Week 183 Review - Promising start obliterated over last two days

The week was going pretty well aside from a slight slip in OPTI:Optibiotix, but CAML:Central Asia Metals was going great, and even the trading account holding went into profit. However the last 2 days were a disaster, with OPTI:Optibiotix slipping further and most of the gains made early in the week wiped out. Portfolio value dropped by £3,162 so the buffer between value and cost is down to £2,028 and overall portfolio value dips back below £100K at £99,327. All rather upsetting.

Worst performer was N4P:N4 Pharma which has seen a mini rally over the last few weeks, but a placing announced today caused the price to plummet down to the placing price, so it's down 15% and losing 56%.

RED:RedT Energy dropped another 8% for no apparent reason, and is sliding relentlessly as holders continue to doubt they can turn a profit, despite having a great product. These are 59% down after looking like things might be improving a few weeks ago.

MMX:Minds + Machines is being played by traders if the recent invasion of the bulletin board by trolls is anything to go on. I still believe this is a very cash generative company - they just need to prove it and dish some out as a dividend. Another 7% drop this week sees it losing 36% now.

IQE:IQE is also under continued shorting pressure, and lacklustre results from the chip manufacturers has hit them badly this week, dropping 6% in my SIPP and 8% in my trading account.

OPTI:Optibiotix dropped 4p (6%) the same as last week, despite more good news. I fear these are set to drift until either news of revenues or one of the anticipated big deals. I still have paper profits of £12,000 which are the only things keeping my portfolios in the black.

There was some good news this week. PAF:Pan African Resources continues a very slow and steady rise, which is the way I like to see it, and the way I made a lot of money from this company in the past. Up 5% this week they are now up 38% altogether and making £544 potential profit. I think they can double from here based on the new project that has recently come on line.

TAP:Taptica announced a merger and soared, but at the end of the week plummeted again. That averaged out as a 7% rise for the week, but they are still 30% down.

IKA:Ilika won Share of the Week 2 weeks ago, then lost a big chunk last week, but this week got it back by climbing 9%. Still a long, long way to go before making up the 61% deficit and breaking even.

Share of the Week is TRX:Tissue Regenix, which issued a very healthy trading statement early in the week and climbed 11%. This still leaves them 61% down, but I am now getting more hopeful of a rally here.

A desperate plunge over the last 2 weeks looks pretty bad

Trendline looks like it will stay up for a while, but in a couple more months the peak will dominate and we'll be in trouble.

The ISA and share portfolios look like this

			Weekly Change
Cash	£39.24		-£3.67
Portfolio cost	£56,971.94		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£56,841.57	(-0.2%)	-£1,939.78
Potential profits	£8,720.25		-£1,920.54
Yr 4 Dividends	£60.50		+£0
Yr 4 Profit from sales	£814.53		+£0
Yr 4 Average monthly cash profit	£136.83	(2.9%)	-£5.26
Total Dividends	£1,298.83		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£19,511.65		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£488.78	(10.3%)	-£2.68
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Cash was just a correction as I checked my account and it was slightly out. I suspect I missed a monthly ISA fee one month, although that's £3.75. This month's fee was covered by a £20 cash bonus I got for transferring some pension money, which I'm just going to take off the fees rather than treat as actual income.

Once again nearly all the drop in value was down to falling profits as the rest of the portfolio stayed pretty stable. OPTI:Optibiotix does rather control the performance week by week.

Drat! The buffer is gone

It's tricky to see, but the accounts have slipped to a loss. I have so much trouble keeping these ones in the black.

The SIPP looks like this after week 167

			Weekly Change
Cash	£122.76		-£0.08
Portfolio cost	£37,825.18		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£40,814.39	(7.9%)	-£2,236.29
Potential profits	£6,897.59		-£1,034.85
Yr 4 Dividends	£0		+£0
Yr 4 Interest	£0.04		+£0
Yr 4 Profit from sales	£0		+£0
Yr 4 Average monthly cash profit	-£12.30	(-0.4%)	+£1.20
Total Dividends	£1,342.25		+£0
Total Interest	£0.07		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£10,544.92		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£300.32	(9.5%)	-£1.81
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Cash would normally drop by about £16 with the monthly fees, but most were covered by the transfer bonus. Half the impact was reduced profits, and half was deepening losses. I'm getting a bit edgy - I feel the need to bank some profit, but can't bring myself to sell anything just yet.

