Week 200 Review - Dire news for Motif Bio

A pretty dreadful week for news, with MTFB:Motif Bio receiving the minutes from the FDA meeting to discuss the requirements for Iclaprim to be accepted. They want further clinical trials to look at potential liver toxicity, so a fundraise will be required and the share price dropped 50% instantly. That contributed to a weekly drop of £2,320, widening the gap between cost and value to £4,305 and reducing the portfolio value to £97.242.

As mentioned above, the biggest loser was MTFB:Motif Bio, dropping 16% of my original purchase price and now standing at a 74% loss with no short term prospect of recovery and a real chance of going bust. That eventuality would cost me £2,500 so I'm really hoping they can get funding to continue. It's so frustrating when they have a drug that passed Phase III tests and could save many lives.

IKA:Ilika had a bad week dropping 7% to go 32% down altogether after it seemed like a recovery was on the cards.

VRS:Versarien fell 5% and is now approaching top-up territory, as I said I would buy more if they went below 100p.

OPTI:Optibiotix also dropped 5% which contributed to most of this week's losses. The 3p drop cost me £2,460 in paper profits.

TEK:Tekcapital is finally looking like it may recover to profit, climbing 7% and showing some momentum. It's still 30% down but has been rising fast.

JLP:Jubilee Metals is really volatile at the moment, and climbed 9% this week to go only 28% down. That's a much better position for one of my biggest shares.

Gold has rallied and so has CEY:Centamin, climbing 8% of purchase price in my ISA, but 11% of purchase price in my SIPP which earns it Share of the Week. I wish I could have bought more in the 80p zone as this was so clearly going to bounce back.

Not good.

Back below the trend line which is steepening more in the wrong direction each week.

Here's the performance of the ISA and share portfolios

			Weekly Change
Cash	£23.23		-£3.75
Portfolio cost	£57,827.12		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£54,042.38	(-6.5%)	-£1,517.31
Potential profits	£6,818.27		-£1,512.90
Yr 4 Dividends	£88.07		+£0
Yr 4 Profit from sales	£1,606.13		+£0
Yr 4 Average monthly cash profit	£163.16	(3.4%)	-£4.17
Total Dividends	£1,326.40		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£20,303.25		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£464.65	(9.6%)	-£2.42
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Monthly fees reduced cash and all the drop was down to reduced paper profits.

Very similar to the overall chart.

Just on the trend line which isn't good enough.

The SIPP looks like this after week 184

			Weekly Change
Cash	£84.80		-£336.70
Portfolio cost	£41,248.68		+£520.54
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£41,541.70	(0.7%)	-£814.46
Potential profits	£4,522.29		-£1,120.80
Yr 4 Dividends	£361.99		+£0
Yr 4 Interest	£0.07		+£0
Yr 4 Profit from sales	£732.65		+£0
Yr 4 Average monthly cash profit	£155.24	(4.5%)	-£8.34
Total Dividends	£1,704.24		+£0
Total Interest	£0.10		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£11,277.57		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£296.93	(8.6%)	-£2.01
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Portfolio cost went up £511 as I added £200 to my dividend to top up on 230 shares in CAML:Central Asia Metals at 221.125p costing £520.54. I had to buy more at these stupidly low prices. It takes my holding in this mega dividend paying company to 3,902 shares costing £7,652 and currently making £802 (10%) paper profit. However if you add the £1,280 dividends over the last 4 years, it's up by 27%. It makes up 8.3% of my portfolio cost so there's room to buy more.

Profits were hammered thanks to OPTI:Optibiotix and CAML:Central Asia Metals both dropping. CEY:Centamin helped reduce the impact, wiping all it's losses and going into profit, so the portfolio only lost £814 in value. Average performance stats dropped a bit more than usual due to the £16 monthly fee.

Nearly back in the red

Oh dear...

The dreaded trading account looks like this after week 150

			Weekly Change
Cash	£35.04		+£0
Portfolio cost	£2,321.29		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£1,495.54	(-35.6%)	+£11.37
Potential profits	£0		+£0
Year 3 Dividends	£33.57		+£0
Year 3 Profit	£177.06		+£0
Yr 3 Average monthly cash profit	£19.84	(10.3%)	-£0.44
Dividends	£34.72		+£0
Profit from sales	-£64.29		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	-£0.85	(-0.4%)	+£0.01
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

It's gone up! Horrible to see that after nearly 3 years I'm still losing money with this account. What a complete disaster. Every time one of the shares looks like moving to profit, something unexpected happens and it plummets. I just wish I could get that elusive £65 profit to move it into the black.

