International Finance Awards 2016: Best Finance Blogger: Robbie Burns

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NAKED TRADER 4
Click here to order:
http://www.harriman-house.com/book/view/1040/trading/robbie-burns/the-naked-trader/1317

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SEMINAR: SPEND A DAY WITH ME AND LIVE MARKETS
MONDAY MAY 9TH **
If you want more than the book and see me do it live, come and spend a day with me and live markets. (beginners and improvers welcome). See trades from my own accounts, research, level 2, and finding great shares from scratch and tons more. Three course lunch, snacks, drinks ,lots of chocolate, banter and fun with me live all day. **Best Financial Educational Provider, International Finance Awards.**
Email me at robbiethetrader@aol.com with "May seminar interested" in the subject line and I'll send you details. More details also if you press the seminars button above.
There is a decent early bird discount massive discount available.

Follow up: May 23rd, if you have been to a seminar with me before and want a follow up day of research, looking for trades etc mail me with "follow up interested" in the subject line.

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New offer: £50 or £100 off Stockopedia and free trial

I rarely do offers - Forex companies in particular offer me eyewatering sums. I turn all this down as I would never put out an offer for a company where I think my reader will 95% likely lose, or be taken for a ride.

Stockopedia is indeed like a stock market encyclopedia and a great place to scan for new shares to buy, check out fundamentals, discuss on a sensible bulletin board. Each share gets a ranking, you can use "guru" screens to find shares, there is even a stock screen loosely based on my criteria! There are strategies based on ideas from top investors. Plenty of amazing share screens and a good discussion forum.
For your £50 discount off UK sub or £100 off USA
sub and free 14 day trial you need this link:
www.stockopedia.com/nakedtrader/

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My 11-year-old son Christopher and three of his mates are doing a triathlon for an excellent charity you may not have heard of, Restless Development which does great work with disadvantaged children all over the world.

If any of you fancy a donation - even a fiver helps - this is the link

https://www.justgiving.com/Elizabeth-Burns8.
You can also click on a link there to find out more about the charity - they will be hard at it for most of one day, swimming, cycling and running. I'll be watching (while eating a Twix).

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The question is what would I rather be doing.. sitting in a boat touring around Venice or watching a dire championship game of football between Fulham and MK Dons.

Of course the footb.... no of course not!!

With Christopher away on his schools skiing trip we spent a lovely few days in Venice. Much though we love the kid with no family nearby we are with him all the time usually so it was great to get away on our own.

I find Scrabble really useful to get the flying over quickly. However the whole thing started badly.

There I was all ready to score 93 with the word "Jittery".

Ready to triumphantly start to place the tiles so my opponent could see it was going to be a 7. And hopefully given we were up front someone in the queue for the toilet would note my brilliant word.

Then a sudden bit of turbulence. Four of my letters disappeared into that area of a plane seat where whatever fiddly thing you lost will never be found again till they decommission the plane many years from now..

"Oooh look they used to play board games on planes before I phones came in, how quaint!"

I was impressed with Easyjet. We had the front row so could see the staff was very efficient, all flights off on time, and all smooth. Nice food choice too.

So Venice! We were at a nice hotel on its own island. You can only arrive and depart by boat so we got a boat direct there from the airport, good fun!

The moment you get to the hotel though you realise they know only too well they are on an island a boat trip away from the main Venice.

You can tell that by the prices. Take a deep breath.

45 euros for one breakfast!! Or try this: Can of coke from the mini bar? 7 Euros! You can imagine other examples can't you.

I feel I am not a tight person. But even if I was a billionaire I really think I still wouldn't pay because it is simply taking the p***. We weren't the only ones either.

It's a bit like governments get less income from taxes if they put them up too high. Same here. If they reduced their prices they'd make more money.

Aside from the prices, the hotel was nice but we spend most of our time knocking about Venice.

It is fun not having to put up with cars. Lots of narrow streets, bridges, etc. They say you should get "lost in Venice" so we did. It was lovely! Never quite knowing what was coming next.