Cripplingly bad news about the pension transfer. Legal & General have refused to do it, stating the minimum amount they are willing to transfer is £2,000. They really are bloody useless! It took them almost 2 weeks to come up with that. This means I have to wait another 2 months before I can do the transfer, so may as well forget all my plans as things will be very different then. I've changed the investments in the pension so the go into a safe bonds fund which should guarantee I get the £2,000 every 4 months for my SIPP. It's very frustrating, but the only way I can get my employer contribution, which is half the monthly injection.

It's not dipped far below the recent dips, so still hopeful the buffer can be maintained.

We're below the trendline which is a worry.

The trading account looks like this

			Weekly Change
Cash	£18.80		+£0
Portfolio cost	£2,321.29		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£1,490.65	(-35.8%)	+£13.68
Potential profits	£0		+£0
Year 3 Dividends	£17.33		+£0
Year 3 Profit	£177.06		+£0
Yr 3 Average monthly cash profit	£29.05	(15%)	-£1.03
Dividends	£18.48		+£0
Profit from sales	-£64.29		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	-£1.49	(-0.8%)	+£0.01
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

That's a surprise - the trading account out-performing the other accounts. There were a few decent rises this week, and it would have been even better if CAML:Central Asia Metals had held on to the mid-week price, which saw it go into profit of £12. If trade talks with China would stop being so volatile there may be a chance for copper prices to sustain their rise. I'm sure it's got nothing to do with the Americans manipulating the market as they alternate between positive and negative statements week after week. I suspect that would be highly illegal - and I'm sure none of them are making any money off the back of it...

Still creeping upwards.

We'll be above the trendline if this continues.

That's it for another week. There's a big probiotics conference next week where OPTI:Optibiotix are presenting three papers. That's going to result in some pretty massive industry exposure, and hopefully yet more deals. Surely these back-to-back 6% declines have to turn around soon? If they don't then we'll be back in top-up territory. 70p would see me sell a few other shares even at a loss because I really can't see it staying down there for long - if it ever gets there at all.

Week 182 Review - Fairly flat apart from a little Optibiotix dip

A relatively flat week for most of the portfolio, but a 4p drop in OPTI:Optibiotix was enough to bring the combined value down by £2,473, reducing the buffer between value and cost to £5,190 and the portfolio value down to £102,493.

Worst performer was last week's Share of the Week IKA:Ilika, which dropped 8% after climbing 20% last week. Not surprising that people would take profits. A long time till I'll be in a position to consider that as these are 50% down.

OPTI:Optibiotix dropped the 4p it climbed last week and so fell 6%. That is worth £3,200 so the fact the combined portfolios only dropped £2,473 suggests there were some big gains elsewhere.

SAE:Simec Atlantis Energy had a mini revival a few weeks ago, but is starting to slip again. It fell 5% this week and is now 72% down. Still no sign of when revenues might come in, so not one I would add to even at these low prices.

MAIS:Maistro climbed 6% this week. I still think it's doomed, but now my average price has reduced massively to 6.34p I may yet salvage something. To think these once traded at 800p. Someone will have lost a hell of a lot on this one!

CAML:Central Asia Metals finally seems to be heading back in the right direction as the China trade talks are getting more optimistic. They went up 8% this week and are now at 28% profit. This is a big holding, so the rise was worth quite a lot.

TLOU:Tlou Energy gave a robust update and climbed 9% so they are only down by 32% now. I've made over £1,500 profit from my previous holdings, so do like this company and am pretty sure they will come good again. However it's high risk and I'm becoming less willing to invest in these types of venture. Granting of the Power Purchase Agreement should see them soar.

TAP:Taptica wins Share of the Week after announcing a merger which will effectively see them take over another company. They climbed by 11% but are still down 37% after the resignation of their CEO. I belive that doesn't impact the company as badly as the share price suggests, so am confident I'll be able to sell these at a profit sometime soon.

Still bouncing every week, but didn't drop as low as 2 weeks ago.

I think I have a few more months where the trend line will point upwards, but the big spike six months ago will start to have an increasing influence so the portfolio needs to get back up there.

