It all started just before lunch on Friday, with a phone call from my Big Brother. “Have you checked Amazon?” he asked.

I was still toiling away at Dow Jones’s fan mail. For all of you who have asked, his favourite food is Nature Diet, he prefers pigs ears to puff beef jerkey, and his career ambition is to play alongside Steven Gerrard in an England shirt. Also, I was nervously waiting on a phone call from the Potential New Man in my life (who has still not called…), so I gave BB short shrift.

“I’m working on my new book,” I lied.

“Sally, log onto Amazon right this minute. Then check out your old book.” That bossy voice I remember from childhood was ringing in my left ear, so I did as I was told.

****ING HELL. Bets and the City was on the Amazon bestseller list. At No 79.

Several things happened in rapid succession:

1. I heard BB chuckling, because - for once - I was rendered speechless. “You’ve done it, kid. Always knew you would.”
2. I burst into tears.
3. I threw up (my nerves always go straight to my stomach)
4. I awarded the Dow-Wow three pigs ears to play with
5. I hit the phones and summoned key members of the latterati - the Primrose Hill Mob who have been my friends and supporters since long before all this book business.

The entire afternoon was surreal. I’d been ecstatic when Bets got to No 102 in the wake appearance of Working Lunch. (If you missed it, you can still watch… details on sallynicoll.com) But those twenty-three places make all the difference. When you’re in the Hot 100, you get to experience the thrill of clicking on Amazon’s green and white Bestsellers tab. And hey presto! Your book appears.

Bets was one above ‘This Book Will Save Your Life’ - the novel about a wealthy Los Angeles trader whose heart attack triggers a midlife crisis. You’ll have seen it around - the cover looks as though it’s sponsored by Krispy Kreme.

confession time. I have harboured an ignoble grudge against this book ever since it was chosen for the Richard and Judy Book Club, and Bets and the City, er, wasn’t.

Revenge felt sweeter than a doughnut.

Amazon’s Best Seller Ratings change hourly. By the time my office floor was covered in empty wine bottles and pigs ears, Bets was at No 68.

Now this really was mindboggling.

I was on the same internet page and best selling list as some REALLY famous authors: Felix Dennis, whose ‘How to Get Rich’ is an excellent read, the Juice Master, Marian Keyes, Edward de Bono (blimey, I am on the same list as Edward de Bono, whose office, I just read, is as chaotic as my own; maybe that’s what I’m doing right) and even Alexander McCall Smith.

The real fun of the afternoon, however, was only just beginning.

I spent the next few hours directly under Piers Morgan. To the general hilarity and obvious remarks of my increasingly pissed pals. His book is called ‘Don’t You Know Who I am?’ Bet you £500 he’s never heard of ME!

Piers and I continued to kayak up and down the Amazon. In tandem. By the time it was getting dark, we were up into the 50s. But try as I might, I had was still under PM.

“Look where you are now!” slurred Retired Reggie. “Sandwiched between Piers Morgan and Ian Rankin. Are you having fun?”

Ian Rankin? I was selling more books (for that hour, anyway) than IAN RANKIN? Does it get any better than this?

Actually, yes.

Midnight came and went. Half an hour later, having made a significant contribution to the glass recycling cause and taken Dow Jones to the top of The Hill where we stared at London’s always-awesome night skyline - I found it a bit hard to focus - I was ready to turn off the computer.

One final check.

I was at No. 52. And on top of Piers Morgan.

I’ve just been told that my book is now available on Amazon again. They ran out of copies after the Working Lunch stuff last week, but the publisher has managed to get them a few more copies. If you want to know more - or even buy one - copy and paste this link into your browser:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1905641060/sr=1-1/qid=1177320853/ref=olp_product_details/203-9936532-1612712?ie=UTF8&qid=1177320853&sr=1-1&seller=

Even as I speak - or type - Harriman House is reprinting. If you don’t mind waiting a bit longer, your friendly, independent book seller will happily get you a copy. I mention this because my own local shop, Primrose Hill Books, has been bloody brilliant in supporting me.

It’s high time I thanked Marek and Jessica for all their encouragement in recent months. Independent bookshops (like libraries) are a precious but threatened community resource. I know many of my readers share my own passion for the written word. Let’s support our local sellers and keep them in business.

Also, Marek says that if I keep banging on about Amazon, he will remove Bets and the City from his shop window.

I wish Hugh Grant would throw a tub - or two - of baked beans over ME. So long as he opens them first.

To make this ever-so-slightly relevant, I have just checked the Heinz share price. It’s in a downtrend. What price it rises on the back of this publicity?

