Well the markets remain absolutely perfect for me, at least, if not for the day traders who need a bit more volatility.
For stock pickers it's a dream market at the moment; get the right one and watch it rise, although be careful to avoid the dogs. The portfolio has really leapt higher in the last two weeks.
I bought some Ramsdens (LON:RFX). No, not the fish and chips restaurant!
An interesting one I think; it's a pawnbroker with 127 shops across the country but it does other stuff too, like foreign exchange and it buys and sells metals. A bit of a 'wheeler dealer', if you like.
If it plays its hand right could do well on the markets.
What's interesting is it's going to use money raised to buy up rivals to expand. The big boss is one of the company's biggest shareholders which is always a good sign.
Anyway, it looks very fairly priced so I'm going to tuck these away in the ISA for some time and see what happens.
I kind of wonder if at some point in the future they could end up being a bid target for a larger group.
I also picked up some Xafinity (LON:XAF), another interesting stock, although admittedly one with an awful name.
It floated on the main market rather than AIM, which is always a good sign that it should end up in the small cap index soon which should see a few fund managers buy in.
It raised £46m by floating and has sensibly used a lot of this to cut its debt to £33m.
It is really, really exciting; a pensions actuarial, consulting and administration business (are you still there?).
It seems a pretty safe bet considering it boasts "highly predictable and recurring revenues".
I am pretty sure not a single private investor has bought this apart from me as it hardly makes for the most exciting of bulletin board discussions.
"This actuary business is gonna blow, fill ya boots!!"
It is actually the picture of Jonathan Bernstein, its head of pensions, that really sells me this company. That is not the face of someone who is going to run off with the money or make an appearance on next week's Crimewatch.
Moving to a business with a bit more risk, I bought some K3 Business (LON:KBT). This one was trading 100p higher at the back end of last year and has decent recurruing revenues, so I've started with a small amount to dip my toe in.
The next report is due out around 20 March, so keep an eye out for that. It could get a lot higher after that...or a lot lower.
I think my plan is to bale if the share starts to sink near the next statement but maybe buy a few more if it continues to rise. Anyway as the old cliche goes this isn't one for widows and orphans.
NCC Group PLC (LON:NCC) got hit with a horrible warning this week, goodness knows what is going on there. However the shares slumped so badly they really did begin to look like a bargain so on balance I snapped some up.
I don't feel like I want to hold them for very long in case there is even more something horrible going on. It's likley that even if there is we won't know about it for a bit so I think of it as a short-term idea. However there are rumours that a bigger company is considering launching a quick bid, so we shall see.
I don't really like buying anything to do with housing as I find them hard to value but Redrow plc (LON:RDW) looks the best of the bunch. I'm not going to pretend that I know how to value it but the market likes it so I am taking my cue from that and they don't seem to get much bad press like some of their peers.
Finally - and I only admitted that I had bought some for the sipp to my email list last time - I bought some Purplebricks (LON:PURP). Now please don't send me hate mail, I am totally aware this goes against what I write about in the books. So I call myself a hypocrite and whatever bad words you want to call me. I am aware it trades on a massive rating which I would not normally allow.
But I do allow a very small part of the ISA to be in jam tomorrow stocks. I am sure you all know the story - it sells houses cheaper than normal agents.
It has ads on the telly and it just might become the next big thing. If it looks like it won't I will try and exit. What really sold it to me was a flat above a standard estate agency in my road was for sale... not by that agency but by Purp! So yes this is a punt!
The company has just raised £50m to expand into the USA and the market seems to love this. My guess is in a year's time it could be double or treble the price .. or half!
Goodness me, another bid has just come in, second of the year so far. If you've been following my columns you'll know I've been waiting for a bid for 32RED PLC (LON:TTR) for months and at last it has come.
The price, at 196p and a 4p dividend, is totally acceptable! Once taken that will bank nearly £10,000 profit for the website and more for me personally, which is a nice end to any story. I am hopeful of at least another five bids for some of my stocks this year.
I sold a quarter of my Van Elle Holdings PLC (LON:VANL) stake as it reached my target but it looks strong at the mo so held onto the rest. The sale netted a profit of £715 for the website.
Annoyingly I was just about to take profits of around £1,000 on the spreadbet short-term range trade on Just Eat PLC (LON:JE.) and then they announced a change of management the market didn't like, so only a profit of £140. I should have moved faster to bank the bigger profit. Oh well, never mind.
Elsewhere it has been a fantastic fortnight with many stocks leaping higher for me.
Top spot probably to Next Fifteen (LON:NFC) which has kicked on over 400p. There seems to be plenty of buy orders coming in so I wonder if there's another 100p upside there.
The top mover runner up spot goes to Sopheon (LON:SPE), which came up at the seminar recently and has boomed even higher and currently sits more than £1 higher than when I first bought it. Again, looks like more to come there.
So all in all, I'm happy with the state of play for now. It will be interesting to see whether or not the market can carry on at these higher levels.