,000 I'm transferring from my work pension to my SIPP was to split it between here and MTFB:Motif Bio, but I already have a big chunk invested in MTFB:Motif Bio, and if the FDA doesn't approve their application it will be wiped out, so I may pile all £2,000 into SBTX:SkinBioTherapeutics at this price.

IQE:IQE is still struggling horribly and dropped another 5%, as did WRES:W Resources, which is surprising now they've started production. I was expecting a little spike so I could get rid of the damn things.

CEY:Centamin had a good week, climbing 5% in my SIPP and 7% of purchase price in my trading account. These will re-rate, I have no doubt.

RED:RedT Energy has been struggling lately, with doubts they can make enough on each unit to get into profit. However, the price recovered by 8% this week but is still 48% down on purchase price.

AMYT:Amryt Pharma has really fallen out of favour lately, but climbed 8% this week. It's only 23% down now, and I really don't understand why it's down at all. A trading update would be useful as they must be raking in the cash now.

Share of the Week is TAP:Taptica, which after a 40% drop last week on the resignation of their CEO, climbed 10% this week. It will get back into profit, but when it does I won't be hanging around as long as I did last time it was in profit - I must remember, this is in what's meant to be my trading account.

Only slightly in the red, so looks as if it's just touching the line.

Here's the ISA and share portfolios

	Weekly Change
Cash	£30.05		+£0
Portfolio cost	£56,958.55		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£55,237.69	(-3%)	-£2,517.67
Potential profits	£8,837.13		-£2,529.80
Yr 4 Dividends	£60.50		+£0
Yr 4 Profit from sales	£814.53		+£0
Yr 4 Average monthly cash profit	£195.29	(4.1%)	-£10.85
Total Dividends	£1,298.83		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£19,511.65		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£511.21	(10.8%)	-£2.94
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Woohoo - £10 less drop in value compared to potential profit - so I clawed back £10 of my losses this week! Nothing else happened.

Back into negative territory

The SIPP looks like this after week 159

			Weekly Change
Cash	£138.64		+£0
Portfolio cost	£35,825.45		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£37,682.05	(5.2%)	-£1,570.36
Potential profits	£5,915.24		-£1,338.78
Yr 4 Dividends	£0		+£0
Yr 4 Interest	£0		+£0
Yr 4 Profit from sales	£0		+£0
Yr 4 Average monthly cash profit	£0	(0%)	+£0
Total Dividends	£1,342.25		+£0
Total Interest	£0.03		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£10,544.92		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£316.50	(10.6%)	-£2.01
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Losses deepened by an extra £430 on top of my reduction in potential profit. Nothing else happened, but it will next week!

Still a decent buffer on this account.

The trading portfolio looks like this after week 125

			Weekly Change
Cash	£18.80		+£0
Portfolio cost	£2,321.29		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£1,399.57	(-39.7%)	+£21.41
Potential profits	£0		+£0
Year 3 Dividends	£17.33		+£0
Year 3 Profit	£177.06		+£0
Yr 3 Average monthly cash profit	£40.11	(20.7%)	-£2.01
Dividends	£18.48		+£0
Profit from sales	-£64.29		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	-£1.59	(-0.8%)	+£0.01
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Stunning - it's actually gone up! Mainly thanks to a small recovery from CAML:Central Asia Metals and TAP:Taptica climbing 10%. Other losses meant the climb wasn't very much.

Still bobbins

So, it's the last week before Christmas and the last week for OPTI:Optibiotix to deliver the promised Christmas surprise. Lets hope it materialises and can get the portfolio back in the black. In the meantime, it's 10 days since I requested my pension transfer, so I'd better have £2,000 to spend in my SIPP or I'll be terribly, terribly vexed.

Week 174 Review - A slip back after last week's gains

This week could have been a lot worse given the savaging the blue-chip companies got. There was a drop of £3,012 but coming after last week's £20K gain, I can live with that. The portfolio is only in profit by £3,280 now so a repeat of this week will put me close to the red, and total value has dropped to £98,573 so once more back below £100K.

Worst performer by a long way was TAP:Taptica in my cursed trading account. To think I could have sold for £100 profit if I hadn't been greedy. I really don't have a clue about trading. They dropped 40% after their CEO resigned as he's being investigated for something dodgy. I don't see why this caused such a drop as it doesn't affect their profitability, and if I did have some spare cash in my trading fund now would seem to be the right time to buy.