The ISA and share accounts look like this

			Weekly Change
Cash	£42.91		+£0
Portfolio cost	£56,971.94		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£58,781.35	(3.2%)	-£1,811.75
Potential profits	£10,640.79		-£1,889.55
Yr 4 Dividends	£60.50		+£0
Yr 4 Profit from sales	£814.53		+£0
Yr 4 Average monthly cash profit	£142.09	(3%)	-£5.68
Total Dividends	£1,298.83		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£19,511.65		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£491.46	(10.4%)	-£2.72
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

The drop this week is pretty much all down to OPTI:Optibiotix, which isn't a surprise as it's about half my portfolio. None of the other shares stand much chance competing for attention. Losses were reduced by around £80 and performance is clinging above 10%.

Still the right side of the line

These accounts have a long history of being on the red, so this is a great sustained period of profit now. Will it become the norm?

The SIPP looks like this after week 166

			Weekly Change
Cash	£122.84		+£0
Portfolio cost	£37,825.18		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£42,050.68	(11.2%)	-£723.33
Potential profits	£7,932.44		-£676.83
Yr 4 Dividends	£0		+£0
Yr 4 Interest	£0.04		+£0
Yr 4 Profit from sales	£0		+£0
Yr 4 Average monthly cash profit	-£13.50	(-0.4%)	+£1.50
Total Dividends	£1,342.25		+£0
Total Interest	£0.07		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£10,544.92		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£302.13	(9.6%)	-£1.83
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Good gains by the likes of CAML:Central Asia Metals and small gains from both PAF:Pan African Resources and CEY:Centamin helped reduce the impact on the profits from the OPTI:Optibiotix drop, but the rest of the portfolio lost an additional £50.

The pension transfer still hasn't shown up, but should arrive next week. Unfortunately CAML:Central Asia Metals may have climbed too much for me to want to put it there. It was a definite buy at 225p but 239p getting a bit much with it being so volatile. I might get back into CWR:Ceres Power as a lack of news has caused them to drift from over 200p to 158p. I still believe there's massive potential in using their technology for distributed power generation, so if the price stays low maybe now is the time to strike.

I'm still gutted that VRS:Versarien won't drop to a price that I'm willing to buy back in. They are so far away from being profitable that I can't justify 130p. It's just like when I got carried away with OPTI:Optibiotix being the next great thing and bought at an inflated price 3 years before they would be profitable, only to see it plummet when this sank in. I'm pretty sure the same will happen to VRS:Versarien, but it hasn't yet. My target to buy back in is when it dips below 100p, but I doubt this will coincide with a pension transfer so I may have to sell something when (or if) the time comes. I do desperately want to be a long term VRS:Versarien shareholder though.

Still looking healthy

A long history of profitability continues.

The trading account looks like this after week 132

			Weekly Change
Cash	£18.80		+£0
Portfolio cost	£2,321.29		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£1,476.97	(-36.4%)	+£61.39
Potential profits	£0		+£0
Year 3 Dividends	£17.33		+£0
Year 3 Profit	£177.06		+£0
Yr 3 Average monthly cash profit	£30.08	(15.6%)	-£1.12
Dividends	£18.48		+£0
Profit from sales	-£64.29		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	-£1.50	(-0.8%)	+£0.02
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

The best week for a while, mainly thanks to a big rise in CAML:Central Asia Metals which is now incredibly close to being in profit, and TAP:Taptica which is recovering fast. Target price for selling CAML:Central Asia Metals is 300p and it's at 238p now and was around 348p less than a year ago, so I'm confident the target is in sight. Meanwhile TAP:Taptica needs to get to 300p just to break even, and that's only at 197p so could take a while. Target price to sell IQE:IQE is 130p and that's only 73p at the moment so a long way to go there. The other two (LION:Lionsgold and TEK:Tekcapital) are a waste of space so no point in even mentioning them.

Oooh - there's definitely a change in direction going on.

A long, long way from changing the direction of the trend line, but there's hope.

No news from OPTI:Optibiotix this week, so fingers crossed for next week. The most worrying thing was the remarkably small number of trades in OPTI:Optibiotix shares during the week. It's ripe for manipulation at the moment, so there is a little part of me that is considering sitting on the £1,000 pension transfer in cash for a bit so I can strike should there be a sudden dip in OPTI:Optibiotix or VRS:Versarien - although the CWR:Ceres Power option is going to be difficult to resist.

