| Issue | Date | Summary |
| 59 | 08-08-2008 | Portfolio looking rather sweet: So many price movements seem to hinge on what the price of oil is doing at the moment - which makes things a bit confusing! |
| 58 | 07-08-2008 | Hard times for investors: Things appear to be changing! The once powerful oils are bubbling down the drain and the housebuilders are resurgent. |
| 57 | 30-07-2008 | Very cautious this summer...: So I'm going to try hard not to overtrade and keep a good wodge of cash on the sidelines even though there is some sign the markets are heading upwards. Just don't quite trust it yet!
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| 56 | 25-07-2008 | Cutting my exposure to oil related stocks: Well there's little doubt for right now anyway oil sectorish stocks are being sold off and some of the more traditional companies are on the comeback.
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| 55 | 23-07-2008 | Big holiday update: This crazy ol summer just rolls on making me feel glad I have a lot in cash still. It's been a tough one for someone like me who's generally a medium term investor rather than a day trader. |
| 54 | 18-07-2008 | Keeping my powder dry: The amazing voltility continues which makes me glad to me in a lot of cash for now... |
| 53 | 02-07-2008 | The tough market remains: Retail, building materials, housing, anything with big debt is in the brown stuff. However oil producers, oil services, commodities, energy continue to perform which is why the FTSE hasn't already hit 5,000.
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| 52 | 30-06-2008 | Markets still look a bit shakey: Best short-term gains still coming from the shorts which handily are still going down today even though the main market is rising. |
| 51 | 27-06-2008 | What a week!: Some shares have been hit for six. I can imagine a lot of private investors are fuming - those sitting in perfectly good companies whose shares have been forced down by sheer manipulation in many cases. |
| 50 | 25-06-2008 | Tricky times!: For the moment I'm very wary of buying anything and my summer strategy is going to be very cautious on buys and more gung go on shorts as I can't see where the rises are coming from short-term.
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| 49 | 18-06-2008 | Volatility rules the day: Here we go again! Tons of volatility, great for day traders but makes life harder for medium term investors like me.
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| 48 | 16-06-2008 | I bought more corn!: Sounds a bit corny but I bought some more corn. The last lot of corn I bought last week is doing really well and I'm up nearly a grand on it. |
| 47 | 13-06-2008 | Property Punt!: Surprisingly, well I surprised myself .. and bought a bit of property! I was going to leave this till the autumn - but with some very short-term upside in property given some broker upgrades. |
| 46 | 11-06-2008 | Crazy volatility!: Goodness me it's been crazy out there since I last updated. Oil prices shoot up and down. Crazy volatility |
| 45 | 04-06-2008 | Riding out the storm!: Not great out there today. The stronger dollar not liked by the markets and the banks still in a mess.
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| 44 | 02-06-2008 | Nothing getting me going!: Despite my long shortlist nothing is really getting me going and I'd rather wait to see what the market does for the moment before stepping in. |
| 43 | 30-05-2008 | Sitting on the sidelines: After a good run it's a tricky time and it wouldn't be surprising to see either continued falls or a sudden rise! |
| 42 | 28-05-2008 | Profits continue to boom!: Nothing has really got me going this week - and the worst thing to do is buy something just out of boredom or for entertainment. |
| 41 | 23-05-2008 | An excellent end to a superb week: I head into the bank holiday weekend with giant profits in most stocks and just one or two small losses. Lovely. |
| 40 | 21-05-2008 | It's great to make money during a tanking day: I enjoyed yesterday! The market was tanking but I had a short open. And my two biggest holdings stormed higher! |
| 39 | 19-05-2008 | My portfolio is sizzling!: Goodness me - yet another cracking couple of days - the portfilio keeps sizzling! And again I'm keeping those profits running, preferring to take small losses rather than take the big profit sitting there. |
| 38 | 16-05-2008 | Oil stocks doing me proud!: Another really excellent week especially for my oil stocks which are really booming and bringing home some great profits. |
| 37 | 15-05-2008 | Holding my nerves: Things still go exceedingly well though with such big profts sitting there I'd have to be a bit nervous.
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| 36 | 12-05-2008 | Buy and hold strategy working a treat!: Well, what can I say? The Burns accounts continue to move nicely higher every day. How long can it continue and when should I be banking my enormous profits?
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| 35 | 07-05-2008 | Giant gains bring a giant smile!: Well there I was thinking last year was a good year! This year has just been sparkling and the last week or so has been amazing with massive gains for my basket of shares. |
| 34 | 30-04-2008 | I'm feeling cautious!: For the short term I'm only buying if something really stands out as being cheap or a good time to enter. We've had a good run and I just can't see where the short-term big upside is coming from. |
| 33 | 28-04-2008 | The good times continue!: It's very tempting to short the FTSE again at this point - up to now I've been shorting when it heads up into the 6000s. However it has been a strong uplift and I'd hate to fight a rising market. |
| 32 | 25-04-2008 | Friday's Diary: The thing is though my experience tells me however tempting it is to bank profits, if you're in really good companies and the right sector, it's nearly always still too early to sell. |
| 31 | 23-04-2008 | Wednesday's Diary: Well, I've had some good days in the past but today is exceptional |
| 30 | 21-04-2008 | Monday's Diary: I showed everyone one of my spreadbet accounts at the start of the day. By the end of the day it had risen by nearly £10,000! |
| 29 | 16-04-2008 | Wednesday's Diary: As you know I'm no forecaster but I can't really seee any big gains around the corner and I think it could pay to remain very cautious while the credit crunch is still biting. |
| 28 | 14-04-2008 | Monday's Diary: The market is going to be volatile this week as it's earnings season in the USA. Loads of company results out this week and each one will no doubt push things up one moment and down the next.