Street salesmen.. current best sellers are selfie sticks. Yes, sticks for self-obsessed insert bad word here. And of course the usual knock off handbags.

Food? We tried to find the places actual Italians went to. I mean, who wants to go for a meal at a hotel when you are in another country? You have to try and experience what the locals do.

We got tons of atmosphere. The food, well frankly not up to much but not terrible either. We did a nice tour around Venice by boat on the way back to the airport (took about 2 hours).

Venice Airport is lovely: spacious, clean and great shops.

All in all would recommend Venice for a nice break without kids. There isn't anything there for kids so my advice is only go without them... and 2-3 days max I'd say would be enough.

Went to a very interesting Leonardo Da Vinci exhibition, I never knew he had such foresight or had invented so much in his life.

Back to earth now! Christopher arrived back safely from his trip. He had a great time skiing with the school.

The boys had a wonderful time, he's got a bit of a comedown today back with his aged parents but as an active kid we have activities lined up!

Just two more weeks before the new term starts (help!!!)

Thanks again for all the feedback on the last seminar, great to know some of you are already trading nicely, using level 2 as I showed you and other hints and tricks.

If you would like to come to the next seminar the next is May 9th - there is an early bird discount on offer.
Mail me at robbiethetrader@aol.com with "May seminar interested" in the subject line.

Beginners and improvers welcome! Come and spend the day with me, the markets and some lovely people - and of course, lunch, lots of sugary snacks, and even live chocolate waffle making in the teabreak!

My seminars are designed for beginners, dabblers and improvers and deals with everything from how to look for winners, how to research, spreadbetting, level 2 use how to time trades and short, how to use advfn properly and run your portfolio without having to spend money on systems and tipsters.. and tons more.

A lot of the day comes directly from the live markets and I show you many of the tricks I use to get good prices live. And there might even be the odd live trade or 2!

Here's some feedback from from "D"

'It's obvious from his site Robbie Burns is a good market analyst and shrewd stock-picker. He is also a highly opinionated commentator on everything from TV shows to food. Therefore I expected his seminar to be 75% entertainment, 15% general exposition for beginners and-- if we were lucky-- 10% of something I could use to help me invest. But I could not have been more wrong.

The opinions on food and politics etc. though genuine, are I believe a bit of disguise or misdirection for there is a real touch of rebel genius here. And in the seminar, which is 95% hardball, he actually takes you candidly right into the mental process involved in his successful trading, making it a pretty amazing display, even showing his own investment accounts right there on the screen. You can see at once why so many of us are merely stabbing in the dark with our investments.

This is a genuine coaching session in how to trade like him if you put in the graft. I have only bought one stock since, as I am waiting for the tools he recommends, but I got the price down by using his tactics and I cannot recommend the seminar too highly if you are going there to learn. It must be taxing on him to let us at such length and in such detail into the process, which has made him so much money (for--unlike so many other so-called experts the seminars are not a day job). My advice therefore would be to sign up for this while he is still prepared to do it.'

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When I left my full-time job to trade it really helped having another income: this I got from part-time selling energy and phone services to people and getting a cut of their use of their home services forever! I still get enough from it now to pay all my bills. I am a great believer in multiple incomes and this is a great one in my opinion as anyone could do it.

If you'd like a second part-time income click here

http://www.utilitywarehouse.org.uk/237058/opportunity

This will explain what you can expect to earn and how it all works. If you sign up there you'll be under my wing. Any questions just mail me and if you sign up please let me know.

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Fancy getting the naked trader updates direct into your inbox? And a bit before it gets updates on the net including news from my pension trades made from my SIPP?

All you have to do is take a phone or energy service from the Utility Discount Warehouse you can order at http://www.jointheclub.org.uk/237058 - let me know if you do it.

Become a double gold customer and the company will change all the bulbs in your house to new led ones worth an average £500 and continue to fit them free for life!

