We are (almost) at the end of February and the world appears to have changed very much for the worse. So how are my five slam-dunk sells of Tern plc (TERN), Trafalgar Property (TRAF), URU Metals (URU), Barkby Group (BARK) – all on the AIM Casino – and AIQ (AIQ) of the sub-Standard List doing?

The deadwood press, notably CityAM, really seems to have it in for its former columnist Julie Meyer, dredging up “revelations” that appeared on this website months and years ago as new examples of her unwillingness to pay debts as they fall due. In response to this sewer plagiarism, Ms Lingerie on Expenses has hit back with the tweet below. As ever she is bonkers.

Bullion manager Stephen Flood says his company is seeing a lot of demand due to inflation concerns. The broader consumer base is not interested in buying gold but he expects this will change. He claims that we’re seeing seven percent inflation and it’s likely much higher. It’s not going to take long for money to halve in buying power.

Here are five long reads that have nothing to do with shares. Put the kettle on, find a comfy chair. You have the time, don’t you? 
 

Two stocks to talk about today.  You may remember back in December  I observed about McColl’s (MCLS) after observing plans for change – and a troubled balance sheet – at the convenience shop and newsagent operator, ‘whilst I am going to keep watching this one, I am not buying today’. That was smart as the shares have fallen from c. 10p when I wrote in December to about 7p on Friday. 

Grab a cup of tea, sit back, and test your knowledge against the other ShareProphets members. Write your score in the comments, there are no prizes, and most important of all – no Googling!

These are the most-read articles and most listened-to Bearcasts of the week. The most-read article non-Tom article is Postcard From Montana As Gold Blasts Higher and Putin Blasts Ukraine by Nigel Somerville at number six or number 11 including Bearcasts.

Standard-listed Panther Metals (PALM) had a wild ride last week. Given that it is a Gold explorer and the yellow metal had a wild ride too, that is not a surprise. But Panther’s share price movement was the exact opposite of what was going on in the world’s yellow backstop currency.

Yes it is Mrs Darren Winters and I’d send the snake oil salesman to the salt mines of Rotherham too.  I have spoken to a £35,000 victim this morning and this really is a stain on UK financial services that I hope the FCA will finally act on after 25 years of doing nothing. I explain why I hope they might.

Developer and manufacturer of touch sensors for use with electronic displays in industrial, self-service and public access equipment, Zytronic (ZYT) was a September tip here and a share price fall in the last month has looked harsh to us. The company now clearly seems to think the same.

Forget Ukraine it is not the real driver of the bull case for gold. Analyst Keith Weiner explains what is and why the makes him a gold bull.

When Mr Leo Malkin of Crowe UK performs his audit of the fraud Supply@ME Capital (SYME) he will be required to perform an audit of the accounting for the acquisition of sub scale asset manager Tradeflow Capital including the valuation of the assets and liabilities acquired and the fees paid to its advisers.  I have helpfully set out below some questions he should be asking. If he doesn’t I shall be asking the FRC to investigate his conduct. I have flagged this matter up with the FRC already.

The big news this week was, of course, the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It is horrendous, and once again my thoughts are with those in the firing line. The market’s initial response was to mark up Gold and oil/gas, and sell everything else. But then a recovery set in – although I am not convinced it will last.

Hello Share Jumpers. Most of the time the stock market is erratic and illogical. But there are periods when it behaves with precision predictability. Like the thankfully rare occasions when a war breaks out. The path is nearly always the same. 

I start with events in Ukraine and possible peace and where that leaves some Russian owned stocks.  Then I turn to Ncondezi (NCCL) and then a detailed explanation of why today’s Versarien (VRS) analysis matters but also why the cash crunch is coming far sooner than most morons realise and the next bailout for the loathsome Ricketts will not be pretty. And then I ask where next for gold and oil prices and stocks?

Previously writing on Studio Retail Group (STU) earlier this month I noted hopefully my warning of “funding crisis ahoy” last month was heeded as now it’s ‘Intention to Appoint Administrators’!. In that I noted ‘the major shareholders include Frasers Group (FRAS) of Mike Ashley (in)famy (28.89%), Schroders (18.94%) and Lombard Odier (11.26%) – and what odds of Ashley now buying this out of administration with nothing for smaller shareholders?’. Today a “Sale of Studio Retail Limited”-titled announcement…

Tharisa plc (THS) has announced agreements with “BEE shareholders Thari Resources owning 20% and The Tharisa Community Trust owning 6%” to acquire their interests to make a wholly owned subsidiary. What now, with the shares having responded up to 144p to buy?

This podcast covers Trevor Brown, Braveheart (BRH), today’s shocking warning, Remote Monitored Systems (RMS)/Nanosynth (NNN), Peterhouse Corporate Finance and why AIM Regulation needs to say that enough is enough and bring this sordid shit show to an end.

Eurasia Mining (EUA) which was only recently being touted for sale by Russia’s VFB Bank, now facing Western sanctions, has insisted that the new Western sanctions will have no impact on its operations. Whatever you say comrade Schaffalitzky.

Many stock pickers say something along the line of ‘I spend ten minutes a week looking at macroeconomic matters … and nine of those are wasted’.  Even as a complete investment geek, I would agree there is some truth in that.  But the reason why I spend about 25% of my time on macro matters is that it helps improve your batting average as a stock picker.  Your focus should be bottom-up orientated but regularly doing some top-down stuff is helpful…especially to avoid being in deep panic mode re inflation, interest rates, government policy shifts or geopolitical matters.  After all, the whole point of the ‘fear and greed index’ is that you are doing the opposite of the norm at extremity moments.  And talking about the norm, how is life going one at one of everybody’s (but not mine) favourite website Rightmove (RMV)…?