My ambition is to get the injection line down to £0. I seeded the account with £2,000 on an interest free loan. The idea was I'd make loads of money, but I would have made more putting it in a building society account. Trading is hard, especially when you're shit at it.

That's actually a more encouraging chart than the last one. Performance is better now than it's been for the last 6 months.

The blog is a week late as I went to Iceland last week. Now time to write this weeks...

Week 199 Review - Another flat week

A relatively flat week, with no change in OPTI:Optibiotix and more losses than gains elsewhere, particularly a drop in JLP:Jubilee Metals. Some profit taking helped increase the deficit between cost and value by £410. The deficit is now £1,895 and total portfolio value has dropped slightly to £99,372.

Biggest loser was TEK:Tekcapital in the trading account, so that account had a bad week. There was a 12% drop which wiped out most of the recent rise and left my holding down by 37%.

The other big loser was quite costly, with TLOU:Tlou Energy dropping 8% to go 16% down. I think people are starting to believe that the news release from the Botswana government just meant that the tender process is progressing and the rival bids are both being considered, rather than Tlou having anything in the bag.

Mostly small rises and falls elsewhere, but there were a couple of bigger risers. IQE:IQE climbed 7% of my purchase price in the ISA with the shares I bought as a temporary holding area for the SBTX:SkinBioTherapeutics sale. That's good news but if I'd left it invested in SBTX:SkinBioTherapeutics I'd be better off, as that has continued to climb.

Share of the Week is one of the most volatile at the moment. IKA:Ilika climbed 11% and is up and down like a yo-yo. My holding is still 25% down though.

Still underwater but so close to breaking the surface.

Just above the trend line but competing with that huge mountain from last summer so very unlikely to flatten out the trend.

Here's the ISA and share portfolios

			Weekly Change
Cash	£26.98		-£0.21
Portfolio cost	£57,827.12		+£256.31
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£55,559.69	(-3.9%)	-£430.69
Potential profits	£8,331.17		-£233.38
Yr 4 Dividends	£88.07		+£0
Yr 4 Profit from sales	£1,606.13		+£256.11
Yr 4 Average monthly cash profit	£167.33	(3.5%)	+£22.44
Total Dividends	£1,326.40		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£20,303.25		+£256.11
Average monthly cash profit	£467.07	(9.7%)	+£3.25
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Quite revealing that the sale of CWR:Ceres Power which generated £256 was only enough to keep the average monthly performance at 9.7%. Small profits are not doing much to help the performance any more. The problem is I'm running out of profitable shares to sell. I realised a 23.4% profit from CWR:Ceres Power after only holding a short time. I do want to get back in but the shares have a habit of drifting badly on no news.

I re-invested the proceeds in C4XD:C4X Discovery Holdings which quite a few of my fellow OPTI:Optibiotix shareholders are keen on. I decided that they were way oversold given the potential for big revenues, and so bought them while I wait for CWR:Ceres Power to drop back around 150p. I bought 2,762 shares at 48p costing £1,337.71. They are up 4p but with commission and spread I'm still down 2%.

The drop in paper profit was down to the sale, and the losses were mostly JLP:Jubilee Metals.

The gap widens slightly. Nice to see the cost line creeping up after a very flat year.

Pretty similar to the overall performance chart, with the mountain looming.

The SIPP looks like this after week 183

			Weekly Change
Cash	£421.50		+£0
Portfolio cost	£40,725.38		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£41,844.81	(2.7%)	+£60.39
Potential profits	£5,643.09		-£40.03
Yr 4 Dividends	£361.99		+£0
Yr 4 Interest	£0.07		+£0
Yr 4 Profit from sales	£732.65		+£0
Yr 4 Average monthly cash profit	£163.58	(4.8%)	-£6.29
Total Dividends	£1,704.24		+£0
Total Interest	£0.10		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£11,277.57		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£298.94	(8.7%)	-£1.64
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Tiny drop in profits caused by small fall in CAML:Central Asia Metals but everything else as flat as you can get.