If I were PR-ing Heinz, I’d send HG a ton of product… just so he’s ready for the next lot of paparazzi.

And I’d deliver the tins in person.

Hello to all my new readers - Thank you for visiting my blog

It’s a full time job being Sally Nicoll right now! The Primrose Hill latterati has me down as AWOL, and I can barely remember what a decent cup of coffee tastes like. Ever since the Working Lunch thingee and my IX Investor appearance, my email box has overflowed.

Thanks to everyone for the lovely messages. Hundreds of them. I spent most of Monday answering the ones addressed to Dow Jones, who clearly stole the show. I PROMISE I’ll respond to every last email by this weekend; I’m typing as fast as I can!

It was also great to meet so many of you in person at the ExCel. I had to give four separate presentations, and Unaccustomed As I Am, and all that, it was pretty damn intimidating to be stood up there on the platform (instead of my usual position: heckling at the back) looking at people, pens poised, hanging onto my dubious words of wisdom.

“Never go to Penzance,” I solemnly advised. If you’ve read Bets and the City, you know why…

If you heard me on Friday, you probably also enjoyed the mix-up where it was standing room only for me in the Showcase Theatre.

This made me even more nervous. “Was I so bad that they’ve brought their friends?” I was looking across from the coffee place, pretending not to be me, and wondering if I was going to be sick, when I saw the crowd. Mostly blokes, and I have to confess, they looked pretty damn fit

Turned out that some of my ‘audience’ were, in fact, marathon runners, who were in the wrong part of the ExCel, waiting for Sally Gunnell to address them.

Which means, presumably, that in another room, there were some very scared traders being told they were about to run twenty-six miles!

Seriously, some time in the early hours of Saturday morning, Bets and the City peaked at No 102 on the Amazon Best Seller list. Alas, it has been sinking like a stone since then on the general chart, which might have something to do with the fact that they ran out of copies.

Even so, on another of Amazon’s best seller lists (they do them for various categories) the book is still at NUMBER ONE! You’ll find full details at http://www.sallynicoll.com

Please bookmark my blog; I’m updating at least twice a week, now.

Oh, and if you were at IX Investor and have been meaning to open your Finspreads account to claim that £70 bonus but haven’t quite got round to it yet, you need to be quick. The offer ends on Monday. Details on the home page.

Remember how I thought it would be fun to try to identify some profitable trades that are linked to The Apprentice? It’s turned out to be one of my better ideas!

First, my magnificent success on the Dow Jones (see below) which went on my watchlist after SrAllan’s latest bunch of hapless hopefuls were charged with inventing a product for dogs.

My Starbucks trade wobbled a bit to begin with. I’m buying the June contract and am currently £40+ in profit, at 50p a point.

And then there is Amstrad.

Or rather, there was.

I sold SrAlan - as it were - for £3 a point at 152.5 after watching episode one, and smiled broadly every time I monitored the share price. By this time last week, the price was still down, but didn’t seem to be going anywhere.

“Sr Alan,” I announced, getting the finger gesture just right. “YOU’RE FIRED!” And with that, I took a profit of £24.60. (Might not sound much in terms of points gain, but it actually works out at Amstrad declining by about 5% lately.)

Maybe shareholders share my view that the last couple of episodes haven’t been as riveting as usual - although I did enjoy Tre’s targeting of fat people with his team’s fudge, and SrAlan’s description of that Unnatural Orange Lolly as ‘Sick on a stick.” - and that is why the share price declined by an additional seven points.

It has subsequently recovered a bit, but I am continuing to monitor, and looking for another opportunity to sell SrAlan.

And hopefully tonight, I’ll get to watch last night’s episode.

Remember it was Dow-Wow’s third birthday earlier this month?

To celebrate, I brought the Dow Jones (June Futures) for £1 a point at 12501.

An emotional trade? Moi?

More of a sentimental trade. But backed up by the hard evidence on my trusty ShareScope chart, that indicated the Dow was about to rise.

And duly, it did…. until on Friday it went above 12980.

Alas, I was strutting my stuff at the IX Investor Show (great to meet so many Bets and the City readers, and I PROMISE to answer all the emails as soon as I can), so I closed the trade early.

Suffice to say that the profit means Dow-Wow has almost repaid my initial investment to the breeder, in terms of cold, hard cash. Does that make him a self-liquidating dog?

Anyway, the pair of us are extremely pleased. Trading’s such fun when you get it right!