I get some commission and you get the service! On top of that you ought to make some amazing savings on your phone, broadband, or energy use or all!

Prices are guaranteed lower than the top 6 suppliers for energy and lower for mobile, home phone and broadband with some amazing prices and great service from a UK call centre.

So save a few quid, and get my stuff in your inbox! A win win? Mail me at robbiethetrader@aol.com with "mail service" in the subject line and I'll send you details.

Spreadbetting firm Capital Spreads offers a great book on how to spreadbet for readers via this link http://www.capitalspreads.com/ntrader
Its spreads are surprisingly tight and interestingly an automated stop loss is applied to each trade - so beginners know what their max loss is from the outset. A super site for beginners.
I use IG Index for betting on the very small companies, the only spreadbet firm I can find that does the smaller ones making it possible to trade AIM cos tax free.

To sign up and get an excellent weekly education programme use this link:

http://www.ig.com/nakedtrader

Many of you enjoy the cheap advfn toplists bronze deal through me as do many of you with the cheap level 2. However many of you say you want a half-way house to include real-time share prices always on.
So I'm pleased to announce I've managed to seal a new deal with Advfn for its "Silver" service - that's always on real-time share prices for a good saving (Bronze toplists etc are included in this).
The deal is via me you can save £30 for your first year by paying just £145 inc vat via me instead of £173.71
Just mail me for full details if you'd like it with "silver" in the subject line.

MAY 9TH 2016 NEAR HEATHROW
Fancy spending a day with me, learning all the ways I have learned over the years to find good shares and play the markets? Well, you can at one of my seminars!
Booking is open for the Naked Trader seminar on May 9TH.

Price is £650 plus vat. However as it is miles away there is a substantial early bookers discount on offer. And a bigger discount for the first ten. Mail me for details.
That includes three course lunch, coffees, snacks etc.
The seminar is mainly aimed at beginners and dabblers though improvers are welcome too.
Topics covered using live market feeds all day include: Market psychology, level 2 - a simple guide to how to use it for better timing; how to value companies; finding companies that are about to rise. I will also cover techniques for handling events such as the recent meltdown and volatility.
Spreadbetting: How to use it to gain an edge and go short. Market makers - how they work and how to beat them; how to stop losing money and make it instead and plenty more.
How to plan trade entries and exits - how to research companies and understand reports, plus all those niggly questions you always wanted to ask. How to set stop losses and targets. Charts and how to use them.
Also covered: Market maker tricks: How to spot tree shakes and use them in your favour, How to tell when NOT to buy a share. I use live ADVFN all day with lots of level 2 and looks at all kind of live market data.
The idea behind the seminar is SIMPLICITY. I don't use jargon or fancy words - everything is in PLAIN ENGLISH! No question is too stupid and the event is held in a friendly relaxed and supportive environment.
The idea is you will come away from the event I hope a wise and better investor with lots of new ideas. I try and translate complex topics into easy bite size pieces. I also aim for it to be entertaining as well as instructive.
If you are interested please e-mail me at robbiethetrader@aol.com with "Feb seminar interested" in the subject line and I will send you full details of the event including comments from those who have come to previous seminars and you can then decide whether you would like to come. See you there!
One seminar attendee Clare wanted to write a testimonial about her experiences at the seminar which follows now!
"I've just come back buzzing from one of Robbie's seminars. What a day! He's just brilliant, and manages to pack an awful lot into one day, and with his enthusiastic and humorous delivery the day just flies by. There are no gimmicks, no sell, no "˜get-rich-quick' promises, just his own solid, sound approach which he has learnt over the years and which works.
He shows you how to minimise the risks and maximise the profits and points out the banana skins on the way. Where the seminar really comes into its own is when he teaches using live level 2. Hearing him talk through his thought processes and reasoning is invaluable, and really brings home everything from the book. He has endless patience answering peoples' questions, and really seems to care that everybody understands.
On top of that, you meet some really nice like minded people and swap e mail addresses, you're plied with
chocolates and coffee all day, have a great lunch and spend the evening getting tiddled with Robbie in the
bar afterwards!
Don't worry about the cost, it's easily worth it, and you'll soon make it back with your new-found investment skills, and in what you're no longer losing. If you're thinking of going along to his next seminar, whether you're a novice or an experienced trader, don't hesitate ""just go!
Thanks Clare, did you want the tenner in cash, or will a cheque do?

