Hello Share Scratchers. A week ago, when I suggested you look at BigDish (DISH), Uncle Tom and some talented ShareProphets commentators took a dim view. They suggested that an announcement that more locations for the restaurant ordering service were being rolled out was no indication of success...

In today's bearcast I look at the growing woes of Neil Woodford, Blue Jay Mining (JAY), Plutus Powergen (PPG), Mila (MILA), Big Dish (DISH), Condor Gold (CNR) and Thomas Cook (TCG)

Further to Tom Winnifrith’s piece earlier today in the light of an article in the FT which claimed that the FCA was examining the accelerating decline of Neil Woodford’s flagship Equity Income Fund, Tom asked whether Neil Woodford still insists that his identical claim was fake news. Well, now  Investment Week has also written on the subject. But whilst the FT makes the claim, Investment Week goes further:

From castings and engineering group Chamberlin (CMH), an intra-day (12:35pm) “Trading Update”. Uh oh…

Writing earlier this month on online gaming and marketing company Veltyco (VLTY), I questioned “able to continue to meet its liabilities as they fall due”. Today a “Share Subscription” announcement…

At the AGM of the Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) which I attended, Neil Woodford insisted that his teetering fund management empire was suffering because of inaccurate media reporting and he singled out one journalist, my good self, in this respect. One of the things Neil reckons I have made up is that the FCA is monitoring his very serious liquidity crisis.

Individuals not companies lie, deceive, cheat and break the rules. If you want to stamp out white collar crime you hammer individuals not companies. Natch the Oxymorons really do not get that at all. Today AIM Regulation has fined Real Good Food (RGD) £450,000 (reduced to £300,000 for co-operating with enquiries) for some monstrous crimes committed largely by its former executive chairman Pieter Totte, but also by two other former directors. The full shocking notice is below.

I thought Malcolm rather unfairly caught it over an article he wrote about FirstGroup (FGP) a few weeks ago as he highlighted something that has characterised my articles on the stock: there is value and change opportunity here...

AIM-listed St James House (SJH) is not the investment house which gave Neil Woodford the dreaded vote of confidence – this is the old Boxhill run by Lord Razzall. It may have a swanky upmarket new name but it still looks like the disaster of old...

I don’t generally invest in earlier stage tech companies due to the risk of failure, but I have been following the Bidstack Group (BIDS) story with interest. I’m fully aware that early stage companies in this sector often trade at a large premium to their valuation on paper, as the value is all about future potential and growth and there are examples out there of outfits that started out as small companies before seeing their technology really take off and are now worth a fortune. But this is rare and far more fail and ultimately end up worthless.

As we all know, Cloudtag (CTAG) was a former darling of the AIM Casino which had a few problems with nasty people like us pointing out that it was a total POS in every way until it was booted off the Casino when the Nomad resigned. It now seems that a part of the Cloudtag empire has bitten the dust as Companies House has announced the Final Gazette notice for Cloudtag Active Limited...

Hello, Share Diviners. I’m never sure why American firms want to list on our AIM market, but MaxCyte (MXCT) looks worth a look. It’s a medical pioneer which uses cell therapy.

Last month saw “Directorate change” and “Ops Update” announcements from Goldplat (GDP) – the former being that CEO Gerard Kisbey-Green “has stepped down… with immediate effect”. So a disappointing ‘ops update’ then?…

Early this year we showed the Shorted AIM shares at the start of 2019. How's the performance at the late May bank holiday? (those in bold remain from 2018)...

A latest trading update from gas heating, electrical and building services provider, Bilby (BILB) included that whilst most divisions of the group “continue to trade well”, “certain specific P&R customer engagements will have a material impact on the group's results for the year ended 31 March 2019”. However, with new management now in place, recovery potential?...

Self-styled “a leading provider of digital performance marketing services”, XLMedia (XLM) has updated including that it “continues to trade in line with management expectations with our focus firmly on increasing the group's exposure to higher margin publishing activities as set out in February 2019”…

“Rosslyn Data Technologies plc (AIM: RDT), a leading global big data technology company, is pleased to issue the following trading statement in advance of its results announcement for the year ended 30 April 2019, which is scheduled to be released in September”…

A “Trading Update” from Netcall (NET) – and the shares currently down more than 9%, at 51.5p, on it. This despite “cloud bookings have continued their strong performance with year over year growth of 160% to £6.5m”, including “public sector customers ordering the group's newly launched Low-code cloud offerings”…

Late last week I observed ahead of a capital markets day by the self-styled 'world's most exhilarating chocolate brand' Hotel Chocolat (HOTC) that 'I will enjoy pacing through the slide deck and comments. However, what may have helped nibble the shares slightly up today is the assertion that the (no doubt) very normal style presentation agenda will culminate in a tasting session of various products'. So what was said?...

At the lower end of the market if you want to get an idea of who was inside on placings then social media is often a good indicator, and in particular some of the accounts on Twitter which have significant numbers of followers and have been pushing the company hard just prior to an equity raise...