Week 181 Review - Great gains all around

The wider portfolio had a really good week, with encouraging gains in many holdings that have been suffering lately. OPTI:Optibiotix was up 4p too, which contributed £3,200 to the £3,667 rise. This puts the buffer between value and cost at £7,664 and the total portfolio value at £104,967.

Biggest loser was BLU:Blue Star Capital which has been suspended for the last six months as it attempted a reverse takeover of Satoshipay. Unfortunately they couldn't raise enough funds to do the deal so it's been suspended and the shares suffered accordingly, with a 12% fall. These were only a small "toe in the water" purchase, and it's a good job because not only have they failed in this transaction, but Satoshipay are failing to get any major publishers interested in their micro payment system, so this could easily go pop.

CAML:Central Asia Metals tried its best to spoil the party this week, with a 6% fall being quite expensive and preventing paper profits being anywhere near what they could have been. I wish the China standoff would sort itself out so base metal prices can start rising again, but there's no sign of that. I am about to get £1,000 pension transfer though, so will be taking advantage of the low price to top up.

MMX:Minds + Machines dropped 6% and keep slipping, and I guess will continue until they release some financial results from the new enlarged company. I'm reasonably confident that these results will be good and the price will soar, but not confident enough to invest any more money in them.

Those were the big losers. There were far more big risers.

OPTI:Optibiotix recovered the 4p they lost last week to climb 6% and go back to 90p. News has to be close now, and I have a feeling the next one could be mega, as there are so many coals in the fire. Could it be the retail contract? Could it be a Sweetbiotix deal? Could it be the Tata announcement? Will there be a trading statement? So much excitement!

IQE:IQE are marching upwards, and climbed another 7% this week. It's possible the shorters are gradually closing their positions. If I was feeling brave I'd buy some, but I think CAML:Central Asia Metals is a better bet at the moment.

TAP:Taptica are slowly recovering from their recent unjustified hammering. This week they are up 7% but are still 47% down overall.

N4P:N4 Pharma are also attracting more interest now their Nuvec product is being developed. An 8% climb this week leaves them only 44% down, which is 20% better than after the initial crash when the Viagra replacement didn't work.

PAF:Pan African Resources issued a superb trading statement and I was surprised they only climbed 11%. This has been a good slow steady climb though, leaving them 31% up and with paper profit of £450.

SBTX:SkinBioTherapeutics have also been improving gradually. My ISA holding climbed by 12% and my SIPP by 14% leaving my ISA down by 19% and my SIPP up by 23%. My target for selling the SIPP holding is 20p, after which I'll sell and hope for a dip. Meanwhile I'll keep the ISA holding until 25p and do the same. The ultimate aim is to increase the number of shares I hold until I get to the stage where I just keep them.

Share of the Week is IKA:Ilika which I think benefited from an article in II which recommended them, along with MTFB:Motif Bio and OPTI:Optibiotix. The other two didn't respond as dramatically as IKA:Ilika, which climbed 20%. Not great news though, as my holding is still down by 42% and needs a lot more good news before I can ditch them.

Back to where we were two weeks ago.

The portfolio seems to have hit a point of resistance at around £7,000 in profit.

Here's the ISA and share portfolios performance

			Weekly Change
Cash	£42.91		+£0
Portfolio cost	£56,971.94		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£60,593.10	(6.4%)	+£2,174.89
Potential profits	£12,530.34		+£1,992.85
Yr 4 Dividends	£60.50		+£0
Yr 4 Profit from sales	£814.53		+£0
Yr 4 Average monthly cash profit	£147.77	(3.1%)	-£6.16
Total Dividends	£1,298.83		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£19,511.65		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£494.18	(10.4%)	-£2.74
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

The increase in profit is all from OPTI:Optibiotix, with MTFB:Motif Bio robbing a bit of that, and around £180 reduction in losses from the other shares. Slow and steady!

Bouncing along just the right side of the line.

Still an upward trend but still only just the right side of £0. Much better picture than the first half of 2018 though.