Spreadbetting firm Capital Spreads offers a great book on how to spreadbet for readers via this link http://www.capitalspreads.com/ntrader
Its spreads are surprisingly tight and interestingly an automated stop loss is applied to each trade - so beginners know what their max loss is from the outset. A super site for beginners.
I use IG Index for betting on the very small companies, the only spreadbet firm I can find that does the smaller ones making it possible to trade AIM cos tax free.

To sign up and get an excellent weekly education programme use this link:

http://www.ig.com/nakedtrader

If you like to trade the FTSE, Dow, or currencies then Spreado has an outstanding tight 0.8 spread - that is incredibly tight. The platform is very good and robust and have used it to great satisfaction and profits.

You can sign up at this link which includes a decent market commentary:

http://www.spreadco.com/nakedtrader

Don't you wish we could have the Euro vote tomorrow and get it out of the way?

The bookies still have us staying in Europe at long odds on, I wonder when the time comes it will end up being a non event?

But in any event it is a real pain in the neck. It makes companies unsure and let's face it, none of us really know whether yes or no is right.

You probably know I am no fan of "social media". I want real friends who I phone and meet, not pretend ones on the internet.

Lots of people I know have deleted Facebook and Twitter accounts. I continue to feel social media also causes bad trading as the blind lead the blind into losses.

A new reports shows social media contributes to depression. They see people they know having a good time, whether that good time is invented or not (which is usually is) and feel they can't match up to it.

And more than half of adults feel pressurised into using it. And they feel down if a post doesn't get "likes".

The whole thing seems to be a playground where it is easy to get bullied.

I say delete it all, empty your brain and realise it is all people's "Best bits" exaggerated.

Paying for sex is to become a crime in France with big fines.

Well, that is a clever way to raise money - if they catch most of them look out for mega billions!

"Could the Loch Ness Monster Be Lurking in The Thames?" asks the headline.

"No," is the answer to that one. Next.

Apparently it takes 52 minutes of brisk walking to burn off eating a chocolate bar.

Looks like it's 24 hours of brisk walking for me then.

Hey well done to Kirsty Wark for wearing tracksuit bottoms to work.

I'm only allowed to wear them if trading or exercising. By order of the Mrs. She is probably right. She is protecting other men from getting jealous when they catch sight of my giant package.

Transparent has grown as a comedy on amazon prime and would recommend it, it really is about family dysfunction, which most of us have so part should ring true...

I haven't caught the latest couple of dramas so don't tell me what happened!

Better Call Saul continues its marvellous storytelling and House of Cards continues to get better and better. Good old Netflix!

Girls managed a bum episode but picked up again this week. I watched "Happyish" the comedy with Steve Coogan that got cancelled after one series.

It does appear to be a bit of a stinker. I just can't work out if Coogan is pretending to be an American or not.

Good luck if you're betting on the National. Usually best to avoid anything with a massive weight. I won't decide till Saturday.

Good place for spreadbets and fixed odds for sport (and the EU vote) is here...

http://www.spreadex.com/nakedtrader/sports

Good quick execution of bets and a great range of markets. Recommended!

Dave writes :
I agree with comments about Dr Who and Breaking Bad. I used to enjoy Dr. Who years ago but I think it's worn out, it's all about celebrity now, like everything else on telly.

I recently was enjoying the Sopranos a friend let me borrow (fascinating story lines) and my son Rob in Australia (an irrelevance to you of course), he said if you like Sopranos you'll love Breaking Bad. Wow was he ever right. I got the full set from Amazon (apart from the last season). I'm having to eke it out it's so brilliant I don't want it to end, that's the sad bit. What about the uncle in the desert in the wheelchair with the bell strapped to the arm of the chair, the missus and me just fell about and many more just brilliant set ups dragging out every emotion.

