Only two of the traders had posted a positive return over the week by lunchtime on Friday.

Footballer Niall Quinn staged a dramatic comeback, with a daring 100-per-point buy position on Elan. This netted him 12,000 following a favourable drug review in the US that caused the Elan share price to leap by 250 points.

Other share traders were not so fortunate, with Ken MacDonald of Hook and MacDonald losing 4% as investors took profits following a strong run in the Irish market over the past few months.

Property developer Sean Dunne was last week's leader, posting a stunning 51% return in just five days' trading.

While still in positive territory, he has given up some of his gains as his position in gold has fallen. Currency traders John O'Shea of Goal and Tanya Airey of Sunway Travel also gave up some of their gains.

Brent Crude was once again a big mover, with Willie O'Reilly getting on the right side of a recovering oil market on Wednesday and posting a 19% rise in just a couple of days.

"I felt that concerns over tension in the Middle East were easing following the Opec meeting and that the price was clearly bouncing back after a sharp fall, so I bought it, " commented O'Reilly.

The recovering oil price may have had a negative impact on the US indices, as MEP Gay Mitchell lost 8% over the week to midday on Friday.

Bill Kelly of Kelly's Hotel in Rosslare has shown remarkable fortitude in the face of a difficult trading environment. His US portfolio has battled against strong head winds but he showed the iron discipline of a seasoned trader by cutting the underperformers before they did too much damage. Along with Niall Quinn, Kelly is now staking his future on Elan.

Rugby legend Ross O'Carroll Kelly suffered from overconfidence, as his daring shorting of selected US stocks has yet to bring any profit.

Michael Dwyer of pigsback. com had a clearout of his portfolio during the week, dumping his underperforming Dax and Ebay holdings, and taking a well-timed 7,400 profit on his gold holding. Dwyer also boosted his exposure to the US market with a 100-per-point trade on the Dow Jones Index. He was down marginally over the week but his restructuring needs more time to deliver results.

Readers who want to switch celebrity traders should make their changes by 3:00pm tomorrow, 13 March. The new selections of traders will become active on Tuesday morning. To change your selections log onto www. deltaindex. ie and follow the Celebrity Trading Challenge link.

Do you want to trade for real?

Delta Index is running a series of workshops for those who want to learn to trade for real. Workshops are being held next month in the company's offices at Lower Mount Street in Dublin. Phone Delta Index at 1850-882020 to book a place.