In a relatively happy place on this chart

In a much less happy place on this chart, both below the trend line and with the mountain approaching. There's no doubt that we have almost a year of declining performance now, in what has always been my best account.

The trading account looks like this after week 149

			Weekly Change
Cash	£35.04		+£0
Portfolio cost	£2,321.29		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£1,484.17	(-36.1%)	-£39.48
Potential profits	£0		+£0
Year 3 Dividends	£33.57		+£0
Year 3 Profit	£177.06		+£0
Yr 3 Average monthly cash profit	£20.28	(10.5%)	-£0.46
Dividends	£34.72		+£0
Profit from sales	-£64.29		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	-£0.86	(-0.4%)	+£0.01
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Another bad week and most of the recent gains are gone.

Dropping down towards its lowest low

In 6 months time the trend might point upwards.

Really late with this week's update as I was driving down from Scotland all weekend. This week isn't going very well so far, although I did add £200 to my SIPP and combined it with my CAML:Central Asia Metals dividends to buy another 230 shares in the same company at 221.125p costing £520.54.

I had to take advantage of these low prices and would rather buy more CAML than hold the dividends as cash. When current performance is revealed they will soon climb to 300p and I've decided to keep accumulating long term as the dividend is so great. It's a perfect share for the SIPP, so if any of my other smaller holdings bear fruit I'll likely buy more of these with the proceeds. They make up 8.5% of my total portfolio cost so plenty of headroom before I start to worry about being overweight at 10%.

Week 198 Review - Almost completely flat

This week would have had a difference of about £5 is I hadn't have banked some profit. As a result the combined portfolios are down by £273. Given I banked £272 profit, that's mighty close. The combined portfolio is still in the red by £1,575 and total value nearly cracked the £100K barrier at £99,525.

The sale I referred to above was in my ISA. I'm determined to take advantage of trader antics and trade SBTX:SkinBioTherapeutics, as I regard it as a bonus holding due to my big stake via OPTI:Optibiotix. I sold my 9,260 shares for 23.2p after buying at 20p. This gave me a modest £272.42 (14.5%) profit. My plan was to hold the cash until SBTX:SkinBioTherapeutics dips under 20p and then buy back more than I had before. If this never happens, then no worries as I have my OPTI:Optibiotix allocation.

However, my discipline is hopeless and when I saw IQE:IQE being hammered due to the Trump administration deciding they don't like the competition from Huawei and trying to destroy them along with all the American companies that supply them, then I couldn't resist buying IQE:IQE with the proceeds with the intention of selling them in order buy back into SBTX:SkinBioTherapeutics. Knowing my trading track record, it ain't going to work. I bought 2,861 shares at 75.0795p costing £2,159.97. Needless to say my timing sucked and they dropped further today resulting in an 8% loss in one day when you include commission.

Worst performer by miles was IKA:Ilika, dropping 13%. There's absolutely no reason for the drop. No news. No nothing. It's an annoying mystery.

Next worst performer was IQE:IQE which now features in all three portfolios. In my trading account it dropped 12% of the 101.99p I bought them for. In my SIPP it dropped 10% of the 131.45p I bought them for, and my new holding in the ISA dropped 8% of the 75.0795p I paid when you add in the commission charges too, which I account for up-front.

Final big loser was JLP:Jubilee Metals which is one of my bigger holdings and fell 7%, probably due to profit taking following the recent rise.

OPTI:Optibiotix climbed 1p this week, which is only 2%, but that offset most of the losses elsewhere.

TLOU:Tlou Energy climbed 6% after it appears they have been accepted for tender by the Botswana Government, although it's still not really clear whether we have or not, which is why the rise is more muted than I'd hoped.

Very few big risers this week, so Share of the Week goes to MMX:Minds + Machines which climbed 9% after a good trading update on the .luxe domain and some really hefty director buys. It's taken much longer than I thought, but I still believe these will come good this year.

Torture - so close to getting back above the line, but not today.