Agree Dave, love Breaking Bad. Only five to go for me and I won't spoil what happens for you except it gets more and more addictive!
Gary writes :
"For throwing your heart, soul and energy into one fact-packed, full-on and exhaustingly educational day: FIVE stars with no hesitation!!
Met some really nice people too - like me, nervous that it was the most we'd ever spent on a whole day of anything (had we made arses of ourselves?) But no one felt short-changed, especially when you were still going strong when we all wanted to go to bed! One of your delegates, Susan, back for a second time, said to me unequivocally, "you will go away absolutely inspired." I can't disagree.
Thanks Gary, hope you make some money!

Duane writes:
Wanted to say a big thank you to you and Mrs NT for an amazing day of learning and fun at your seminar.

The way you explained the share trading from start to finish was understandable and really interesting, well worth the seminar fee!
It was great to hear such down to earth and honest assessment from a successful trader like yourself. The way you explained everything was good revision from your book and gave further insight into successful share trading.

I particularly liked your live trades and going through your accounts when you gave snippets of why you invested in certain shares and why you kept/dumped them. Also helpful was the way you searched for prospective shares and within minutes discounted them or put them on a short list for further examination and correct entry points. Amazing!
You could really tell that you loved doing what you do and your energy levels to keep going till 10pm was well....... I had to leave at 9pm I was shattered!

Thanks again Robbie I am keen to put into practice what you have taught me. Even though you make squillions from your trades and I am sure don't need to do the seminars for financial gain, but please keep doing those seminars for newbies like me!

Thanks Duane! Don't expect to be doing them foreever but very rewarding for me to help people so expect to carry on for a while longer.
Gabriel writes:
If you are reading this, you are perhaps considering going on one of Robbie's Seminars. You maybe asking yourself (like I did) the testimonials are all well and good but once the euphoria and excitement of attending a Seminar has died down ..... and I am back home in my normal routine and faced with the "graft" of putting it all into practice... will I become a better trader and be financially better off?
Let me tell you that in my case it certainly has!
Book your place pretty sharpish....... is what I say !

Thanks Gabriel!

Terry writes:
Fantastic seminar.

I have always been sceptical of the public testaments you see on web sites
saying how great an event was. Now I'm one of those people!. I
genuinely believe that the tips and techniques as well as the overall
approach you demonstrated will radically improve my trading performance
Thanks Terry, well all the testaments are real but know what you mean and glad you feel it was worth it!
Dan writes :
'It's obvious from his site Robbie Burns is a good market analyst and shrewd stock-picker. He is also a highly opinionated commentator on everything from TV shows to food. Therefore I expected his seminar to be 75% entertainment, 15% general exposition for beginners and-- if we were lucky-- 10% of something I could use to help me invest. But I could not have been more wrong.

The opinions on food and politics etc. though genuine, are I believe a bit of disguise or misdirection for there is a real touch of rebel genius here. And in the seminar, which is 95% hardball, he actually takes you candidly right into the mental process involved in his successful trading, making it a pretty amazing display, even showing his own investment accounts right there on the screen. You can see at once why so many of us are merely stabbing in the dark with our investments.

This is a genuine coaching session in how to trade like him if you put in the graft. I have only bought one stock since, as I am waiting for the tools he recommends, but I got the price down by using his tactics and I cannot recommend the seminar too highly if you are going there to learn. It must be taxing on him to let us at such length and in such detail into the process, which has made him so much money (for--unlike so many other so-called experts the seminars are not a day job). My advice therefore would be to sign up for this while he is still prepared to do it.'

I have 3 great offers from ADVFN.