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| 27 | 11-04-2008 | Friday's Diary: The last couple of days have been... weird is the only way to put it.... sentiment seems to be swinging crazily one way or another - for the moment I've been trying to stay put till things work themselves out. |
| 26 | 09-04-2008 | Wednesday's Diary: Some very nice gains indeed for the portfolio this week. Star of the show and luckily my biggest holding Telecom Plus just rises every day! |
| 25 | 07-04-2008 | Monday's Diary: ...with the FTSE hovering back at 6,000 I wonder if there is much more upside left? |
| 24 | 04-04-2008 | Friday's Diary: Yes,. I can hardly believe it myself. I know I am loaded up with Telecom Plus (TEP) shares. And you're going to know what I am going to say next.
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| 23 | 02-04-2008 | Wednesday's Diary: Interesting times. A big part of me is tempted to bank a lot of profit (fear) and another big part of me hopes there is more to come (greed). At the moment the greed is outgunning the fear!
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| 22 | 31-03-2008 | Stability?: Well, there seems to be at least some temporary 'stability'. Ps, Gordon just by getting everyone to say 'stability' all the time isn't going to win you the election.. |
| 21 | 28-03-2008 | Friday's Trading Diary: Hey, has some stability returned? Well it looks like it short term and after quite a burst of activity from me recently it's been a quiet couple of days which really have been welcome.
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| 20 | 26-03-2008 | Wednesday's Trading Diary: I wish I could say I'd been a real market whizz and lapped up all the bank shares last week and I'm now sitting on massive profits but..er.. well.. I didn't. Way too busy eating chocolate. |
| 19 | 19-03-2008 | Wednesday's Diary: Honestly in all my more than ten years of trading I've not seen anything like this! Down 200, up 400, down 100, shares all over the place - spreads widening out of nowhere. Looking at the screen is making me feel queasy.
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| 18 | 17-03-2008 | Monday's Diary: It's very hard to know what to do however long you've been in the market. It's hard to sell because there could be a big bounce. It's hard to buy because shares could fall further. And it's hard to hold in case even the top notch long-termers get hit.
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| 17 | 14-03-2008 | Friday's Diary: Conditions remain volatile but I remain calm as ever, making decisions without using any emotion, it's the only way... |
| 16 | 12-03-2008 | Wednesday's Diary: Well, unusually for me I've been extremely busy making new trades, and taking profits and losses! I feel like a day trader. I think to be honest I've probably overdone it. Maybe it's because I was away for two days!
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| 15 | 10-03-2008 | Monday's Trading Diary: I've got a quite hefty shortlist of weak companies that look shorting candidates. I've picked the candidates for reasons of either poor sector or high debt or profit warning.
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| 14 | 05-03-2008 | Robbie's Wednesday Diary: My goodness, I've had some good days in the past but today is a real cracker with any number of huge rises...
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| 13 | 03-03-2008 | Mondays Trading Diary: This morning I bought another seminar shortlisted share on results, WSP Group (WSH) snapping up 750 shares at 556.21p. No-one at the seminar really voted for this but I did like it |
| 12 | 27-02-2008 | Wednesday's Trading Diary: It's great having Direct Market Access sometimes. It means I can try and buy at "sell" prices and this came into its own yesterday when the price of REA Holdings was 615 to sell and 635 to buy |
| 11 | 25-02-2008 | Monday's Trading Diary: I've also bought 1,000 shares today at 337p in what looks like an interesting one, Ferrexpo (FXPO) a quite large FTSE 250 stock, it produces Iron Ore, commodity prices in its sector are rising and it looks an interesting ISA gamble for me. |
| 10 | 22-02-2008 | Fridays Trading Diary: I am ignoring the fall in Dragon today on the basis that it is a treeshake followed by private investors having their stops taken out. I have tons of Dragon and so do not add anymore on shakes - however... |
| 9 | 14-01-2008 | 2008 COULD BE A GOOD YEAR!: I hope you're all very impressed. I'm writing a new column and haven't been lazy and reworked the usual "New year's resolutions" one! |
| 8 | 27-12-2007 | 2007: VOLATILE BUT PROFITABLE!: Goodness me - that was an interesting old year! As they say in football: a game of two halves. The first half was a lot easier than the second! But when all is said and done it's been my best 'taken profits' year so far. |
| 7 | 21-11-2007 | Love the Shorts - but Short Term Only!: Goodness me - it's been a difficult market... for investors... but a fantastic one for traders! |
| 6 | 17-10-2007 | Oil be Blowed!: Well … I did say in my last column that we'd see bids in both the oil exploration and oil services sectors. It's really only just starting - and in earnest! |
| 5 | 04-09-2007 | An August Of Panic: Well, what an August that was!
Talk about the old cliché "rollercoaster ride" being right in the money... |
| 4 | 24-07-2007 | Trailing Stop-Losses: What do you do if you like to trade but have a full-time job so maybe can only look at your shares and take action once a day? |
| 3 | 21-06-2007 | Should you follow Directors?: Many investors believe it's worth keeping an eye on directors buying and selling shares in their own companies. |
| 2 | 10-05-2007 | A Big Plus for ADVFN Level 2 - or is that Level 3?: Something that I'd been hoping would happen for a while has finally happened on ADVFN.
And by the way, ... before I tell you what it is, ADVFN hasn't sent me a pack of used tenners to write this column as I'm writing this 100% independently. I believe in what I write and this is NOT an advertorial! Ok? |
| 1 | 16-04-2007 | Murky May on the Way?: Most investors/traders have bad memories of last May. Shares took a real dive and the market sank rapidly. There's one word that describes it well but sadly I can't use it Proactive Investors! |