As I write this, a troy ounce of Gold will set you back one thousand, one hundred and seventy nine of your hard earned US dollars. For our English readers – and those who can't think in troy ounces – 31 grams of gold will cost you the best part of 708 pounds. If you look back to January 2008, you could have got yourself that ounce for just $800 (a bit over £400 with exchange rates as they were). Sticking to dollars for the moment, that's about a 50% increase. But why?

New security added to Money? What Money?'s investment portfolio:

Company Name: Mwana Africa PLC
Symbol: MWA
Puchase Price: 13.5 Pence Per Share
Date of Purchase: 5th November 2009
Target Price: 17 Pence.

Mwana is a mining company focussing on precious metal, base metal and diamond extraction in Africa. They have various interests in Zimbabwe which – due to the current political turmoil – has led many investors to avoid any substantial commitment.

The focus on the risk posed by their interests in Zimbabwe has led to a disproportionately low valuation given that they have substantial assets in other parts of Africa.

New security added to Money? What Money?'s investment portfolio:

Company Name: Party Gaming PLC
Symbol: PRTY
Price Paid: 224.5 pence
Date of Purchase: 5th November 2009
Target Price: 300 pence

Summary:

Party Gaming is an online Gaming company, best known for its poker website but also providing a large selection of casino style on-line games. They have made use of the recent economic turmoil to make acquisitions in relevant business areas as well as signing high visibility deals with companies such as Channel 5 in the developing televised poker market.

MWM took advantage of a fall in the share price apparently triggered by one of the founders selling two third of his stake in the company. Closer examination suggests that this sale has little to do with the health of the company and was in fact related to the founders desire to move away from the industry following the legal troubles created my Americas ban on on-line gambling. 

A few of you might remember a brief debate a while back about whether it would ever be acceptable for Facebook to charge it's users if it was unable to make a profit from advertising. I was strongly of the opinion that if they couldn't make enough money from advertising – and I didn't believe they could – then it would be reasonable for them to ask users to pay a usage fee.

It looks like my fears may have been groundless. On Tuesday Facebook announced that it had reached 300m users and was now – a year ahead of schedule – cash flow positive. Whilst this isn't quite the same as being in profit – it means they are making more from advertising than it is putting into capital expenditures – it's the main hurdle which has to be passed for a business model like Facebooks to be profitable long term.

Security sold from the Money? What Money? investment portfolio:

Company Name: Tesco
Symbol: TSCO
First Held: 27th November 2008
Holding Sold: 100%
Date Sold: 14th August 2009
Price: 371.4 Pence
Profit: 21%

Tesco PLC has performed in line with expectations, the news that it is planning on moving into retail banking combined with strong sales throughout the financial crisis has led to a steady increase in value.

The sale has been made because it has reached the 20% profit target initially set.