The SIPP looks like this after week 165

			Weekly Change
Cash	£122.84		+£0
Portfolio cost	£37,825.18		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£42,774.01	(13.1%)	+£1,451.82
Potential profits	£8,609.27		+£1,220.99
Yr 4 Dividends	£0		+£0
Yr 4 Interest	£0.04		+£0
Yr 4 Profit from sales	£0		+£0
Yr 4 Average monthly cash profit	-£15.00	(-0.5%)	+£1.88
Total Dividends	£1,342.25		+£0
Total Interest	£0.07		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£10,544.92		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£303.96	(9.6%)	-£1.86
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Similar story to the other account, although a much wider contribution to increased profits, and a bigger dent in them from the drop in CAML:Central Asia Metals. Losses were reduced by around £230 which is good news. LLOY:Lloyds is only 4% under now, and if that can get into profit then 6 out of the 11 shares will be in profit, and it's been a while since I could say more than half in the portfolio was in the black. Compare that to the ISA and share accounts where only 2 out of 17 are in profit.

Hopefully I'll be adding another £1,000 next week, but that will increase the cost and lower the average performance rating, already below 10% since the big injection before Christmas. The desire to sell something and get back above 10% is growing, and I'm still targeting SBTX:SkinBioTherapeutics to do that. Potential profit is currently £225 which would lift me from 9.6% to 9.8% so it's not enough. 20p would get £487 profit, which would take me to exactly 10%. It would only stay above target for a week though.

Looking mighty fine.

The buffer is £5,000 which is encouraging. The worry is that this will drop if I sell something.

Here's the trading account after week 131

			Weekly Change
Cash	£18.80		+£0
Portfolio cost	£2,321.29		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£1,415.58	(-39%)	+£40.92
Potential profits	£0		+£0
Year 3 Dividends	£17.33		+£0
Year 3 Profit	£177.06		+£0
Yr 3 Average monthly cash profit	£31.20	(16.1%)	-£1.20
Dividends	£18.48		+£0
Profit from sales	-£64.29		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	-£1.52	(-0.8%)	+£0.01
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

A good increase of £40, but last week's drop was £45 so this is still going backwards. Most frustrating that the big loser this week was CAML:Central Asia Metals, which is the one that looked closest to going into profit. It's now 11% down and looking far away from providing any income. It's a good job the £2,000 I borrowed to start this was interest free, as I'm not making any sort of return on it.

Actually, I think the last 6 weeks have seen a slight increase - could there be hope?

Maybe just a fools hope...

I haven't a clue what's likely to happen next week. If the £1,000 turns up then at the moment it's going on CAML:Central Asia Metals, especially if it drops lower. If it spikes upwards I'll have to re-think. Contenders are CEY:Centamin as it's still under-valued, IQE:IQE as I would have considered 75p ludicrously cheap 6 months ago, PRU:Prudential because I've wanted to start building a position there for years and I saw loads of evidence of their presence on a recent trip to Vietnam, or LLOY:Lloyds as they are slowly sneaking up and PPI is a thing of the past suggesting a return to healthy dividends - but what of the Brexit bogey?

Week 180 Review - The 2019 good times grind to a halt

The positive start to 2019 lasted just 2 weeks. Bugger! The combined portfolios dropped by £3,213 and pretty much all of that was down to a 4p drop in OPTI:Optibiotix. The buffer between value and cost was reduced to £3,996 and total value down to £101,299.

Worst performer was TAP:Taptica dropping 13%, making me really glad I didn't invest any more thinking it had reached a bottom. The suspension of the share buy back scheme is a real worry, although in theory the reasons are good as they claim to have a potential acquisition. However why announce the buy-back in the first place? I'm glad it's just my cursed trading account and really annoyed I didn't take £100 profit when I had the chance.

OPTI:Optibiotix dropped 4p which is 6% and £3,200. There was no news this week, but that usually sees an increase. Some new trolls have appeared on the bulletin board so it's possible traders are targeting it to try and get the price down. Presumably they took their profits at 90p and want back in!

CEY:Centamin dropped 5% this week which is a surprise given that the price of gold is doing much better.

IKA:Ilika gave quite an upbeat statement today which fired a glimmer of hope they may be able to commercialise something after all. The share price is up 5% on the week, but still 62% down from when I bought them.

LLOY:Lloyds Bank are creeping back towards profit, climbing 5% this week and are only 5% down overall. I'll be getting another £1,000 from my SIPP in a few weeks so may put it here.

