TUESDAY 16 NOVEMBER

Well not a great day with the FTSE plummeting a massive 138.5 points and dragging most of my contracts down with it. Out of my whole portfolio, and amongst a swathe of red, just 5 shares managed to struggle into the green.

Best performer today was IQE PLC which gained 1 point; worst performer was NAUTICAL PETROLEUM PLC which lost a hefty 15 points....

Amazingly only one contract stopped out: AVOCET MINING PLC (for a loss of £30) which started with such promise; however I do have one remaining contract for this share, so hopefully it will regain some ground tomorrow.

Funds now stand at £850 which gives a loss of some £160 since yesterday. Having said that I'm still showing a profit of around £100 overall so could be a lot worse....

At this point I'm not unduly concerned; I've been doing this long enough to know that there will always be days like this; tomorrow may not be great but is unlikely to be as bad as today (he says with fingers crossed!). I've had bad days before and I'll have them again; it's all about staying in play until the inevitable upwards movement.

See you soon, Big Al