Above the trend line so let's start dragging if flat again
Here's the ISA and share portfolio performance

	Weekly Change
Cash	£27.79		-£23.60
Portfolio cost	£57,570.81		+£296.03
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£55,734.07	(-3.2%)	-£118.47
Potential profits	£8,564.55		+£401.95
Yr 4 Dividends	£88.07		+£0
Yr 4 Profit from sales	£1,350.02		+£272.42
Yr 4 Average monthly cash profit	£144.89	(3%)	+£25.26
Total Dividends	£1,326.40		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£20,047.14		+£272.42
Average monthly cash profit	£463.82	(9.7%)	+£3.63
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Cash reduced as I added spare to the IQE:IQE purchase, which also explains the increase in cost. Potential profits rose by £401 largely thanks to OPTI:Optibiotix but the losses elsewhere mean there's a £118 deficit for the week. The SBTX:SkinBioTherapeutics sale boosted realised profits by £272 which only boosted average monthly performance by 0.1%. Only 0.3% below target 10% so not bad, especially given the increase in cost of the portfolio.

Still a way to go before getting back into the black.

Still above the trend line - yippee!

The SIPP looks like this after week 182

		Weekly Change
Cash	£421.50		+£293.76
Portfolio cost	£40,725.38		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£41,784.42	(2.6%)	-£96.06
Potential profits	£5,683.12		+£183.76
Yr 4 Dividends	£361.99		+£293.76
Yr 4 Interest	£0.07		+£0
Yr 4 Profit from sales	£732.65		+£0
Yr 4 Average monthly cash profit	£169.87	(5%)	+£44.12
Total Dividends	£1,704.24		+£293.76
Total Interest	£0.10		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£11,277.57		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£300.58	(8.9%)	+£5.37
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

A magnificent £293 dividend from CAML:Central Asia Metals resulted in improvements in monthly performance, albeit only 0.2% in the long term monthly profits. Deepening losses meant the £183 improvement in paper profits was wiped out into a £96 reduction in value.

Slight increase in the green line thanks to the dividend as it includes cash.

So close to getting above the trend line, but still on the wrong side and the peak is about to come into play big-time.

The trading portfolio looks like this after week 148

			Weekly Change
Cash	£35.04		+£16.24
Portfolio cost	£2,321.29		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£1,523.65	(-34.4%)	-£58.92
Potential profits	£0		+£0
Year 3 Dividends	£33.57		+£16.24
Year 3 Profit	£177.06		+£0
Yr 3 Average monthly cash profit	£20.74	(10.7%)	+£1.15
Dividends	£34.72		+£16.24
Profit from sales	-£64.29		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	-£0.87	(-0.4%)	+£0.48
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Bad week with multiple losses dragging things down by £58. Great news is the £16 dividend from CAML:Central Asia Metals which has improved performance a bit. We really shouldn't be getting dividends from a trading account though!

Still utterly hopeless

Still above the trend line so still dragging it flatter but there's a long way to go.

That's all the dividends out of the way. I'm desperately hoping for a quick improvement for IQE:IQE so I can get the cash back for when (or if) SBTX:SkinBioTherapeutics drops back below 20p. I'm determined to make amends for getting ripped off by not being able to join the IPO and paying 13p a share at 20 seconds past 8am when the IPO price was 9p. That's the problem when OPTI:Optibiotix sells off divisions and there's no way existing shareholders can be a part of it. We may get a big dividend in the future, but what we really want is to keep ownership of all the parts of our company.

Week 197 Review - Optibiotix on the march again

OPTI:Optibiotix climbed 6p this week which is worth just under £5,000 so it's bound to be a good week. It could have been better though, as the increase was less than the OPTI:Optibiotix rise at £4,838, narrowing the deficit to £1,301 and bringing total value up to £99,216. Getting close to the magical £100K.

Biggest loser is a terminal death for MAIS:Maistro. They have decided it's in the best interest of shareholders to de-list. In the best interest of which shareholders exactly? Not surprisingly this caused a 79% drop in share price based on their share price on the day. As they have already collapsed it was only a 13% drop on the price I paid for them, but the decline with commission is now 107% and if I sold them I would lose £8 due to the commission. This was one of my first and most foolish purchases when they were BLUR:Blur Group so I only spent £122 and regretted it ever since. I won't give them the satisfaction of selling, but my shares will be in limbo and I may never be able to get rid of them.

Next worst performer is a real mystery. TLOU:Tlou Energy dropped 10% and it seems to be linked with a newspaper announcement that their tender for a gas power station has been accepted and now negotiations will begin. It was all a bit vague as they said the same for the rival company, so until clarification is received we don't know what's happening. Best case scenario is that they have decided to go ahead with both projects, but we shall see. The drop means these are 24% down now, but still worth £2,077 and my target is only to make 20%, although if they get the tender then it may rocket.