For no particular reason SBTX:SkinBioTherapeutics fell a massive 22% this week. The only thing I can pin it on is the CEO confirming they would need another cash raise at some point. That was stated at IPO, so I don't see why that would trigger a sell-off, unless some recent investors weren't aware. I have £2K arriving in my SIPP next week, and if these stay at the current price I'll be topping up.

RED:RedT Energy are in a downward spiral at the moment, falling 10% last week and another 9% this week. I'm now 56% down and not sure if I'll ever see a profit. Can they make enough from each unit to go into the black?

IKA:Ilika had a bit of a rally a few months ago but it's all gone now and they dropped another 6% this week to go 67% down. My holding is only worth £220 though, so I may as well hang on and hope someone eventually wants to buy their stuff.

MTFB:Motif Bio was looking a superb investment when they passed phase III trials and submitted their application to FDA. Now they are 22% down - is that just because investors are impatient? They've done the hard stuff, now it's just a case of waiting for approval and doing a deal with one of the big boys. At this rate one of those big boys will simply buy out the whole company for a bargain and shareholders will be screwed.

PAF:Pan African Resources had a good week, climbing 6% and going £255 into profit. I'm still expecting these to double when production from their new project is announced.

Share of the Week is JLP:Jubilee Metals which climbed 7% but is still only 2.5p a share and down by 44%. It's been sliding for months, so I wonder what's caused the recovery? In the past shares like this have shown a tendency to be a tad leaky, so it's possible there will be an announcement on Kabwe progress, or maybe they've finally worked out what to do with Tjate?

The right side of the line - but for how long?

Here's the performance of the ISA and share accounts

			Weekly Change
Cash	£30.05		-£3.75
Portfolio cost	£56,958.55		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£57,755.36	(1.4%)	-£1,972.55
Potential profits	£11,366.93		-£1,517.88
Yr 4 Dividends	£60.50		+£0
Yr 4 Profit from sales	£814.53		+£0
Yr 4 Average monthly cash profit	£206.14	(4.3%)	-£13.08
Total Dividends	£1,298.83		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£19,511.65		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£514.15	(10.8%)	-£3.07
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Cash dropped from monthly ISA charge, and all the drop in profit was from OPTI:Optibiotix falling 4p. Losses deepened by around £450 too, so a generally bad week.

Only just staying above the line

The SIPP looks like this after week 158

			Weekly Change
Cash	£138.64		-£15.08
Portfolio cost	£35,825.45		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£39,252.41	(11.9%)	-£837.21
Potential profits	£7,254.02		-£834.53
Yr 4 Dividends	£0		+£0
Yr 4 Interest	£0		+£0
Yr 4 Profit from sales	£0		+£0
Yr 4 Average monthly cash profit	£0	(0%)	+£0
Total Dividends	£1,342.25		+£0
Total Interest	£0.03		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£10,544.92		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£318.51	(10.7%)	-£2.44
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Monthly charge has gone up quite a bit since adding the extra £8K to the cost/value. Losses were pretty much restricted to falling profit, with everything dropping except PAF:Pan African Resources. Really hoping my next £2K transfer will arrive next week. My current plan is to split it in half between SBTX:SkinBioTherapeutics and MTFB:Motif Bio, as I believe both are cheap right now and news can't be far away.

Much more healthy and a decent buffer, with four of the 10 holdings in profit.

Here's the trading account after week 124

			Weekly Change
Cash	£18.80		+£0
Portfolio cost	£2,321.29		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£1,378.16	(-40.6%)	-£202.54
Potential profits	£0		+£0
Year 3 Dividends	£17.33		+£0
Year 3 Profit	£177.06		+£0
Yr 3 Average monthly cash profit	£42.12	(21.8%)	-£2.21
Dividends	£18.48		+£0
Profit from sales	-£64.29		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	-£1.60	(-0.8%)	+£0.01
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Really, really poor. TAP:Taptica was my only share anywhere near profit and now it's toxic. I'm destined never to make any money from this account.

Brilliant idea to add another £2,000 and start again from scratch - at least I was able to extract some of the injection cash after selling KOD:Kodal Minerals for a big profit, but since then it's been diabolical.

OPTI:Optibiotix promised some more surprises before Christmas. That's getting quite close now, and with Go Figure muesli pots becoming available next week, can we hope for some sort of retail launch? That would be an amazing Christmas present.

Week 173 Review - Best ever week!

