Have you lost money being long and wrong on litigation funder Burford (BUR). Fear not, how about joining a class action with other victims to sue the company? US sharks, sorry lawyers, Schall Law is hear to help.

Nanoco Group (NANO) has updated including “unaudited revenues of £7.3m for the year ended 31 July 2019 were more than double FY18 and slightly ahead of market consensus expectations… cash position at 31 July 2019 was £7.0m, an increase of £0.8m since 31 January 2019” and “the completion of the new Runcorn facility and the waiver of the contract liability leaves the group with a significantly expanded asset base and production capability across a wider range of market sectors”. However, the shares remain sub 12p – down from circa 40p as recently as June!…

A cornerstone of the Muddy Waters attack on Burford (BUR) is that it booked 2013 profits on a case its client Napo lost and, as we showed here lost before the accounts were finalised. Burford’s defence is that this refers to a different Napo case but it failed to say which one. Well, reader Drunken Sailor has – I think found it. Sadly this second case fails to substantiate the Burford rebuttal at all, it makes it look even weaker. Over to Drunken who posts…

I have written about GVC Holdings (GVC) a number of times this year, after making it one of my tips of the year back in late December. I have been critical on many occasions this year, predominately because of the ludicrous share sale by the Chair and CEO just days after loving up the full year numbers and prospects. Rather appropriately the share sale was at 666p. The number of the beast, indeed! Today's interim numbers read well on an overall basis...

Vela Technologies (VELA) has updated on “Completion of investment in Portr Limited” and “Proposed further investment by Director”…

Another bad day in the markets saw Neil Woodford’s funds having more of a mixed day. His Equity Income Fund lost 0.25% and closed below £3.2 billion but Income Focus managed to buck the trend and put on a tiny 0.03% in NAV per unit and even Woodford Patient Capital (WPCT) showed a modest gain when its NAV per share statement was released yesterday...

Osirium Technologies (OSI) “is pleased to announce the first customer for its new innovative privileged robotic process automation solution, Opus, which was launched in May of this year” and that Opus “is generating interest across DevOps, NetOps and outside IT in business teams”. The shares though are unchanged at 59.5p. Hmmm…

Hello Share Placers. The United Arab Emirates seems to be attracting a bad press at the mo, for reasons which are all over the news bulletins. So we need not go into them. Nevertheless, today’s commendation from moi is for a company based there...

I am not well as the repeated coughing implies. I have self diagnosed and think I may have bronchitis. Anyhow apologies for more coughing today. In the podcast I look at Tomco (TOM), Conroy Gold (CGNR), Sports Direct (SPD) and at Kier (KIE).

Video security systems group IndigoVision (IND) has announced results for the first half of 2019 emphasising “return to profit in H1, the first time this has been achieved since 2014” and “momentum in the business”. Sounds encouraging…

Oh dear, oh dear – an intra-day Company Update….not a good sign. ShareProphets AIM-China Filthy Forty play Walcom (WALG) – one of a handful left – has updated the market on its position. We learn that African Swine Fever continues to affect most of the company’s domestic customers (so another profit warning), its former best customer still hasn’t paid up and it is unclear whether it will, the company has only funds to see it through to the middle of next month and absent alternative funding it will be a trip to the corporate undertakers. Apart from that, everything is fine!

Bermele (BERM), “a company formed to acquire a target company (or companies) with realisable or developed commercial technologies in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sector, is pleased to update shareholders on its progress to date”. The market is also apparently pleased – the shares currently 40% higher to 1.75p…

A critical matter in the Muddy Waters Burford dossier is the way that Burford (BUR) booked profits in 2013 on a case which had yet to conclude but which it in fact lost, Napo. Burford has come up with a barely plausible explanation of this but what Carson Block and his team failed to provide is an exact timeline and this is critical. So here goes:

Only last Friday I predicted a fundraise by AIM-listed Neil Woodford backed cash-hungry dog Xeros (XSG), pointing out that Neil hadn’t any cash, in the wake of news that Xeros had sold its US washing machine business. Amazingly, the shares went up even though it was clear the company needed cash and was still haemorrhaging money faster than your average washing machine drains water. The passing of this crock as a going concern by the auditor as a Going Concern only at the end of April will have shareholders all in a spin (that’s enough washing machine gags – Ed). Well blow me down with a feather – its Ouzo time.

Outside of some legendary gold plays, one of my better portfolio performers year-to-date has been FirstGroup (FGP) which I have loved up a number of times in the last eighteen odd months on these pages, ever since it was silly enough (admittedly under a different management team) to turn down a bid from private equity. In my previous update, I recounted how the new management team were actually starting to copy some of the suggestions offered by activist challenges. Now this is all good stuff...but it is even better when you win new contracts…

Last week’s saga of Burford Capital (BUR) illustrates well the febrile state of the markets right now and shows how easily ruffled both retail and institutional investors can be in the scandal-prone junior market...

To be fair to Neil Woodford, markets have been a tad choppy of late, to say the least. But yesterday at midday the FTSE100 was down around a third of a percent and this morning’s data from Morningstar shows that Woodford’s Income Focus Fund (WIFF) had lost 0.85% in NAV per unit and his Equity Income Fund (WEIF) had dropped 0.75%. Another day of outperformance (of the wrong sort) then...

Hello, Share Pinchers. At last, the gold price is rising. Though that sometimes spells doom for our non-gold related shares, as the rush to buy yellow can be sparked by a doddering general stock market. But which gold-centred company to buy?

In today's bearcast I look at shitty little gold plays like Conroy (CGNR) and Condor (CNR) at their relationship to the gold price. I cover Burford (BUR) noting today's interventions from two giants of the investment world: Carson Block of Muddy Waters and Roger Lawson of ShareSoc. I look at Providence Resources (PVR) a comedy set to end in tears, at Diversified Gas & Oil (DGOC) a tragedy set to end in tears and also at Neil Woodford and that Cenkos (CNKS) profits warning.

Remote wireless technology company Starcom (STAR) has announced results for the first half of 2019 including “initial orders for the new Lokies smart padlock are encouraging and we have high expectations for this new product” and that it “is confident that the full year results will be in line with current market expectations in terms of revenue growth and that the company will achieve a positive EBITDA result for the year”. The shares have responded… further lower, to 1.1p…