N4P:N4 Pharma wins Share of the Week with a 7% climb. No particular reason I can see, and a long long way before I recover my 52% loss.

All last week's gains have gone. Note I've removed the trend line as it doesn't really give a true reflection when the increase in cost isn't taken into account. That's now covered by the chart below.

So frustrating that there was such a big spike 5 months ago and it lasted such a short time. Now only just in the black but the trend line is still pointing up, and that's based on the difference between cost and value so doesn't artificially increase as the costs go up from buying more.

Here's the performance of the ISA and share accounts

			Weekly Change
Cash	£42.91		+£0
Portfolio cost	£56,971.94		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£58,418.21	(2.5%)	-£2,003.29
Potential profits	£10,537.49		-£2,013.51
Yr 4 Dividends	£60.50		+£0
Yr 4 Profit from sales	£814.53		+£0
Yr 4 Average monthly cash profit	£153.93	(3.2%)	-£6.69
Total Dividends	£1,298.83		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£19,511.65		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£496.92	(10.5%)	-£2.78
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

All losses down to reduced profit, and most of that was OPTI:Optibiotix with a small positive contribution from MTFB:Motif Bio which climbed 1%.

Still in the black but only just.

The trend line is still improving, but when the earlier lows get nudged off the left hand side of the chart, we're in for a severe reversal if the current buffer can't get back to £20K.

Here's the SIPP after week 164

			Weekly Change
Cash	£122.84		+£0
Portfolio cost	£37,825.18		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£41,322.19	(9.2%)	-£1,166.94
Potential profits	£7,388.28		-£1,342.13
Yr 4 Dividends	£0		+£0
Yr 4 Interest	£0.04		+£0
Yr 4 Profit from sales	£0		+£0
Yr 4 Average monthly cash profit	-£16.88	(-0.5%)	+£2.41
Total Dividends	£1,342.25		+£0
Total Interest	£0.07		+£0.03
Total Profit from sales	£10,544.92		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£305.82	(9.7%)	-£1.87
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Similar story to the other account, but this time the rest of the portfolio fought back and managed to improve the losses by about £180. I really need to clock up some realised profit so the average can get back above 10%. For that I need some good news from SBTX:SkinBioTherapeutics as that's the best candidate for a sale. The current £37 paper profit isn't going to help my stats much though.

Looking much better than the other accounts

Still have the big spike in the middle which could disrupt the trend line later.

Here's the trading account after week 130

			Weekly Change
Cash	£18.80		+£0
Portfolio cost	£2,321.29		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£1,374.66	(-40.8%)	-£43.75
Potential profits	£0		+£0
Year 3 Dividends	£17.33		+£0
Year 3 Profit	£177.06		+£0
Yr 3 Average monthly cash profit	£32.40	(16.7%)	-£1.29
Dividends	£18.48		+£0
Profit from sales	-£64.29		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	-£1.53	(-0.8%)	+£0.01
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

IQE:IQE helped limit the losses from other dips, as this account continues to disappoint horribly.

Still no prospect of moving the orange line down to £0.

Desperate.

That's it for this week - and finished just in time for the footie!

Week 179 Review - Mostly good week

Quite a few stocks did well this week and pushed up the portfolio value by £1,791. Only £800 of this was OPTI:Optibiotix, so it was a really good week elsewhere. The buffer between value and cost is now £7,210 and the total portfolio value is £104,513.

Only one big loser this week, and it was TEK:Tekcapital dropping 6% and reversing most of last week's 9% climb.

TAP:Taptica seems to be recovering slowly, and gained 5% this week but is still 36% down in the trading account.

TLOU:Tlou Energy had another great recovery week, climbing 12% after a 7% rise last week. Hopefully this means news is coming. This one is still 36% down and losing £988 so it would do the power of good for it to climb steadily.

CAML:Central Asia Metals had a brilliant week, climbing 13% and going to 27% profit of £1,507. I won't be top slicing any this time around - I'm holding for the huge dividends and I think the price could easily double for my best-run company.

Share of the Week is MTFB:Motif Bio which climbed 7% last week and the week before, but this week climbed 26% to go from a 6% loss to a 20% potential profit of £678. Clearly this is in anticipation of the FDA decision on iclaprim. Most folk seem optimistic of success. I hope so after the problems I've had with other junior pharmas!

