How my tips have fared

It has been a very positive fortnight for my nine long tips, with seven rising. US construction-supplier Builders FirstSource increased from $195 to $208; kitchen-supplier Howden Joinery rose from 849p to 906p; and recruiter SThree went from 414p to 430p.

General Motors powered ahead from $40.82 to $45.35, budget airline easyJet climbed from 528p to 570p, and SSP, which operates food and drink concessions in airports and train stations, advanced from 214p to 219p.

Rolls-Royce Holdings appreciated from 390p to 428p. The only exceptions to the uptrend were Moonpig and IG Group. Moonpig, which sells greeting cards and gifts online, stayed at 169p, while investment and sharetrading platform IG Group fell from 732p to 730p. Overall, my long tips are making profits of £2,178.

My short tips delivered a more mixed performance, with two moving in my favour, one climbing and one remaining unchanged. Solar-energy company Sunrun declined from $10.33 to $13.18, while video-game retail chain GameStop also went down, from $14.24 to $12.62.

However, air-taxi firm Joby Aviation stayed steady at $5.36, while payrolltechnology provider Paycom rose from $192 to $200. Overall, my short tips are making a profit of £1,627 down from £2,099.

My combined long and short positions are making profits of £4,277. I suggest that you take profits of £515 on the Paycom short, which I have held for over a year, and take losses of £200 on Moonpig.

The upshot is that I now have eight long tips (Howden Joinery; SThree; easyJet; SSP; IG Group; General Motors; Builders FirstSource and Rolls-Royce).

There are also three open short positions (Sunrun, GameStop and Joby Aviation), and one pending short position on Trump Media & Technology Group. Finally, I would recommend that you raise the stop-loss on Howden Joinery and easyJet to 720p (from 700p) and 435p (350p) respectively.