At last, after a pretty miserable run when everything seemed to be going wrong, along comes the biggest ever rise in portfolio value. The recovery in OPTI:Optibiotix has been rapid and huge, with this being the main driver of the improvement as the rest of the portfolio struggles. The value increased by £20,620 and zoomed back into profit, with value exceeding cost by £6,292 and total portfolio value up to £101,604. I would be celebrating getting back above £100K, but am conscious that I've recently injected £8,000 into my SIPP so I should be aiming for £108K, but it still feels great.

Thanks to my holiday I have a period of 4 weeks where I didn't follow changes in shares. The big movers therefore reflect the whole of November and I'll only mention changes above 10%.

IQE:IQE had a nightmare 4 weeks, dropping 18% on news that there will be a material effect on profits from fewer VSELs being ordered. Thank goodness I sold most of my shares when I did, as this has been slaughtered. I still believe we're in for a big bounce upwards when the shorts close, but it's difficult to see when that will be now. I'm tempted to buy in at these prices as it will significantly lower my average price per share.

CAML:Central Asia Metals is still suffering from the American trade dispute with China I think. I'm hoping for a recovery next week now that seems to be mellowing. My recent purchase actually increased my average price quite a bit so that didn't help performance, and there was a 16% drop.

TEK:Tekcapital has been a disaster in my trading account, and will teach me not to take any notice of bulletin board tips! Another big drop of 11% sees this 66% down on my purchase price.

LLOY:Lloyds Bank is one of my new shares in the SIPP having decided that the time is right to buy prior to the removal of accounting for PPI mis-selling. When this hits next October there should be a massive increase in profits and therefore dividend payouts. Unfortunately Brexit is putting on the frighteners and there was a 10% drop over the last 4 weeks. I probably ought to get some more in that case.

RED:RedT Energy also fell 10% and has now lost all the benefits that came from their big contract announcement. Only proven revenues will get this back into profit now, and it has a 47% drop to recover from since I bought them.

Although MAIS:Maistro only fell 9% I'll still give it a mention. The drop was due to a placing and announcement of an open offer at 1p a share. Given I only own 400, and given my purchase price was 24p, I decided to apply for 4,000 in the open offer costing £40. I only have to make up £109 to be able to sell these for a profit - and believe me, I will sell them as soon as I can - so all it takes is an irrational spike after the open offer and I could bail out. If not, I've just flushed £40 down the toilet!

Lots of bad news for the best ever week! Here's the good news.

SAE:Simec Atlantis Energy are finally starting to pick up as a few positive announcements have been made about potential projects and financing of the Uskmouth power station conversion. They climbed 11% but are still 69% down on my purchase price.

WRES:W Resources are getting closer to starting production and that's showing in the share price, with a climb of 12% meaning these are only 32% down now. I will be selling these as soon as in profit as I don't trust the CEO one little bit. There are so many shares in issue it's never going to pay a decent dividend even if they do make a profit.

N4P:N4 Pharma went up 18% after an announcement that the Nuvec vaccine delivery system is progressing well and has passed some of the tests. Everything depends on this one thing now, and I don't really want to be invested here as I bought these thinking they were diversified. The re-factoring business is now shut down and I don't know if they will ever recover from being 59% down on my purchase price.

Share of the Week by absolutely miles was OPTI:Optibiotix which climbed 19% to go 38% up altogether and with my recent purchase of another £4,000 worth of shares at 76p the current bid price of 92p has made an instant and healthy paper profit. My recent purchase means I now have 79,877 shares costing £53,416.53 at a weighted average price of 67p and making paper profit of £20,034.46. The recent purchase means that every 1p increase in share price is worth £798.77. Drat! Just a few more and I could have got it up to a nice round £800. That's the figure I'll be using in my head as I watch the price action.

Boing!

Here's the change in the ISA and share portfolios over the last 4 weeks

			Weekly Change
Cash	£33.80		+£7.81
Portfolio cost	£56,958.55		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£59,727.91	(4.9%)	+£6,515.11
Potential profits	£12,884.81		+£6,577.48
Yr 4 Dividends	£60.50		+£7.81
Yr 4 Profit from sales	£814.53		+£0
Yr 4 Average monthly cash profit	£219.22	(4.6%)	-£66.10
Total Dividends	£1,298.83		+£7.81
Total Profit from sales	£19,511.65		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£517.22	(10.9%)	-£12.13
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

The extra cash was from the dividends I mentioned last week and all the increased profit is OPTI:Optibiotix, with portfolio value not increasing as much due to drops elsewhere, but only affected by £60 so no massive drop. Long term performance is still over 10% but will be below target in a few weeks time.

Back into the black - lets hope we can stay there now.

