About five months ago HERE  I concluded that I was a buyer of Halfords Group (HFD), the “largest retailer of motoring and cycling products in the United Kingdom”. That would have been very wise, as the then c.140p share is today more than 210p.  However - as I have plenty of capability to be an idiot - I did not follow my own advice!  So, how do I feel about its interim results out a few days ago…?

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? 
 

The most-read non-quiz non Tom article this week is from Nigel Somerville with  ‘The View From The Montana Log-Cabin As Gold Takes A Breather’ at No 13 or No 19 including Bearcasts.

In today's podcast I look at two business fauilures and the lessons we can all learn from them. In many ways Bulb is a bigger scandal than FTX and it has already cost the UK taxpayer £6.5 billion.

Speciality agriculture and engineering group Carr's (CARR) has issued an update including that “the expected completion date for the group's audit and publication of the group's FY22 audited results is now mid-January 2023, later than the 3 January 2023 deadline required” but that it “has continued to perform strongly”, so what’s going on?

Having asked for readers tips for 2022 for the prize of 1/2 litre of Tom Winnifrith's Greek Hovel olive oil (2022 harvest) HERE, the following is the monthly update on performance with now (just over) one month to go (to be eligible needed to have selected, on a once per username basis, a buy & sell pick from the LSE, AIM casino or Aquis lobster pot and the stocks not to have been suspended at the commencement of 2022).

The corporate governance at Nightcap (NGHT) is - as I have exposed on this website so many times - dreadful. That rather surprises me as the non executive chairman Gareth Edwards is not a bad old stick despite having been a partner at the accursed law firm Pinsent Masons.  One issue that the cash strapped company, now right up against the limit with its banks, and with its rollout programme on hold, is bonuses. I urge Gareth to look at events at Gresham (GHE), which - to make it easy for him - are detailed in full below.

Shanta Gold (SHG) has recently announced that “after further engagement and having taken advice from its financial advisors, the board has concluded that there is no merit in continuing discussions with Shandong and Chaarat, which both parties have accepted”. That ended current bid talks and sees the shares currently down to a 10.5p offer price. However, the company added that it is now “focused on optimising and growing its quality portfolio to continue to deliver long-term sustainable returns for shareholders with a number of value catalysts in train for 2023”. We consider that they can re-spark these shares back to the 16p+ of last year.

Cloudtag (CTAG) was a bulletin board darling which we exposed as a bankrupt fraud on this website numerous times HERE. Eventually the company's Nomad, Liam Murray at Cairn Financial, arrived at the same conclusion and gave his notice of resignation.  However the company then raised £975,000 via broker Novum without telling Novum or anyone else about that resignation. Murray thus resigned with immediate effect and Novum unwound the placing while, with no other Nomad prepared to take on this toxic client, it was booted off the AIM sewer in March 2017.

Hello Share Gatherers. Next year, the UK economy will do the worst of all the G7 economies. So says the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. The OECD expects the UK's economy to shrink by 0.4% in 2023 to be followed by minute growth of just 0.2% a year later. Meanwhile, there is strength in many emerging countries.