Just three weeks to go before the first Christmas merchandise hits the stores! So let me as usual every year be first to wish you a very Happy Christmas!

In fact there are a lot of people out there today donning Father Xmas outfits, putting out the holly and the ivy and the rest of it. Think I'm joking? A lot of magazines will be shooting their Xmas specials right now.

Poor old hacks will be toiling away writing crap about the season of good cheer. And TV bods will be working right now on the Xmas specials of various shows. Let's please all pray not another Only Fools and Horses. That was funny once back in 1972. But I'm sure the Xmas special of My Family will be absolutely hilarious, can't wait... (!)

That's £400 now sent off to various schools we had to put Christopher's name down for. Yes, folks it costs at least £50 in London to get your precious one just down on the waiting list/possible list.

Because unless you pretend to be religious (I'm not a hypocrite so I won't) the state schools in London are complete crap and you have to go private (around £3k per term). They must be on a pretty good earner with the "registration fees". Non refundable obviously.

Remember the other day I was talking about Starbucks being a good barometer as to whether a recession is on the way? And that I'd read all their store managers were for the first time told they had to bring in business?

Well interesting that I got an e-mail from Starbucks today, offering me a free coffee if I visited my local store between 2 and 4pm on Friday! Hmmm...

Anyway if you want a free coffee (tall "brewed coffee") go to a Starbucks between 2 and 4pm on Friday. Just mention I sent you!

And remember - if you want to save 20p on your Starbucks cappuchino never say "small" because you will get "tall". Ask for a "short cappuchino". Don't bother thanking me for saving you a fortune, I do it for the good karma.

I'm afraid Victoria Beckham has blown it a bit in her first attempt at conquering the States. As many people over there pointed out her photo shoot with her husband really made her out to be what they call over there "trailer trash.."..

The documentary on them shown over there crashed quite badly. Trouble is she hasn't really got any discernible talent unlike her husband who of course is an excellent footballer. She's leaving herself open to becoming an "embarrassing mum".

Talking of embarrassing, Gordon Brown's PMQ performances are very poor. Cameron won by a mile today. Gordon just can't do jokes.

He reads them out (obviously written by someone else) really badly - he should just stop. If he's a serious guy, well just be serious. You don't need the jokes!

Robert writes: Quote from today's Times. "Mortgage Banks expected to foreclose on 1.8 mil home loans this year leaving 720,000 mortgage holders homeless." That's what I call a Tipping Point!!!!!!!!

Hi Robert. That does look like a substantial tipping point. I don't have many doubts that it'll all go tits up - just a matter of when.

Roberto writes. (Look, ok this is fan mail - I don't publish that much of it but I'm tired today and feel the need for attention and someone being nice about me, so apologies in advance):

I bought your book last Saturday in a King's Road library. My wife was looking for a stories for our 2 kids and I decided to visit the financial area. Your book was there like many others who promise high profits (I know, you don't!)...

But the title did the difference. When I touched the book's cover page, I felt the words in relief and it made the difference. I read the contents. I read the preface and I read the first pages where you say to live in Fulham.

I am renting a 2 beds flat in Chelsea and since I am paying a lot, I am looking to buy in Fulham.... which still very expensive...Any way,I felt something familiar, Fulham, ADVFN, the rat race (which is not that bad for me :)) and I decided to buy your book.

Now , when I have 5 minutes I can't avoid to open it a read a few pages. Congratulations!! It is a really original, funny, interesting book !!! Somehow it reminds me "The Game" of Neil Strauss !!!

ok, thanks Roberto and I promise not to publish any more fan mail, till... ooh the next time...

A busyish couple of days for me - in fact a whole lot more trading than I usually do! Anyway here is where I've been and what I've done.

This morning I bought some Fenner (FENR) to add to the two positions already held and bought another 2,500 shares at 242.5p Target 280 stop 195. One of my favourite boring engineers (it makes conveyor belts).

I bought because I thought it was breaking out over 240. That has now proved a rather good move as quite quickly it raced up to 250. If it can break above that I think that looks bullish. I originally bought some years ago at 88p! I wish I'd just held them since then!

And I bought a brand new one - NCC (NCC) picking up 1,500 shares at 405p on Wednesday. Target 450 stop 380. What I really like about it is it has just got promotion to the main market from AIM so I have been able to buy it for my ISA. I liked the look of it when it was on AIM. The move to main shows the company is serious about growing and I think I will be holding these for some time.

I bought back some more Vislink (VLK) yesterday - 8,500 shares at 80.68p Target 95 stop 72. Vislink's been stuck at around this price for quite a while but I noticed the last few days buyers are coming back.

Quite honestly at this price I'd bid for the company myself if I had the money. Anyway this morning it appears to be attracting buyers yet again and it is starting to rise in a falling market which is a good sign.

I shorted Informa (INF) for £20 a point at 602p yesterday - I had it on a possible shorting shortlist for a while and the finance director leaving spurred me on - it's not generally a good sign. So far I have been rewarded with a 20 point drop. My target is another 30 points at 550p with a stop at 625.

My shortish term trade in XChanging worked out nicely - nice when a plan works out - it went to my target price of 295 but started slipping from there so with sellers coming in I sold yesterday at 289.53p to bank some lovely short-term profit of £746. Nice one!

I took some profits in MS selling Wednesday at 213p - I will call this closing the 204 position for a profit of £135. However given the director interest and institutional buying after I think some like me may have taken some small profits and if it dips much below 200p I will probably buy back. I still hold the other positions for the website.

I took half profits in Volex selling some at 202.75p yesterday. For the site I will call it closing the 192 position taking profits of £268. I keep the other position at 180 intact. I actually kind of wish I hadn't done it as there was some good buyers at 207 but well I did it.

My Provident Financial short ended up a bit bizarre as it had demerged another company called International Personal Finance plus consolidated its shares. I knew I'd made about £700 profit on the short before this happened but was now down nearly £2,000 on my spread account.

I phoned them and they said it was a complex one. In the end it ended up them closing half the provident short at 0 and then I was shorting this other company at 0.

Look, I said it was complex and as I didn't want to be short of this new company after they worked it out I closed it all out. After all that profits I think were about £740. I'm afraid it's a guess. It may have been more, but unlikely to be less.

So if it's ok with you I shall claim £740 profit. I don't think that's far off. Total profits for the website booked after all that mucking about is £1,889.

Elsewhere considering the market's had a bad week I'm delighted with the portfolio which has held up really well - no huge gains but it is up a bit.

Recent buy Intertek went down from the minute I bought it! However it has rallied nicely today to around where I entered. I still hope for good things here.

The Vitec Group issued an excellent statement today. I'm feeling tempted to buy some though because I bought some at a higher level one of my rules is not to "average down". I do feel like breaking it!

The shorts of course are all going very well with Paragon, Renishaw, Alba and Easyjet all showing good profits.

The oilies seem a bit stuck - Dragon and Oilexco, however better stuck then down! Dmatek issued a really good trading update - I think they would have been up a lot more if it had not been for the down market and I remain a confident holder. I am thinking about buying more.

Marchpole has bounced strongly after recent profit taking and it remains a long-term hold. Another contract win by Vanco didn't really shift the price which appears stuck. Wellstream - what can I say? Been a lovely trade and it continues to climb with a very good rise yesterday...