First great deal: If you want level 2, through me it is only £420 for your first year including VAT!
This compares to £ 567.60 direct from advfn so this deal saves you £147.60! ADVFN level 2 also includes all the live trades made through Plus Markets which I find invaluable.
To accept this great deal just e-mail me at robbiethetrader@aol.com with "Level 2 offer" in the subject line and I will tell you how to get it.

Level 2 gives you access to all the market maker positions and the order book and I would not trade without it! More on level 2 in my book and I spend hours on it at my seminars.

Deal two is ADVFN's bronze subscription - normally £88.70 pa - available from me for only £60! (inc vat) That's a saving of nearly £30! You access to the premium bulletin board which contains my discussion forum with direct access to chat to me and some very good traders. Plus you get ADVFN's premium top lists which I think are a must for finding great stock picks. That includes great lists like ex dividend dates, market maker buys plus chart breakouts and downs. All as explained in the book.
To take up the offer, e-mail me at robbiethetrader@aol.com with Bronze in the subject line and I will tell you how to claim the deal.

Bronze is included inside the level 2 deal.

Deal three is ADVFN's silver subscription - for those of you who want all the benefits of Bronze AND always on real-time prices.. no more using the back button and getting frozen out!

The deal is via me you can save nearly £35 for your first year by paying just £174 inc vat via me instead of £208.43
Just mail me at robbiethetrader@aol.com if you'd like this deal with "silver" in the subject line.

EMAILS: I do beg you not to send me emails asking me for advice on a particular share. It isn't legal for me to give you individual advice and all I do is send you a mail saying that, which wastes a lot of my time and yours too. This includes asking me what to do with a share, what I might "think" about a share, or deconstructing any of the buys I mention here. I would be grateful, see FAQ for more on this. Of course more than happy to answer general questions not related to specific shares.

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COPYING TRADES: I can't stop you from copying a trade I made but remember the price may already be a lot higher than I paid indeed I hope it is as buying at good prices is what I do for a living. You may be buying at the top and could easily lose money. Also I can make terrible mistakes and have done in the past. I could also sell before you or before the share tanks. I may still be holding in a year when you sold at a loss. Always do your own research, don't jump in blindly. Market makers are very clever at knowing how to make you pay top dollar and then push you out at a loss. This site is about sensible investment and learning how to trade sensibly and is not a tipping site. Beware. Never push buy on anything till you've done proper research and got yourself a sensible price.
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New offer: £50 or £100 off Stockopaedia and free trial

I rarely do offers - Forex companies in particular offer me eyewatering sums. I turn all this down as I would never put out an offer for a company where I think my reader will 95% likely lose, or be taken for a ride.

Having had lots of mails from people using Stockopaedia and using it myself I am 100% confident.

Stockopaedia is indeed like a stock market encyclopaedia and a great place to scan for new shares to buy, check out fundamentals, discuss on a sensible bulletin board. Each share gets a ranking, you can use "guru" screens to find shares, there is even a stock screen loosely based on my criteria! There are strategies based on ideas from top investors.

There is lots more really fantastic material and I believe access should help investors and I now use it myself.

For your £50 discount off UK sub or £100 off USA
sub and free 14 day trail you need this link:
www.stockopedia.com/nakedtrader/
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What with Easter and a trip to Venice I haven't been doing that much the last couple of weeks.

I have though shorted quite heavily in the 6200 area of the FTSE - seems a bet to nothing really. It can't get through 6200 ish so easy short with take a loss if needs be once 5230 ish is broken. If the FTSE then really tanks down I'll make a lot.

There have been/are a few new issues coming/have just been so I thought I would take a look at some of them.

The one that's got the most attention is Hotel Chocolat. It's a great name, hell I even want to buy it just because of the name. I could eat chocolate all day long. Who needs Xmas when you've got the Easter Day excuse?

But personally I don't like that sort of posh chocolates, organic 70% chocolate kind of thing, give me a yummy Twix or a Twirl any day. It is a bit worrying to note its "end of season sale".

The "Big City Easter Bunny" has hopped down from £7.50 to £3.75. And the Rocky Road Extra Thick Easter Egg didn't sell at its crazy £27 now slashed to £13.50.