Another 10% drop this week was VRS:Versarien which I decided not to trade despite being pretty certain it would be volatile. I'm regretting that decision now as I've lost about £250 paper profit already, but they are still up by £68.

There was more good news for TEK:Tekcapital this week, whose invested companies seem to be making good progress. This may be one of the few IP companies that actually does OK. Despite the 7% increase, my holding is still down 26% and losing £125 in the trading account.

OPTI:Optibiotix climbed by 6p which is 9% and took paper profits in the three accounts to £12,135. Normally that would result in a top-slice, but no way with this baby!

For the 2nd week in a row OPTI:Optibiotix spin-off SBTX:SkinBioTherapeutics wins Share of the Week. Last week it went up 17% and this week 10% and is now back in profit by 6% and making £115. I'm still a bit nervous about what's going to happen about the "dividend" from the sell-off, as it's not going to be in SBTX:SkinBioTherapeutics shares and I probably won't be able to afford to buy them if it's a cash payout as everyone will have the same idea. I'm worried I'll lose a big part of my original OPTI:Optibiotix holding with little reward. What's more worrying is the same might happen when the ProBiotics division is spun off.

Not quite caught up with the line, but nearly.

Back above the trend line - much celebration! Look how steep it's got though - most worrying.

Here's the ISA and Share portfolios' performance

	Weekly Change
Cash	£50.79		+£27.57
Portfolio cost	£57,274.78		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£55,556.51	(-3%)	+£3,179.83
Potential profits	£8,162.60		+£3,125.11
Yr 4 Dividends	£88.07		+£27.57
Yr 4 Profit from sales	£1,077.60		+£0
Yr 4 Average monthly cash profit	£119.63	(2.5%)	-£0.01
Total Dividends	£1,326.40		+£27.57
Total Profit from sales	£19,774.72		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£460.19	(9.6%)	-£1.74
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Cash increased thanks to the £27.57 CEY:Centamin dividend. That also reduced the drop in average monthly performance but not by a whole lot as it's such a tiny amount. Paper profits soared, and the portfolio value increased by an extra £50 so a few reduced losses too.

Still a way to go before catching up with the red line. Look how flat that is - I've hardly sold anything in this account for a long time, and not added anything to my ISA.

Although still in the red, at least this is back above the trend line.

The SIPP looks like this after week 181

		Weekly Change
Cash	£127.54		+£68.24
Portfolio cost	£40,725.38		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£41,880.48	(2.8%)	+£1,643.38
Potential profits	£4,499.36		+£1,626.88
Yr 4 Dividends	£68.23		+£68.23
Yr 4 Interest	£0.07		+£0.01
Yr 4 Profit from sales	£732.65		+£0
Yr 4 Average monthly cash profit	£125.75	(3.7%)	+£7.08
Total Dividends	£1,410.48		+£68.23
Total Interest	£0.10		+£0.01
Total Profit from sales	£11,277.57		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£295.21	(8.7%)	+£0
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

A bigger £68.23 CEY:Centamin dividend in this one, and 1p interest - woohoo! Good increase in potential profits and a tiny reduction in losses by £20. The big hit was VRS:Versarien dropping 10% and chewing up some of the potential profits.

It's amazing how this portfolio just hates being in the red. After only the 4th brief dalliance in the last 12 months it's back in the black.

So although we're up above the £0 line, we're still below the trend line and the mountain from 10 months ago is looming on the trend line horizon.

Here's the trading account after week 147.

			Weekly Change
Cash	£18.80		+£0
Portfolio cost	£2,321.29		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£1,582.57	(-31.8%)	+£15.04
Potential profits	£0		+£0
Year 3 Dividends	£17.33		+£0
Year 3 Profit	£177.06		+£0
Yr 3 Average monthly cash profit	£19.59	(10.1%)	-£0.47
Dividends	£18.48		+£0
Profit from sales	-£64.29		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	-£1.35	(-0.7%)	+£0.01
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

A solid week, climbing £15 thanks to TEK:TekCapital and despite drops in both CAML:Central Asia Metals and IQE:IQE. I'm getting increasingly concerned about LION:Lionsgold. They surely should have re-listed by now? Is the CEO about to pull off a massive heist?

Still pretty desperate

We're gradually dragging the trend line upwards, which is the only good thing you could say.