Slowly slowly catchy monkey.

Here's the new performance chart showing difference between value and cost over the last 12 months

A nice upward trend line

The ISA and share portfolios look like this

			Weekly Change
Cash	£42.91		-£3.75
Portfolio cost	£56,971.94		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£60,421.50	(6.1%)	+£1,791.21
Potential profits	£12,551.00		+£1,184.07
Yr 4 Dividends	£60.50		+£0
Yr 4 Profit from sales	£814.53		+£0
Yr 4 Average monthly cash profit	£160.62	(3.4%)	-£8.04
Total Dividends	£1,298.83		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£19,511.65		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£499.70	(10.5%)	-£2.90
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Cash dropped from monthly fee, but £1,184 increased potential profits was great, with OPTI:Optibiotix and MTFB:Motif Bio contributing a similar amount. £600 was wiped off paper losses too, split mostly between MTFB:Motif Bio and TLOU:Tlou Energy.

Still a bit perilous.

Debut for the performance chart and it's going in the right direction

The SIPP looks like this after week 163

			Weekly Change
Cash	£122.84		-£16.08
Portfolio cost	£37,825.18		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£42,489.13	(9.8%)	+£1,081.43
Potential profits	£8,730.41		+£1,056.76
Yr 4 Dividends	£0		+£0
Yr 4 Interest	£0.04		+£0.03
Yr 4 Profit from sales	£0		+£0
Yr 4 Average monthly cash profit	-£19.29	(-0.6%)	-£8.40
Total Dividends	£1,342.25		+£0
Total Interest	£0.07		+£0.03
Total Profit from sales	£10,544.92		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£307.69	(9.8%)	-£2.95
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Monthly fees have gone up now the portfolio is bigger. This is hammering the average monthly performance for year 4 until I make a sale. Long term average is still below target too so I need SBTX:SkinBioTherapeutics to spike so I can do some trading with them. Meanwhile potential profits are up over £1,000 thanks to OPTI:Optibiotix and CAML:Central Asia Metals, with a tiny amount of reduced loss thrown in for good measure.

Excellent looking gap forming.

Similar steepness of trend line to the ISA and share accounts.

The trading account looks like this after week 129

			Weekly Change
Cash	£18.80		+£0
Portfolio cost	£2,321.29		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£1,418.41	(-38.9%)	+£54.09
Potential profits	£0		+£0
Year 3 Dividends	£17.33		+£0
Year 3 Profit	£177.06		+£0
Yr 3 Average monthly cash profit	£33.69	(17.4%)	-£1.41
Dividends	£18.48		+£0
Profit from sales	-£64.29		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	-£1.54	(-0.8%)	+£0.01
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Best week for a while mostly thanks to CAML:Central Asia Metals, which climbed 10% in this account and is now only £28 (6%) down. I may get to sell them soon and see if I can do a better job of my next trading attempt. Any profit will be removed from the account as I attempt to draw down the original injection

I do believe it's turning round!

Not enough of a turnaround to affect the dismal performance chart.

That's it for week 2 of 2019 and we're still gaining each week of the year. Let's see how many weeks we can go before suffering the first loss.

Week 178 Review - Flat start to 2019

2019 started off very flat. OPTI:Optibiotix tried to make me finish in the red by dropping 1p, but the rest of the portfolio rallied around and made up the deficit, resulting in a gain of £211. That's just over £1,000 given the OPTI:Optibiotix drop would have cost £800. This leaves the buffer between value and cost at £4,283 and overall portfolio value of £101,606.

There was only one poor performer this week, with IQE:IQE dropping another 5% to extend the misery and go 56% down on purchase price. Thank goodness I sold out the majority of my holding for thousands of profit when I did!

A great run of climbers this week, and there had to be to offset the £800 drop in OPTI:Optibiotix. First winner was MTFB:Motif Bio, climbing 7% for the second week in a row. People are smelling FDA decision and getting excited. It's a shit or bust share!

Another 7% riser was TLOU:Tlou Energy. This is still 48% down and the only reason I haven't topped up is fear that they will sell the company before producing any gas or building any power stations - oh - and my decision that I really shouldn't be investing in fossil fuels on conservation grounds. My ethics don't include taking a loss though, so I'm sticking with them for now.

