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Alpesh Patel
Alpesh Patel's columns :
09/07/2005Fund Managers
08/31/2005Exchange Traded Funds
08/24/2005New York, London, Chicago
08/16/2005NYC Again
08/10/2005Summer Fun
08/03/2005Global Markets from a Foreign Perspective
07/29/2005Portfolio Destruction
07/20/2005Trader Health
07/13/2005Portfolio Management
07/06/2005Analyst Speak
06/29/2005CEO Speak
06/22/2005Media Again
06/15/2005Media Manipulation
06/08/2005India - Again
05/29/2005When its game over
05/18/2005The End of the Universe
05/11/2005Hedge Fund Woes
05/04/2005Downwards in an up market or upwards in a down market?
04/27/2005Tougher than a gangsters granny
04/20/2005Miserable or Not?
04/13/2005Cap and Floor
04/04/2005Misery of Joy?
03/23/2005Time for Timestrip?
03/09/2005Thinking about Investment Courses
03/02/2005Thinking About Mistakes
02/25/2005Itchy Teeth
02/16/2005When does a stock story get old?
02/07/2005Return Free Risk
01/24/2005What You Need To Know
01/12/2005What You Need To Know
12/21/2004Year End
12/14/2004Of Mountains and Markets
12/08/2004Strong Dollar Policy and Other US Macho Nonesense
11/30/2004Irish Eyes Are Smiling
11/22/2004Oil. Oh it's so last month

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Alpesh Patel – A weekly look at market opportunities and pitfalls
Alpesh B. Patel is one of the UK's best-known traders and financial journalists. He writes a regular column for the Financial Times, has written seven bestselling books on trading, and makes regular television appearances for Bloomberg, Sky Television, Channel 4, The Money Channel, and the BBC.

The Real Hot Stuff

06/21/2004

Nice weather eh? Warm, good for picnics…Forget it. Whilst you were sunbathing and having fun, rallies are underway. In the US, Yahoo, Apple, Ebay - are all trending higher.

This is no time for leisure and pleasure - get back to those screen…if you please.

Okay, here's the real hot stuff. SIG, in the FSTE 250 is still running up fairly well. Not necessarily a valuation play, but on pure momentum,. With support around 370p - I would definitely change my mind on it if it fell below that level however.

Cairn Energy of course continues roaring ahead. For short term traders it is the base at 1100p to watch for as support - if it breaks the analysis of a continued rally would be wrong. For the very risk averse it is the support level at 1150p.

Check out Findel too for a pure momentum play. Colt Telecom is showing an uptrend since breaking upwards from its downtrend. It's up 20% since the low and likely to climb in my view, but, but, but, I want to see it stay above 80p - else I will be wrong on my analysis.

Sportingbet caught my eye. With full year figures in the twelve months to March 31st showing sales up to £1.08 billion and pre-tax profit rocketing to £9.2m from a paltry £1.4m.

Although the stock has outperformed 98% of stocks in the past 12 months, the trend is in place and looks set to continue.

However, the stock is twice as risky based on volatility as the market average. Any liberalisation of the highly restrictive US online gambling laws, which would benefit the stock, would be a long time coming.

Value-Growth

On the value-growth screen I have which shows me which stocks are well-valued based on a number of my own criteria and also which are showing revenue growth, earning growth and also protected under a number of other criteria including dividend yields - I have some interesting new ones showing up: Findel again, Lookers, although the medium term trend is down, Hunting, but again, the medium term trend is down, Peacock Group, which although it has climbed sharply and so could drop, looks okay for now on a value-growth basis, Kingspan is also promising. Genus shows up, but the recent stratospheric rise means I am hesitant with it.

Don't forget you can get my new multimedia audio-visual CDROMs on 'How To Invest Better' from the ADVFN bookstore under 'Alpesh' in the search engine.

Crazy Small Stock

I get requests for 'high octane plays' - so here goes. Check out JKX Oil & Gas, ASOS is also a bit 'crazy' if it keeps above 30p, OverNet Data is your third.

All pure adrenalin momentum plays - not recommendations but simply 'crazy small stocks which may continue steep rises (or turn and burn) - but they almost certainly won't stand still.


Alpesh B Patel, author of “Alpesh Patel on Stock Futures” available from the ADVFN bookstore.