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Alpesh Patel's columns :
06/08/2005	India - Again
05/29/2005	When its game over
05/18/2005	The End of the Universe
05/11/2005	Hedge Fund Woes
05/04/2005	Downwards in an up market or upwards in a down market?
04/27/2005	Tougher than a gangsters granny
04/20/2005	Miserable or Not?
04/13/2005	Cap and Floor
04/04/2005	Misery of Joy?
03/23/2005	Time for Timestrip?
03/09/2005	Thinking about Investment Courses
03/02/2005	Thinking About Mistakes
02/25/2005	Itchy Teeth
02/16/2005	When does a stock story get old?
02/07/2005	Return Free Risk
01/24/2005	What You Need To Know
01/12/2005	What You Need To Know >>
12/21/2004	Year End
12/14/2004	Of Mountains and Markets
12/08/2004	Strong Dollar Policy and Other US Macho Nonesense
11/30/2004	Irish Eyes Are Smiling
11/22/2004	Oil. Oh it's so last month
11/15/2004	Eat my shorts
11/08/2004	Big Rally Big Fall
10/31/2004	Big Week
10/25/2004	Vacuum
10/15/2004	Dip and dive or dip and rise: 4600, 4700�4500.
10/11/2004	Oil making us boil.
09/27/2004	The Trends Re-Appear
09/27/2004	Oil
09/21/2004	No Retail Therapy Here
09/14/2004	Do you feel lucky punk?
08/23/2004	The Market Wants To Move Higher

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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.

What You Need To Know

01/12/2005

Is it too early to look for trends for the New Year? What do we need to know in these first few days of the year? Trends often change at the start of the New Year, sometimes for no other reason than the psychology of a New Year.

Shire Pharmaceuticals and Reuters are leading the way so far this year on the FTSE 100. The Shire trend is strong (although due for a short-term profit-taking fall) and way off its highs of several years ago suggesting the upward potential is not unknown.

Reuters has quadrupled in 18 months. It would quadruple again before hitting all time highs. Given recent positive press coverage, whilst that will not happen in 2005, the year looks good for the news company.

Dixons, even before results was one of the early New Year best performers. Looking for it to hit 180p in the short term seems likely - quick short-term profit.

Momentum

Looking for the pure momentum price plays, ignoring value and growth for a moment the strongest trends are in the following and are worth examining: Punch Taverns, Bradford and Bingley (ready for some short-term profit-taking).

Value-Growth

On my value growth criteria which are based on stocks meeting revenue and profit growth and good value based on criteria such as price earnings growth, the following names come up. Remember they are for a 6 month outlook: Eurmoney, Gooch & Housego, DTZ, Marchpole, Royal Bank of Scotland, Speedy Hire, BHP Billiton.

Bids

For those who like to look for bid candidates - here are my estimations: lastminute.com, Avis, Compass, and a complete wild-card - AstraZeneca!

Crazy Small Stock

These are high risk volatile stocks which could move sharply higher or move sharply lower in my view, but will almost certainly not stand still. Names on the radar include: Bisichi Mining, Safeland, Sportech.

Also, if you would like a free multi-media CDROM on 'Investing Better' posted to you then drop me an email with your postal address to alpesh@tradermind.com.