Meanwhile the Dark Ostrich Egg which was selling at a staggering £75 (come on!!) is now (just) £37.50.

There are pages of these "bargains" so I simply wonder if they overegged the price of their Easter stuff. A lot seem to be left sitting in the bargain bin.

Looks like it makes about £8m and wants to float at £150m. Looks pretty pricey to me but then again so did Fever-Tree when it launched.

So it's a kind of "maybe" from me but if first day trading is at a massive premium I may give it a miss till the share price melts a bit.

Possibly one to hold onto for a bit then quit. Thorntons had a pretty torrid time on the market till it was eventually put out of its misery with a bid.

My suspicion is it might go too high from the off and it could be worth waiting. And the amount of Easter stuff unsold is a bit of a worry.

The IPO I like the most is Cerillion which recently floated and I'm in and I have last week bought some more.
A £2.1m profit and a 22m market cap at its 76p float looks like value. It installs and supports billing charging etc solutions to the telecoms market mainly.

It operates across the works and includes some big boys like Cable and Wireless. It's a nice steady business, I can see myself doubling my money here over a year or two without losing sleep. It doesn't have the glamour factor of Hotel Chocolat but I always find it's the boring ones that make me money.

I'm not so sure about Blue Prism which has also just floated. This one has tech glamour to it which should excite investors.

Sure it looks way more exciting than Cerillion, after all it's all robots.. robots!!! Cool !!!

But its market cap is more than double Cerillion's and it makes a loss - and only £6m or so revenue last year. But is says current trading is good and "within expectations. " Of course they don't say what those are so valuing it is hard work.

Anyway chillingly it wants to supply a virtual workforce with robots taking over mundane back office clerical jobs. Yes, folks it is after your job. Work in the back office for a finance house? Be afraid... be very afraid....

So yes, I guess profits could grow but there must be a lot of competition out there. Not really sold on this one so I'm doing a Duncan Bannatyne on it (no, not hooking up with yet another woman half my age) what I mean is, "I'm out!"

One that I have tucked away is YU Group (YU.) This one really is impossible to value with no real figures to go on, however there are barriers to entry in its market supplying energy to smaller companies.
It had £8.4 m of contracted revenues for this financial year (ooooh!). It's going to pay a dividend and should throw off plenty of cash.

Safe and solid is Watkins Jones (WJG) which buys property and lets it to students. It won't be an exciting capital play but it plans 6% dividends. I haven't bought these yet as there is no rush.

An interesting one coming up this month is
Osirium, a UK based cyber security software provider. Cyber security is a hot sector and this could be an interesting gamble.

Definitely a gamble as it makes bugger all yet. As an old fart I don't understand much about this area but I think part of what it does is stop insiders from causing cyber attacks.

So an insider in a bank couldn't use a privileged account to wreak havoc. If you watched "Mr Robot" on Amazon you'll know what I mean. It's a tiny company, might be worth a small gamble.

Now the Harwood Wealth Group. That wants to advise people who have quite a bit of cash but not super rich (£200,000 to £500,000). It says it's a "Vertically integrated financial planning wealth management group".

No idea what that means either, you can imagine the waffle in management meetings can't you? Doesn't really get me going.

And I even tried to think out of the box, had a brainstorm with myself before touching base about it offline. As you see, I always like to give 110% to everything.

Lots of companies have listed over the years promising to fight cancer. The aim is brilliant but generally punters lose their shirt on these. The next one is SalvaRx which wants to develop new therapies to use our own immune systems to fight cancer. I so hope it works but chances are you'll do your money buying into it.

Anyway, don't rely on me, do your own research into these.

Moving away from new issues I've added some toy company Character (CCT) shares.

Looks very cheap and with teletubbies going well, could be a decent statement coming soon. The shares tend to do nothing for ages then suddenly re-rate. And they have done nothing for ages!

