I have always taken the view that Elon Musk is a crook and that he has committed serial fraud at Tesla (TSLA). It is so 2022 that this has made him the world’s richest man. Notwithstanding that, the way he is dealing with his new toy twitter is a joy to behold, not least in the way that it is causing wailings and howlings from all corners of the liberal world, especially today as Elon has said he will sack half the workforce by the weekend. Pro tem Elon is my hero!

I am technically a customer of “Your Sofa & Furniture Experts”, DFS Furniture (DFS). I say technically as, whilst we did purchase the lounge sofas from the company, it was about twenty years ago and even the DFS future sales department has (sensibly) lost interest in me. After all, the sofas are still good quality and it is not as if we use them that much. However, I do follow the company’s corporate updates and share price as it provides a good insight into the thinking of the average consumer. And this brings us nicely to today’s “trading update and AGM statement” from the company.

Jonathan, son of Spotty, Rowland is, as I demonstrated yesterday a bit of colourful old troll. Today his company, Mode Global (MODE) issued an RNS which is surely indicative of rule breaking. But rules are only for little people are they not?

SysGroup (SYS) recently issued a trading update stating that it “is pleased to report a strong trading performance, despite the challenging macro-economic environment”. With the shares having fallen from approaching 50p last year to a 24p offer price, such a trading performance suggests a lowly valuation and strong recovery potential.

I am once again nursing a hefty hangover in the wake of too much Ouzo on Cornflakes with regard to sub-Standard-Listed Pure Gold (PUR). Having warned and warned over this situation, it now finds itself in the Canadian equivalent of bankruptcy protection, has closed its gold mine (so has no income, but you can bet the plc bills are still coming in), was $13 million short of technical solvency BEFORE debts owed to Sprott with regard to working capital and on Wednesday the Toronto stock exchange dumped its shares of the Venture exchange in favour of a NEX listing on that side of the pond. Why, oh why has the FCA – the (no sniggering at the back) regulator of the Standard List – not acted to suspend the shares over here, pending financial clarification?

This company is somewhat bigger than the ones we usually cover, but it struck us as a relatively low risk trading buy and, although already well up from a below 300p tip price at approaching 350p, there looks some more to go. This follows a recent trading update from easyJet (EZJ) having emphasised continuing demand for its leading network alongside “step-changed” ancillary revenue and the rapid and profitable growth of the easyJet holidays business. The shares responded positively, but were above 400p as recently as August and above 700p earlier this year and, despite some clear challenges, we suggest that there is further recovery potential from here as we look to 29^th November-scheduled results and beyond.

Having announced earlier this year that “CEO, Paul Fineman will, for personal reasons, be stepping down as Group Chief Executive Officer as of 1 March 2022. A search is commencing for a successor”, IG Design Group (IGR) is now, albeit more than 8 months later, “delighted to appoint” a new CEO. With this also following a CFO change in May, what’s the outlook now?

After that apology to most of the citizens of a nation that has turned Philistinism into an art form I discuss the Bank of England hiking base rates by 0.75%. Then it is onto ouzo man and Purplebricks (PURP) before I turn to two gold stocks that could now rocket by Christmas, Kefi Gold & Copper (KEFI) and Bluebird Merchant Ventures (BMV). I own shares in both and both have two reasons for a dramatic near term re-rate. Then Trainline (TRN) where the outlook is not so bright.

Previously writing on “data science and machine learning company” Insig AI (INSG), in August with the shares at 22p I noted that, despite being down from above 40p when I previously wrote, with further access to finance looking to be required still avoid / sell. So what now on the back of a “Trading update” – and the shares currently further down to 18p, a £19 million market cap?

Jonathan Rowland the son of the colourful “Spotty”, and the founder and boss of crypto-shite play Mode Global Holdings (MODE) has been deleting some tweets of late, notably those where he trolled Gary Newman for suggesting that shares in his promote, masquerading as a company, were grossly overvalued. Over the past year the shares have collapsed by 91% and now trade at just 3.2p. In light of that, perhaps investors might wish to review some of Rowland’s tweets he forgot to delete, as we have now saved them for posterity. Oddly Rowland is not tweet ramping these days, I can't think why.  Enjoy.

The bastard little brother of the fraud Supply@ME capital (SYME), is the Aquis comedy show that keeps on giving. How can Aquis expect to be taken seriously when it offers a platform to rogues such as Eight Capital (ECP) bosses Dominic White and David Bull of PCF infamy. Today Eight has launched a £10 million fundraise at 0.02p. Its market cap at 0.025p is just under £4 million and even that is mighty generous. By about £4 million.

It is not over-egging the pudding to describe today’s interim 2022/23 numbers from BT Group (BT.A) as boring. After all, you do not need to be a financial genius to see its year-on-year adjusted revenue to be up by 1% and its adjusted EBITDA number to be up a massive 2%. And we have not even started to appraise whether the “adjusted” nature of the numbers had boosted them materially or not. However, there are other numbers of far more significance for BT Group and its, down c.6% as I write, share price.

On Halloween 2022 shareholders in SDX Energy (SDX) were told that Jay Bhattacherjee was joining as Non Executive Chairman? Trick or Treat or both?. The trick first, the RNS states:

Previously writing on engineering and technology staffing company Gattaca (GATC), early this year with the shares falling to around 90p I concluded, though I’d continue to monitor for meaningful trading improvement, at best on the watchlist. That has proven sensible, with the shares most recently closing at 79p – and now its full-year results.

Once upon a time, Yourgene (YGEN) was a growth stock, the sort of company where shoot the lights out sales increases justified a lofty multiple which might allow for yet another fund raise. How times have changed. Today’s trading update was piss poor and, whatever bearded boss Lynn Rees might say,  there must be a very high chance of a 2023 placing, as I warned three weeks ago HERE.

Joining the Standard List at 12.5p in April 2021 when it raised £5.54 million Mast Energy (MAST) has form when it comes to deceiving investors and today’s news of death spiral funding is no exception to that behaviour.

Iofina (IOF) has announced third quarter production from its five IOsorb production facilities in Oklahoma, USA, of 143 metric tonnes of crystalline iodine and that it has now completed all agreements with a new brine supply partner to construct a latest plant in Western Oklahoma.

I will do that as a bonus bearcast at some point this week. But as a teaser Verditek (VDTK) is on the list and I explain why. My Birthday is in January BTW. I cover Cineworld (CINE), ADM Energy (ADME), Technology Minerals (TM1) and Lyin' Chris Cleverly and the CEO chap who dressed as a "good" Nazi. I also go through the numerous rad flags at Alien Metals (UFO) which makes it a dog with fleas at any price.

Learning and skills development programmes company Malvern International (MLVN) states that it “is pleased to provide a trading update ahead of the General Meeting”. The market is not so pleased, marking the shares down by more than 10% to around 0.09p – so what’s going on?

The other day I suggested that AIM needed to introduce a Lenigas law whereby if a known associate of a company director sold his asset to that company he needed to declare how much he paid for it. Lenigas has punted on 2 assets on an undisclosed mark up to his pal Richard Poulden at Wishbone Gold (WSBN) where, for reasons I find it increasingly hard to justify, I am a shareholder. But Alien Metals (UFO) is another can of worms. And guess which penny share huckster pushes this one.?