The SIPP looks like this after ending year 3 and starting year 4 in week 157

		Weekly Change
Cash	£153.72		-£10.02
Portfolio cost	£35,825.45		+£7,931.69
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£40,089.62	(11.9%)	+£3,367.54
Potential profits	£8,088.55		+£3,725.06
Yr 4 Dividends	£0		+£0
Yr 4 Interest	£0		+£0
Yr 4 Profit from sales	£0		+£0
Yr 4 Average monthly cash profit	£0	(0%)	+£0
Total Dividends	£1,342.25		+£0
Total Interest	£0.03		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£10,544.92		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£320.95	(10.8%)	-£8.04
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Cash reduced because of the monthly charge. Pension transfer explains the extra £7,931 cost and OPTI:Optibiotix increased profits by £3,725 but the drops elsewhere robbed around £350 of that with the portfolio value only climbing by £3,367. I've added a new performance line for interest as I had 3p a few weeks ago and intend to keep more cash in this portfolio so anticipate more interest payments in the future.

The big increase in portfolio cost has thumped my percentage performance figure, dropping from 14% to 10.8%. Rather annoying, but will ensure I focus on both achieving realised profits as well as paper profits.

Encouraging, as this is meant to be my lower risk portfolio and the natural state is to be in profit.

The trading account looks like this after week 123

			Weekly Change
Cash	£18.80		+£4.13
Portfolio cost	£2,321.29		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£1,580.70	(-31.9%)	-£212.71
Potential profits	£0		-£10.56
Year 3 Dividends	£17.33		+£4.13
Year 3 Profit	£177.06		+£0
Yr 3 Average monthly cash profit	£44.33	(22.9%)	-£10.63
Dividends	£18.48		+£4.13
Profit from sales	-£64.29		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	-£1.61	(-0.8%)	+£0.21
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Everything still tumbling and TAP:Taptica profits all vanished, so this account continues to be a disaster. The fact I've had shares long enough to get £18 dividends tells you everything you need to know about my trading skills.

Dreadful.

That's it - hoping some hints about Christmas surprises at OPTI:Optibiotix will come true as there's a momentum building that could be transformational. Certainly the awarding of the kite mark and medical device status for Slimbiome two days before a report announced type 2 diabetes can be reversed using a diet of meal replacement shakes could be epic.

Week 170-172 review - Catchup after hols

I haven't got time to do a full run-down of the three weeks I was away, and they were a depressing three weeks for the market so I don't want to dwell on them anyway.

After Week 170 the portfolio value had dropped by £2,833 which widened the deficit to £6,210 and left the portfolio value at £89,089. Note that this is much higher than the week before, and that's because my pension transfer of £8,000 came through and I spent it. Turns out I should have waited a few weeks!

Firth thing was to buy another £5,180 shares in OPTI:Optibiotix at what seemed like a bargain price of 76.98p, costing £3,999.51. These subsequently dropped to 66p and I was terribly vexed.

Next was to increase my best run company and buy 893 shares on CAML:Central Asia Metals at 222.38p costing £1,997.80. Sad to watch these drop back to 208p since then.

Next was to ensure I hedged some gold, and what better than CEY:Centamin, buying another 1,057 at 94.8864p costing £1,014.90.

Finally I wanted to get into LLOY:Lloyds Bank now we're nearing the end of the PPI claiming period. I bought 1,663 at 59.09p costing £999.53 but Brexit scares have hit them already.

Week 171 was much more horrible, with the combined portfolios dropping £7,113 and widening the deficit to £13,323 at a total value of £81,983

Some good news from dividends, with TND:Tandem Group paying out £7.81 and TAP:Taptica paying £4.13.

Week 172 was less horrible, but still lost £1,004, widening the deficit to £14,327 and portfolio value stands at £80,979

I've updated the charts, but we'll do a bumper look at what's up and down later when next week's changes are clear.

Week 169 Review - An upturn at last

About time there was some sort of turn around. The portfolio made up last week's losses and climbed £6,131 to close the deficit between cost and value to £3,377 and bring the portfolio value back up to £84,000.

Worst performer was last week's Share of the Week PAF:Pan African Resources, dropping a whopping 14% despite gold still doing quite well.

KIBO:Kibo Energy plunged 5% but it could have been much worse given TANESCO have obliterated the tenders and all this bollocks about "great relations with the Tanzanian government" is being revealed as hollow lies.

Only those two big fallers this week. Everything else good news. RED:RedT Energy and SAE:Simec Atlantis Energy both rose by 5% but have a hell of a way to go to get back to profit.