Only one certainly next week and it's the arrival of the big meaty CAML:Central Asia Metals dividend. Aside from that I can hope for positive clarification on the TLOU:Tlou Energy ITT, and hope for another big OPTI:Optibiotix deal to keep the momentum going. Still waiting for TND:Tandem Group to climb that teensy bit that will let me sell them for a profit. Current beneficiary will be CAML:Central Asia Metals as it's stupidly cheap.

Week 196 Review - As flat as it gets

Although there were some big movements in some shares this week, the outcome was pretty flat. The portfolio ended up by £349 reducing the deficit to £6,140 and increasing total value to £94,282.

The biggest loser was TEK:Tekcapital which has had a great few weeks, but this week there was a sell-off. The price dropped 11% in my trading account which had a sad week.

The other three big losers were all double digit climbers last week.

TLOU:Tlou Energy dropped 10% just as it looked like there was hope of a recovery. I suspect this was traders taking a profit.

JLP:Jubilee Metals fell 8% despite loads of good news and a healthy Q1 trading statement. Probably profit taking after the big rise last week.

IQE:IQE dropped 6% and still seems to be in the clutches of the shorters despite the big rise last week.

Only one share rose by more then 5% this week to earn Share of the Week and it was SBTX:SkinBioTherapeutics. It soared by 17% and is now only 4% down on my purchase price. Fingers crossed this rise will continue.

Hasn't done much to reduce the deficit.

The trend line deepens its dive. All rather worrying.

The ISA and share accounts look like this

	Weekly Change
Cash	£23.22		+£0
Portfolio cost	£57,274.78		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£52,376.68	(-8.6%)	+£60.17
Potential profits	£5,037.49		+£535.28
Yr 4 Dividends	£60.50		+£0
Yr 4 Profit from sales	£1,077.60		+£0
Yr 4 Average monthly cash profit	£119.64	(2.5%)	-£3.07
Total Dividends	£1,298.83		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£19,774.72		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£461.93	(9.7%)	-£2.36
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Potential profits were up thanks to both OPTI:Optibiotix and CWR:Ceres Power climbing. However big losses elsewhere negated all that and the portfolio ended up by just £60. No dividends till next week.

As with the combined accounts, still too big a gap

Not far from the trend line so we may be able to drag it up towards flat at least until the first 5 or 6 weeks of the chart vanish, then I think we're doomed.

The SIPP looks like this after week 180

		Weekly Change
Cash	£59.50		+£0
Portfolio cost	£40,725.38		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£40,237.10	(-1.2%)	+£366.11
Potential profits	£3,872.48		+£535.91
Yr 4 Dividends	£0		+£0
Yr 4 Interest	£0.07		+£0
Yr 4 Profit from sales	£732.65		+£0
Yr 4 Average monthly cash profit	£118.67	(3.5%)	-£5.16
Total Dividends	£1,342.25		+£0
Total Interest	£0.09		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£11,277.57		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£295.21	(8.7%)	-£1.65
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Similar story with OPTI:Optibiotix and CAML:Central Asia Metals both improving so potential profits up, but big losses elsewhere reduce the overall benefit to £366.

Still just about the wrong side of the red line

Still below the trend line and dragging it down.

The trading account looks like this after week 146

			Weekly Change
Cash	£18.80		+£0
Portfolio cost	£2,321.29		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£1,567.53	(-32.5%)	-£76.94
Potential profits	£0		+£0
Year 3 Dividends	£17.33		+£0
Year 3 Profit	£177.06		+£0
Yr 3 Average monthly cash profit	£20.06	(10.4%)	-£0.49
Dividends	£18.48		+£0
Profit from sales	-£64.29		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	-£1.36	(-0.7%)	+£0.01
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

All last week's gains wiped out and still no prospect of being able to sell anything.

So much for the recovery...

Stayed on the right side of the trend line so slowly pulling it flat.

That's it for this week. Still no opportunity to sell TND:Tandem Group and one of my potential targets SKIN:Integumen climbed 16% today so I may have missed the boat on that one. At the moment I'm leaning back towards increasing my holding in CEY:Centamin as everything else is up on price. The other option is more VRS:Versarien if it dips below 100p again. That's if I ever manage to get rid of TND:Tandem Group else I'll have no cash to buy anything.