Half-year results are due on the 27th April. I notice last year the shares went up quite a lot following results. So maybe history will repeat itself. It's possible the shares could re-rate from a fiver up to 600p.

Of course as ever with markets no guarantees for good results so it's not one to bet the house on, but it could pay off. If it doesn't pay off at least I can pretend to be a teletubbie and say "Eh oh!" (Thank f I don't have to watch that anymore along with Peppa Pig and Fireman Sam).

I also bought some more Cerillion (CER) as mentioned above. - this new issue has got off to a great start, one of the few that appeared to launch at a reasonable price!

Impellam (IPEL) still looks cheap and seems to go up a little bit every week. I've added some more - to me, these should be rated well over a tenner. Anything under a tenner looks a buying price. I suspect a decent re-rating at some point.

And I've picked up some more FlowGroup (FLOW). Bought this earlier this year and already they have done nicely.

I am someone who likes to "average up" and I think there is plenty more upside here.

First installations of its flow boiler start this week and it has been awarded accredisation. The vat issue that marred the share price looks to be easing with hopes that vat remains at 5% and not a rise to 20%.

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The market seems to hate mkt at the moment, I always find there is little point fighting the market so took a loss of £468. However keeping an eye on it and will try another entry point when it looks right, perhaps when there is some demand for them. It also doesn't like Ncc and with same comments as above really, have taken a loss of £96. Careless really, could have banked a giant profit! Definitely be back in there soon though. I suspect both will come back into favour at some point.

I sold out of much of Sepura a long time ago banking some decent profits. I kept some in the ISA and they more or less kept on going up so I kind of lost touch till the other day when I saw they had tanked. Well, it was poor of me to lose touch, however I sold which still banked some very decent profits for the website of £6,208. Should really have banked the rest a long time ago.

It's time to finally wave goodbye to the last of the carpetright short.
Carpetright has been the most fantastic short over the last 4 years. Not certain of the total I've made out of it but must be around the £40,000 mark having shorted it from 700 to 315 and again from 6 ish and down again. Always too highly rated and never really delivers. But around this price is about as far as it usually falls so out of the last for a profit of £1,375. I suspect I'll be back!

The ETO shareprice remains under the cosh so I sold off a few more. I expect the share price will at some point get a significant re-rating but it looks like it might take some time. So while I continue to hold some I have lightened up and book a profit of £836.

All in all then profits banked of £7,855.

Some lovely rises from some recent buys. Cerillion, discussed earlier. |
YU Group has seen a nice lift. So too CMC, Vectura and Interquest. IS Solutions looks on the up. Softcat has purred up like a dream.

Nice news from Cyprotex - results were decent but in effect it is putting itself up for sale or a partnership. That could potentially give a fair lift to the share price, I'm going to hold to see what happens.

Elsewhere after the excellent dividend, Tritax BB produced brilliant results so already a nice uplift plus the dividend, a three year hold for me and I am after 25% pa from it inc dividends. Talking divs, a nice one from Quartix has just arrived.

Paysafe is having an excellent run with all positions well in profit. 425 looks the number to crack.

Iomart is bubbling along nicely trying to break 265. Nearly there! Cracking results from Empresaria, they really ought to be higher and tempted to get some more.

Mcarthy and Stone looks to have a great future after its results too.

Photo-Me has at last been re-rated, took a while but well deserved after its statement, Japan going well. Dignity has started to rise from the dead and is pushing up into highs.

So while markets remain volatile there are still plenty of opportunities out there.

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Trade tables follow! Trades are current open and recently closed trades. Closed trades feature the closing price and the amount I won or lost. All others are open. Trades get updated a little later than the narrative. Trading costs are ignored, however I also do not add in dividend payments and with the kinds of companies I buy, dividends tend to equal or outweigh costs. Spread rollovers ignored for web purposes. Tables as accurate as poss however a mistake or two can creep in and very occasionally if I forgot I sold or bought something it will be added at a later time. Trades first reported in the diary under Markets every other Thursday afternoon.