IQE:IQE went up by 9% and CAML:Central Asia Metals by 10% which was great given these are some of my biggest holdings. TAP:Taptica also climbed 10% in the trading account and is back in profit.

Share of the Week is OPTI:Optibiotix, and thank goodness. The 12% climb was responsible for most of this week's claw-back of the deficit.

OK - out of time to complete this, and off to Vietnam for 3 weeks in the morning, so I'll have to finish the snapshots when I get back and do a massive catch up. Fingers crossed when I next update I'll have my £8K pension transfer and OPTI:Optibiotix will have announced something amazing.

Week 168 Review - How can it keep getting worse?

Mega quick update as I'm behind a week and this week was so depressing. Value dropped by £6,171 making deficit between cost and value £9,508 and total portfolio value £77,869.

Worst performer was TAP:Taptica in the trading account which plunged to a loss, dropping 12% for no reason.

OPTI:Optibiotix fell another 11% and is only just in profit. This had most of the negative impact and is utterly depressing.

CAML:Central Asia Metals also had a dreadful week, dropping 6% along with AMYT:Amryt Pharma

SBTX:SkinBioTherapeutics and SAE:Simec Atlantis Energy fell 5%.

Only one share did anything, and to show how bad a week it was, Share of the Week PAF:Pan African Resources only climbed 4%.

Horrid

Here's the ISA and share account performances

			Weekly Change
Cash	£25.99		+£0
Portfolio cost	£56,958.55		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£49,558.31	(-13%)	-£4,053.78
Potential profits	£2,259.65		-£3,541.72
Yr 4 Dividends	£52.69		+£0
Yr 4 Profit from sales	£814.53		+£0
Yr 4 Average monthly cash profit	£309.10	(6.5%)	-£28.10
Total Dividends	£1,291.02		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£19,511.65		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£532.51	(11.2%)	-£3.18
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Bad, bad, bad - everywhere

Yuck

Here's the SIPP after week 152

			Weekly Change
Cash	£163.74		+£133.58
Portfolio cost	£27,893.76		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£26,440.30	(-5.2%)	-£2,004.81
Potential profits	£2,282.83		-£1,860.10
Yr 3 Dividends	£426.15		+£133.58
Yr 3 Profit from sales	£1,619.73		+£0
Yr 3 Average monthly cash profit	£173.55	(7.5%)	+£8.62
Total Dividends	£1,342.25		+£133.58
Total Profit from sales	£10,544.92		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£331.16	(14.2%)	+£1.64
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

One fragment of good news was the £133 dividend from CAML:Central Asia Metals, taking my total dividend yield from that share to £986 which is pretty amazing. Much misery elsewhere though.

Plunges to loss for first time in ages

The trading account looks like this after week 118

			Weekly Change
Cash	£14.67		+£13.20
Portfolio cost	£2,321.29		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£1,666.12	(-28.2%)	-£112.96
Potential profits	£0		-£18.96
Year 3 Dividends	£13.20		+£13.20
Year 3 Profit	£177.06		+£0
Yr 3 Average monthly cash profit	£54.80	(30.4%)	-£4.22
Dividends	£14.35		+£13.20
Profit from sales	-£64.29		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	-£2.32	(-0.9%)	+£0.02
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Big drop and no potential profit.

Desperate

hat's it - not writing any more as I need to catch up this week, and it's more fun.

Week 167 Review - The decline continues

Generally it wasn't a bad week, at least compared to the last few. It was certainly a lot less volatile, but the 2p drop for OPTI:Optibiotix was enough to undo small gains elsewhere and result in a drop of £998. That widens the deficit between cost and value to £3,337 and reduces the overall portfolio value to £83,893.

I was hoping it would have increased by the £8,000 I'm transferring out of my work pension, but Legal & General have excelled themselves with their incompetence. The transfer was supposed to happen within 10 days, but rather than get it out of the way before force selling my funds as I had planned, they have decided to go ahead with that sale and re-investment even though I never wanted it. Bloody useless. As a result they are delaying the transfer until 30th October, by which time all the current bargain shares will probably have recovered. Based on this performance I'll be transferring cash out of that pension as frequently as possible, just using it as a way of getting the employer contributions. I have absolutely no confidence in them not to cock things up even more than the £600 they've already cost me.