Week 195 Review - Some significant recoveries

There were some significant gains this week, but OPTI:Optibiotix stayed still, so the fact the combined portfolios increased by £1,302 is pretty good. The deficit dropped to £6,489 and total portfolio value is £93,933.

MMX:Minds + Machines was the only significant faller this week, and that was just 5%. I still don't understand why this is dropping when it's generating cash. I guess the only reason is that management have shown no desire to return any of the cash to shareholders. That's certainly the only thing that's stopped me topping up at these prices. This "quick win" share is now down 33% and losing £337

IQE:IQE are on the move upwards on news that their new foundry is in production. Hopefully the shorts will start to close and this can get back up to the 130p level I bought at. Still a way to go, but they are up 15% this week and so now only losing 29% and £696.

TLOU:Tlou Energy did even better, climbing 16% as sentiment improves dramatically. Now only down by 10% and losing just £271 I'm confident we can see significant upside in the near future. I won't be waiting long as I've decided not to invest in fossil fuels and will just make sure I take a modest profit. I invested £2,700 in these so by modest were talking £1,000.

Share of the Week is JLP:Jubilee Metals. It had the same 16% rise as TLOU:Tlou Energy but I have a lot more invested so it's worth a hell of a lot more. They are only down by 19% now and losing £887, but given I was convinced they were about to go bust, things are looking much better with 2 very significant new investors on the scene.

Still a long way to go

The trend line is about to take a massive dip downwards

The ISA and share accounts look like this

	Weekly Change
Cash	£23.22		-£3.75
Portfolio cost	£57,274.78		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£52,316.51	(-8.7%)	+£1,232.04
Potential profits	£4,502.21		+£10.99
Yr 4 Dividends	£60.50		+£0
Yr 4 Profit from sales	£1,077.60		+£0
Yr 4 Average monthly cash profit	£122.71	(2.6%)	-£3.65
Total Dividends	£1,298.83		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£19,774.72		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£464.29	(9.7%)	-£2.48
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

The tiny increase in potential profit was thanks to CWR:Ceres Power, with everything else being reduced losses. It makes me much happier to see losing companies turn things around than succeeding companies doing better, as loss-making shares hurt.





Nice tick up but big gap to cross.

Another trend line about to get much worse

The SIPP looks like this after week 179

		Weekly Change
Cash	£59.50		-£14.62
Portfolio cost	£40,725.38		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£39,870.99	(-2.1%)	+£4.10
Potential profits	£3,336.57		-£293.76
Yr 4 Dividends	£0		+£0
Yr 4 Interest	£0.07		+£0
Yr 4 Profit from sales	£732.65		+£0
Yr 4 Average monthly cash profit	£123.83	(3.6%)	-£8.51
Total Dividends	£1,342.25		+£0
Total Interest	£0.09		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£11,277.57		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£296.86	(8.7%)	-£2.02
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Cash dropped due to monthly charges. Potential profits actually dipped as CAML:Central Asia Metals lost 4%. Improving losses meant a net gain of £4 this month. Year 4 is almost halfway through and performance is rubbish at 3.6%. My only real hope is something dramatic happening for MMX:Minds & Machines as everything else is either in big trouble or a long term income hold.

Still in alien territory below the red line





I think there's a better chance of reversing the trend line in this account, but without a significant re-rate it's going to be pointing downwards for about 4 months.

The trading account looks like this after week 145

			Weekly Change
Cash	£18.80		+£0
Portfolio cost	£2,321.29		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£1,644.47	(-29.2%)	+£66.56
Potential profits	£0		+£0
Year 3 Dividends	£17.33		+£0
Year 3 Profit	£177.06		+£0
Yr 3 Average monthly cash profit	£20.55	(10.6%)	-£0.51
Dividends	£18.48		+£0
Profit from sales	-£64.29		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	-£1.37	(-0.7%)	+£0.01
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Things might actually be looking up for this one. Another good week, and year 3 profits above target, and 2 of the shares only down by 12% with a third only down 22% gives hope that some profits could be banked in the next few months.

As trading accounts go, it's still completely rubbish!

However even though it's rubbish, at least it's heading upwards!

Now we're into May we're nearing dividend payout dates for CEY:Centamin (13th May) and CAML:Central Asia Metals (20th May). There's not enough to do anything with, but it will be nice to sit on a bit of cash for a while and know the monthly fees can be paid.

