Week 386 Review - Thankfully a desperate year ends slightly above the all-time low

The last trading week of 2022 only lasted a few days, and I was expecting yet another drop in portfolio value to end 2022 in an appropriately dismal manner. However, despite many shares dropping in value, a 0.5p rise in OPTI:Optibiotix was enough to improve the deficit between cost and value by £1,075 to £118,651. The total portfolio value at the end of the year is a rather pathetic £64,554. I won't be taking early retirement on that!

There were no big movers in either direction this week, so nothing really deserves Share of the Week.

No longer the lowest ever - much joy.

We're back on the trend line that we love to follow.

Here's the ISA and shares portfolio after week 22 of year 8.

			Weekly Change
Cash	£15.20		-£160.00
Portfolio cost	£82,163.25		+£160.00
Portfolio sell value (bid price-commission)	£24,721.47	(-69.9%)	+£535.91
Potential profits	£0		+£0
Yr 8 Dividends	£0		+£0
Yr 8 Interest	£0.05		+£0
Yr 8 Profit from sales	-£995.63		+£0
Yr 8 projected avg monthly profit	-£199.05	(-5.4%)	+£9.48
Total Dividends	£11,768.92		+£0
Total Interest	£0.05		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£27,098.43		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£432.50	(11.7%)	-£1.12
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)
Compound performance	87%		+0%

I bought 1,000 shares in SBTX:SkinBioTherapeutics at 16p with no commission as part of the retail offer. The bid price is 15p so I'm losing money on them already, but they brought down my weighted average to 37.2p instead of 47.2p. Nothing much else happened.

Same as the overall chart

Also on the trend line

The SIPP looks like this after week 370 overall and week 6 of year 8.

			Weekly Change
Cash	£344.71		-£294.40
Portfolio cost	£98,834.21		+£294.40
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£38,900.94	(-60.6%)	+£527.04
Potential profits	£343.33		+£11.93
Yr 8 Dividends	£0		+£0
Yr 8 Interest	£0.01		+£0
Yr 8 Profit from sales	£94.41		+£0
Yr 8 projected avg monthly profit	£58.79	(1.2%)	-£11.76
Total Dividends	£14,142.78		+£0
Total Interest	£0.26		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£20,528.16		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£394.24	(8.0%)	-£1.06
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)
Compound performance	57%		+0%

As with the ISA, I bought some SBTX:SkinBioTherapeutics shares in the retail offer. I got 1,840 at 16p for £294.40 and brought my weighted average down to 34.5p from 45.2p. Tiny increase in potential profits thanks to very small rises in CAML:Central Asia Metals and ANTO:Antofagasta, but a pretty flat week.

Not quite as bleak as the ISA chart

None of them seem capable of getting above the trend line

The trading account looks like this after week 336 overall and week 24 of year 7.

			Weekly Change
Cash	£0.10		+£0
Portfolio cost	£1,849.21		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£572.44	(-69.0%)	+£12.35
Potential profits	£0		+£0
Year 7 Dividends	£0.00		+£0
Year 7 Interests	£0.01		+£0
Year 7 Profit	-£71.73		+£0
Yr 7 projected avg monthly profit	-£12.95	(-8.4%)	+£0.56
Dividends	£60.10		+£0
Interest	£0.01		+£0
Profit from sales	£154.87		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£2.77	(1.8%)	-£0.01
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

The 0.5p rise on OPTI:Optibiotix resulted in a £12 improvement, but little hope of getting this back as a regularly changing account, not that it ever has been apart from a bout 3 weeks.

It's a long way back from here

Under the trend line but at least we haven't dragged it downwards just yet.

There was a message late on Friday to say there is a glimmer of hope for DDDD:4d Pharma. Unfortunately the rescue package will result in massive dilution, and also drop the share price from the current 14p at the point it was suspended to 6p. My holding will be worth about£1,200 after paying £18,000 for them. I'm not sure I can stomach that much of a loss, so will hang on to them in the hope something good happens. I'm hoping the transaction will be conditional on most of the board stepping down, as it was sheer incompetence that got us into this mess and it will simply continue if they are allowed to stay.

There has been no news from PBX:ProBiotix so it looks like I won't be able to sell the shares I bought before the dividend shares are tradeable and the share price collapses when ex-OPTI:Optibiotix holders sell as soon as they are able. It was a gamble, but I thought an educated one, as I was so certain good news would be published before the lock-in ended. It appears whatever I do to try and make money from microbiome shares is doomed to failure. I have to learn the lesson that there is a right time to buy shares in companies with new tech, and I failed miserably to pick it.

2022 has been a really shitty year for my portfolio. At the end of 2021 I wrote "Just one more update left for 2021 and whatever happens next week it's going to be a depressing picture for 2021. Having to write about a consistently falling portfolio for a whole year has been very depressing." and summarised with "Let's hope 2022 reverses the form of 2021, else I'll be in deep trouble."

Well, 2022 simply continued the form of 2021, and so yes, I am in deep trouble.

Is it too much to hope that 2023 will be any better?