TEK:Tekcapital managed a 9% climb this week, which is a surprise as they are showing no signs of ever making a profit. They are 53% down so still no chance of getting rid unless I take a big hit.

Not surprisingly my two best performers this week were gold miners. PAF:Pan African Resources went up 10% and are now up by 22% altogether, with £310 paper profits. I'm sure it won't be too long before a production update from their new project, and then these should double.

Share of the Week goes to CEY:Centamin as it starts what I hope is a significant recovery. My ISA holding climbed 10% on purchase price, but with my SIPP holding being significantly cheaper to buy, that climbed 13%. The ISA is only down £86 now, whereas the SIPP is up by £335 so this is in profit and has dished out £23 dividends. I can see no reason why it won't return in the short term to the price it enjoyed before hitting the poor grade seam. That will see it go from 121p to 163p and the PE ratio should climb to a more sensible figure than the current 8. I'll continue to hold for the dividend and as part of my gold hedge.

Flat for a few weeks now - quite a relief after recent volatility.

Here's the ISA and share accounts

			Weekly Change
Cash	£46.66		+£0
Portfolio cost	£56,971.94		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£58,630.29	(2.9%)	+£141.05
Potential profits	£11,366.93		-£505.96
Yr 4 Dividends	£60.50		+£0
Yr 4 Profit from sales	£814.53		+£0
Yr 4 Average monthly cash profit	£168.66	(3.6%)	-£8.03
Total Dividends	£1,298.83		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£19,511.65		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£502.60	(10.6%)	-£2.84
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

OPTI:Optibiotix is the only thing in profit, so the £505 drop was down to the 1p fall there. Fortunately the rest of the portfolio fought back, made up the loss and also added £141. Well done chaps!

Way too close to the line for comfort, but on the right side.

Here's the SIPP after week 162

			Weekly Change
Cash	£138.92		+£0
Portfolio cost	£37,825.18		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£41,407.70	(9.5%)	+£52.88
Potential profits	£7,673.65		+£73.68
Yr 4 Dividends	£0		+£0
Yr 4 Interest	£0.01		+£0
Yr 4 Profit from sales	£0		+£0
Yr 4 Average monthly cash profit	-£10.89	(-0.3%)	+£2.17
Total Dividends	£1,342.25		+£0
Total Interest	£0.04		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£10,544.92		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£310.64	(9.8%)	-£1.93
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

This portfolio did even better to remove the OPTI:Optibiotix drop, as that would have chopped around £300 off potential profits, but they are up by £73 mainly thanks to the gold miners. A few deepening losses mean the overall value only climbed by £52 which is as flat as this account has been for a long time.

Still a nice gap on this one. I'm anticipating the red line will go up in steps by £1,000 every 2 months as I transfer out of my work pension into here. I've made so much more since doing the transfer than I did with their rubbish funds.

Here's the trading performance

			Weekly Change
Cash	£18.80		+£0
Portfolio cost	£2,321.29		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£1,364.32	(-41.2%)	+£17.74
Potential profits	£0		+£0
Year 3 Dividends	£17.33		+£0
Year 3 Profit	£177.06		+£0
Yr 3 Average monthly cash profit	£35.10	(18.1%)	-£1.52
Dividends	£18.48		+£0
Profit from sales	-£64.29		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	-£1.55	(-0.8%)	+£0.01
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Any week this goes up is a massive bonus. Unfortunately four out of the five shares in the account are around 50% down, and the fifth is 16% down, but that's CAML:Central Asia Metals and is showing signs of recovery. I'm so desperate to make £65 profit on a sale so I can get in the black, but it's looking a long way off. Why oh why didn't I sell TAP:Taptica and pocket £100 profit when I had the chance? LION:Lionsgold is making noise about re-listing soon, so that may be the best bet if there's a re-listing spike.

I don't know why I have a trendline on here - it's completely flawed given the amount I've injected. I'd be better having a trend line representing the difference between cost and value - now there's a thought!

I hate what I'm seeing, but I really like the chart! So next week I'll introduce this chart for each account and we'll see how the paper profits are looking. Here we see that the account was briefly in profit for about 4 weeks and is now in a pitiful state.

At least 2019 started off positively - if only just. Let's see how long we can keep the positive weeks going - one week and counting!