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Well, isn't it a lot nicer now than before the election?

Published: 15:53 23 Jan 2020 GMT

Concurrent Technologies -

Well, isn't it a lot nicer now than before the election?

Remember then? All the worries and the panic over a hard left government.

And isn't it nice that the Brexit stuff doesn't come up so often and at last we have a "strong and stable" government?

Of course the market will always find things to panic about - yes folks the latest panic is over a virus from China.

I don't know how many times over the years we've had this and these viruses never end up with us turning into a zombie apocalypse. Cripes, did I spell that right the first time without looking it up? Not sure. Will take a chance. Please don't mail me if wrong though.

So if the markets weaken on virus fears it is probably a buy.

And what's to lose anyway? If it is a zombie thing money won't matter anymore. It will be a question of running away from your neighbour who fancies eating you now he looks like the Night King from Game of Thrones. (Or does he look that way normally?)

By the way if you ever get seduced into "technical analysis" by someone out there with all the jargon and the lines and the indicators and the macd flashing crosses that it really all is total bollocks. I am just saying before you waste any time from your already short life.

Anyone telling you it is the bees knees and it works is either trying to sell you a system, trying to get views for twitter or a website, or wants some publicity for whatever reason.

Want proof? No-one makes money from trading indices etc by using TA over time. Thank me when you find yourself enjoying more time with your favourite hobby than wasting time reading BS!

Just buy good companies going well, sell bad ones going badly and ignore all the stupid oil, commodity, bitcoin, penny shares  and you'll do fine!

Draper Esprit (LON:GROW) came up at the follow up seminar just before Xmas and I really liked it. The problem really was getting some at a good price.

Problem was the spread was quite wide then and so every so often I put in a DMA order to try and buy at the sell price.

Eventually that paid off and I got a good price!

It's a strange one for me - it's one of those whose share price is traded depending on its Net Asset Value - it's really a venture capital vehicle and gives me a bit of exposure to small tech companies around Europe.

It there companies go well the share price should grow nicely with the NAV and vice versa. So you have to put your faith in the hands of those evaluating potential investments.

For me, it's a longer-term isa tuckaway and see how it goes, I think it has potential to do very nicely.

Meat is bad, vegan is good is the current feeling so it seemed sensible to short meat and buy vegan - at least for the short-term as it could all just be a fad, who knows.

So I bought Vegan with one of my occasional ventures into the US market and bought some "Beyond Meat". (NASDAQ:BYND)

The name surely tells you what you need to know! It produces plant based meat substitutes to chicken, beef and pork sausages.

And I'm not the only one to spot the potential, its shares are exploding like a mother in law who has eaten too many sprouts.

I bought few shares in it for the isa and some in a spreadbet. It's bonkers volatile as impossible to value and is a "jam tomorrow" share. Is jam vegan? That means I don't expect to hold onto it for that long - so my cunning plan is to keep raising a stop a long way behind the price, and that stop is already in profit. Please don't try and follow me into this or anything it's madly volatile (can be minus or plus 10% in seconds)

Talking pork sausages I have shorted a meat company - Devro. (LON:DVO) To newbies shorting means betting on it to go down via a spreadbet.

 Well,not a meat company exactly but it provides the vile stuff that goes round a sausage. With meat sales falling an a huge debt a short I already have in it has paid handsomely but it looks like this one has further to fall. Looking for about 130-40p.

So there we are let's see if my attempt to buy vegan and short meat works!

I've bought two rather under the radar small companies that don't attract that much interest, I kind of like these ones. They both appear cheap and both have good prospects but simply don't appear to get noticed.

These are the kinds of companies you can stick away and forget about to one say wake up to a bid or a mail tip and you get your 20-30%.

First is The Mission Group (LON:TMG). A totally overlooked (a bit like Kape was) marketing company which is right at the bottom of the market cap range I am happy to deal in.

It kind of most of the time sits around not doing much, it hasn't got any mates in the market and probably sits around most of the day on its phone looking at silly videos.

But.. its fundamentals look pretty decent and its rating is low which leaves plenty of potential upside when it is discovered. It's one of those that you're in and you think "is it ever going to bloody move" then the day after you sell it from boredom there's a bid!

Its share price is on the rise this week after a decent trading update. It expects to be debt free by year end, and reading between the lines election uncertainty wasn't great for business but now things are on the move again. If that's right the next update could see some major upside.

Another interesting off the radar share is Concurrent Tech (LON:CNC) . This one looks very cheap to my eye and there was a very promising statement this week with revenues slightly ahead.

It makes high-end embedded computer products within various industries including the harsh environment market.

Both Concurrent and Mission appear low risk for now - we know things are fine with both so a profits warning looks unlikely but with potential upside surprises possible these are the kind of shares I love to tuck away for the isas.

I added some more GB Group (GBG) on weakness - already made more than £100,000 on this over the years - it always has a period of weakness and so far it has always been worth getting more on the weakness.

It has a very sweet spot in the ID authentication field - it does mean it is highly rated but I think the rating is deserved.

The portfolio has continued to climb recently - not anything like the pre Xmas rocket but decent nonetheless.

Lots of lovely big winners and for now rather than take profits I'll take a chance and keep running them for now.

The recent shorts have really paid off with falls from Restaurant Group and Card Factory.

Great gains from shares like Kape (LON:KAPE), Gan (LON:GAN), Ten Entertainment (LON:TEG), Hollywood Bowl (LON:BOWL), XP Power (LON:XPP), TP Group (LON:TPGCohort (LON:CHRT), Avon Rubber LON:AVON), SDI among others.

Given I would probably still buy any of the above despite rises it seems sensible to carry on holding for more gains for now.

Of course if the zombies take over I'll have sold hopefully. I should be ok. Given the strength of the weed being smoked by my neighbours they will be way too stoned to bother attacking me.

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