I’ve just heard that the transmission dates and times for the 3-part mini-series on financial spread betting in general and Bets and the City in particular are: Wed 18th 1.30; Thurs 19th 12.30; Fri 20th 12.30. i shall be hiding behind the sofa while it’s being shown! More about everything that’s happening this week at www.sallynicoll.com

While going about my duties - ok, so I was drinking coffee in Primrose Hill - I came across a bloke called Mark. We got talking, the way you do when you’re supposed to be writing an article for the Working Lunch web site, and it turns out that Mark is responsible for something called the Forex Profit Alert.

It comes from Fleet Street Publications, which has been going for years and has a pedigree almost as long as Dow Jones. (The Dow-Wow, incidentally, can trace his ancestors back through 15 generations, which is a lot more than I can.)

Mark duly sent me through all the sales copy for this Forex Profit Alert thingee… eight pages of classic sales copy that seems - frankly - to be targeted at people who don’t know a spread bet from their elbow.

Feeling superior (and not withstanding the fact that I am £36.50 down on my latest ill-timed $/yen trade), I was about to bin the whole lot.

But then something caught my eye…

…a spread sheet that gave me chapter and verse on every trade this Tom Traggett bloke has published in the past twelve months.

Guess what? Tom Tragett ROCKS!

I’ve spent the past couple of hours armed with my trusty ShareScope charts to check out that what he says happened really DID happen. And the bottom line is spelled PROFIT.

Since Forex Profit Alert was launched, exactly a year ago, TT subscribers have been given 38 currency trades. Twenty won. Eighteen lost, including a hideous run of six consecutive losses, early on. But as we all know, it’s not when you lose but HOW you lose - or rather, how to lose small and win big, that’s vital.

And TT seems to have that off pat.

His losses come to 1467 points over the year. While his profits tally 2905 points.

So overall, he’s 1438 points up. And with each of his recommendations, you get money management tips (how much to stake per point in relation to the size of your bank) to maximise profits and keep losses to an acceptable level.

Fleet Street Publications recommend a starting bank of at least £2,000.

So here’s what I’m going to do….

1. I’m going to put the Forex Profit Alert to the test, myself. I’ll follow forthcoming recommends as closely as I can, and report back to you.

2. I’ve also negotiated a sweet deal, if you want to have a go, as well.

It works like this:

The service costs £194.25 a quarter. Subscribers usually get to try it free for six weeks. However, I’ve negotiated a deal so that you can subscribe to Forex Profit Alert FREE FOR THREE MONTHS. (Tom’s compliance people want me to make it clear that you pay upfront, and there’s a cast-iron, no quibble money-back guarantee if you’re not completely satisfied.)

If you want to know more, I’ll send you all the details (complete with all the requisite ’spread betting is v v dangerous health warnings). Email me with FREE FOREX in the subject header and I’ll send you back the cheesy sales letter, plus the results to date, and joining details.

sally@sallynicoll.com

IX Investor - where I’m talking about how NOT to spread bet - happens at London’s ExCel Centre on Friday 20th and Sat 21st April.

This is THE place to come for lots of great advice about how to take on the markets and win. So as well as strutting my stuff, I’ll be sitting in on some of the seminars as well, learning whatever I can.

Full details about the show, the speakers and the seminars are here:

http://www.theinformationexchange.com

You’ll see it costs £25 to get in - or £15 if you book in advance.

Which means this is your lucky day.

Simon Campbell, the nice man who’s In Charge has given me 50 tickets to give away.

So if you’d like to take advantage, lob an email to me now - sally@sallynicoll.com - and I’ll sort it all out for you.

Oh no!

I have just discovered that my presence at IX Investor 07 clashes with Tottenham’s impending win against the Arsenal.

Who’s going to come and listen to me when there’s a North London derby going on? Come to that, do I want to listen to me when there’s a North London derby going on?

I guess this is the price I must pay for fame And I am comforted by the thought of Berbatov and Defoe chorusing, “How can we play football when Sally’s talking at IX Investor?”

We can but hope for an Act of God that leads to the game being postponed.

Fortunately, I’m not doing my stuff during the match. So you’ll find me huddled in a corner somewhere listening to Radio 5 Live.

If you ARE coming to the show, it’s at the ExCel, Friday 21st and Saturday 22nd. I’m speaking at 10.15 and 5.30 on Day One. And 10.15 and 3.30 on Day Two.

And according to next week’s Radio Times, I am indeed, featured on BBC2’s Working Lunch on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. There’s more information on sallynicoll.com

How’s the trading?

My short on Amstrad continues to prosper…. as does my Buy on Petsmart, which has been hitting new highs. I’m also long on the Dow-Wow-Jones, to celebrate his birthday…. I have a short on Bloomsbury, which is sufficiently well in profit for me to buy three copies of the final Harry Potter… and Starbucks is falling, so I’ve cut my losses and am now on a sell. Shame about $/yen…