I've had a sell order in for TND:Tandem Group for 195p. It would give me a loss due to commission, but the dividends make up for that and would result in £40 profit. I placed the limit order in a huff when OPTI:Optibiotix dropped again and I wanted to buy some cheap. That's picked up now, so I think I'll go back to the Warren Buffett mantra of never losing money on a share and cancel the order. I've had them for 4 years so really anything under 40% is a failure. That would mean them climbing from the current 180p to 279p, which isn't that far fetched given their stupidly low P/E ratio. The problem is, by the time the share price gets near there I'll have had them 5 years and that means the target goes up to 299p.

Week 194 Review - Optibiotix sliding inexplicably

Yet another dreadful week, now completely undoing all the good from a few weeks ago. The combined portfolio value dropped by £4,247 and widened the deficit to £7,792. The total value was over £100K a few weeks ago but is now only £92,649.

Worst performer was CAML:Central Asia Metals losing 12% half of which was going ex-dividend. There's normally a rise into the dividend but it never appeared.

VRS:Versarien had a bad week too, dropping 12% but still up by 19%.

OPTI:Optibiotix dropped 7% and that hammered the portfolio. Dunno why - it's all very frustrating.

TAP:Taptica also slid after recent gains. There's very odd sentiment against this company at the moment, but I think they'll come through it.

SBTX:SkinBioTherapeutics slipped another 5% possibly due to the OPTI:Optiobiotix slide.

TND:Tandem Group suffered from profit taking and dropped 5%.

TLOU:Tlou Energy had a great week climbing 8% as it's looking like they will get their contract for supplying power, or not we'll have to see.

CEY:Centamin nearly wins Share of the Week climbing 8% of purchase price in the ISA and 11% in the SIPP. Still a way to go before these shares trade at a sensible price.

TEK:Tekcapital surprisingly wins Share of the Week with a massive 35% increase. There's still 22% to go before this breaks even though.

Dreadful.

Disasterous

	Weekly Change
Cash	£26.97		+£0
Portfolio cost	£57,274.78		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£51,084.47	(-10.8%)	-£2,343.71
Potential profits	£4,491.22		-£2,504.15
Yr 4 Dividends	£60.50		+£0
Yr 4 Profit from sales	£1,077.60		+£0
Yr 4 Average monthly cash profit	£126.36	(2.6%)	-£3.42
Total Dividends	£1,298.83		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£19,774.72		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	£466.77	(9.8%)	-£2.42
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Profits hammered and rest of portfolio didn't do as bad.

Truly aweful.

Well into down trend now.
The SIPP looks like this after week 178.

		Weekly Change
Cash	£74.12		-£4.55
Portfolio cost	£40,725.38		+£201.33
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£39,866.89	(-2.1%)	-£2,024.57
Potential profits	£3,630.33		-£2,372.73
Yr 4 Dividends	£0		+£0
Yr 4 Interest	£0.07		+£0
Yr 4 Profit from sales	£732.65		+£248.35
Yr 4 Average monthly cash profit	£132.34	(3.9%)	+£44.95
Total Dividends	£1,342.25		+£0
Total Interest	£0.09		+£0
Total Profit from sales	£11,277.57		+£248.35
Average monthly cash profit	£298.88	(8.8%)	+£4.39
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

Exactly the same as the ISA - Profits hammered and other losses making some ground. Performance was boosted by my PAF:Pan African Resources shares being sold, but not for long.





The SIPP goes into the red for the first time in ages

On a downtrend and dragging it lower

The Trading account looks like this after week 144

			Weekly Change
Cash	£18.80		+£0
Portfolio cost	£2,321.29		+£0
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission)	£1,577.91	(-32%)	+£119.84
Potential profits	£0		+£0
Year 3 Dividends	£17.33		+£0
Year 3 Profit	£177.06		+£0
Yr 3 Average monthly cash profit	£21.06	(10.9%)	-£0.54
Dividends	£18.48		+£0
Profit from sales	-£64.29		+£0
Average monthly cash profit	-£1.38	(-0.7%)	+£0.01
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees / Months)

A great week with the deficit slashed. If only the other accounts had been this good!

Closing the gap bur very slowly.

Not a bad week.

That's it for week 194. It's almost week 195 already and so far things are looking better so let's hope Friday doesn't screw things up.