Worst performer this week (other than Legal & General) was KIBO:Kibo Energy which is on very shaky ground now. The fact that their "great working relationship" with the authorities has metamorphosed into a request to submit tenders suggests that it's not such a cosy relationship after all. Endless delays had been tolerable because of the potential benefits, but now it's looking like the delays are just stalling and nothing is ever going to happen. I'm preparing myself for the worst now, and may have to wave goodbye to £2,000 which will have a heavy impact on my performance figures. These dropped 6% this week and are 66% down on my purchase price.

That was the only big drop this week, at least percentage wise as OPTI:Optibiotix only fell 3% but it cost me £1,500.

CAML:Central Asia Metals may have started a gradual climb, up 5% this week and one of the target shares for when my pension transfer arrives.

IQE:IQE were also up 5%, and I'm tempted to get some at sub 90p as those shorts have got to close some time, and 5g is getting nearer. The announcement that they are producing from the new reactors could see a bit of a re-rate.

SBTX:SkinBioTherapeutics usually follows OPTI:Optibiotix, but climbed 7% this week probably in anticipation of imminent news on the human trials.

Share of the Week was PAF:Pan African Resources which climbed 8% and is now 16% in profit. I have high hopes that this can double quite quickly when the announcement is made that the new project is producing. It's always been a well run company, but with a few recent issues and suspension of the dividend has been hit hard. They seem to be through that now, and given the generosity of the dividend in the past, I'm confident there will be a good re-rate.

I guess a shallower decline is an improvement!

Here's the performance of the ISA and share accounts

			Weekly Change
Cash	£25.99		+£0
Portfolio cost	£56,958.55		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£53,612.09	(-5.9%)	-£991.28
Potential profits	£5,801.37		-£1,011.92
Yr 4 Dividends	£52.69		+£0
Yr 4 Profit from sales	£814.53		+£0
Yr 4 Average monthly cash profit	£337.20	(7.1%)	-£33.72
Total Dividends	£1,291.02		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£19,511.65		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£535.69	(11.3%)	-£3.23
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Profits down due to OPTI:Optibiotix, but a few quid in improving losses means the overall vaue dropped a little less. Not much else to talk about.

Same shape as the combined chart.

The SIPP looks like this after week 151

			Weekly Change
Cash	£30.16		+£0
Portfolio cost	£27,893.76		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£28,445.11	(2%)	-£67.29
Potential profits	£4,142.93		-£157.60
Yr 3 Dividends	£292.57		+£0
Yr 3 Profit from sales	£1,619.73		+£0
Yr 3 Average monthly cash profit	£164.93	(7.1%)	-£3.58
Total Dividends	£1,208.67		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£10,544.92		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£329.52	(14.2%)	-£2.19
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

The increase in potential profits for PAF:Pan African Resources and CAML:Central Asia Metals was almost enough to nullify the losses from OPTI:Optibiotix, but not quite. I think we can regard this as a flat week compared to recent ones.

That's such a narrow gap!

The trading account looks like this after week 117

			Weekly Change
Cash	£1.47		-£150.00
Portfolio cost	£2,321.29		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£1,779.08	(-23.4%)	+£60.40
Potential profits	£18.96		-£8.40
Year 3 Dividends	£0		+£0
Year 3 Profit	£177.06		+£0
Yr 3 Average monthly cash profit	£59.02	(30.5%)	-£4.92
Dividends	£1.15		+£0
Profit from sales	-£64.29		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	-£2.34	(-1.2%)	+£0.02
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Coo - an account that actually increased in value! It seems like a long time since I was able to write that.

Cash reduced as I banked £150 profit after deciding I need the money. For now I won't grow the size of this account but keep the ability to have 5 shares on the go. Given the value is way below the £2,500 needed, that could be easier said than done!

Most of the gains were thanks to CAML:Central Asia Metals and IQE:IQE, but TAP:Taptica dropped in value again so potential profits are down and it's looking like I won't be selling anything in a hurry. They are quite volatile though, so could climb quickly. LION:Lionsgold issued an RNS suggesting I shouldn't hold my breath for their suspension being lifted.

Although the value increased, the removal of £150 means the green line takes a dive, but the orange line also drops as I try to take out the capital I started the account with. Once that gets to £0 I'll keep the cash in the account and allow it to grow. "If" might be the word rather than "When"!

I now know there will be no pension money next week, so not much to look forward to. I'd hoped to buy more OPTI:Optibiotix while the price was low, but can tolerate keeping my existing holding and investing in something else instead. CEY:Centamin and CAML:Central Asia Metals are the two main candidates at the moment, with maybe a small top-up of IQE:IQE.