Ignore what Ed Karr says about ramping his own stocks. What he says about inflation, a word unfamiliar to younger readers, is of real note. In this podcast from Palisade Capital, Karr discusses how you need to time the market cycles correctly. Gold is currently catching a pretty good bid, particularly with the recent dollar decline. We have seen an increase in volatility recently, and things are looking pretty good for precious metals. We could break through the 1350 level this year, and 2018 is shaping up to be an excellent year for gold.

I haven’t commented on fully listed Interserve (IRV) for a while. This, of course, is another outsourcing company doing our blessed government’s good works for it – and, like Carillion (RIP) is struggling with its debt (albeit we are to believe to a lesser extent). It is also a company which has delivered less than complete clarity. But it is under new management. So I wonder why the shares (now down to just 64.9p to sell as at Friday’s close) have again been slipping.

I last wrote about PCG Entertainment (PCGE) about six months ago (HERE) after it announced its Riverfort funding deal which I thought was potentially ok provided PCGE kept up its newsflow to provide the necessary liquidity to soak up the Riverfort sales; however, unfortunately, nothing of any import has been announced and in fact, nothing has happened at PCGE since the dark ages it seems – isn’t it just a cash shell?

From the FCA's spreadsheet of short positions required to be disclosed to it, the following shows the shorted AIM shares with positions from 2017 and thus far in 2018 (by net short position %) - and if this position has increased (red), reduced (green) or remained unchanged (black) since last week...

As Neil Woodford is such a believer in transparency, he has pulled his monthly updates altogether so these monthly updates now take on a greater importance to provide much needed information to the long-suffering investors in the three funds. Can’t imagine why Woodford stopped them?

Hello, Share Carriers. Even a raging bull like myself has to accept that sooner or later shares will crash to more realistic levels. There was a scare in that unhappy direction a couple of weeks back, but it seems to have been a false alarm. That doesn’t mean that the real thing - a proper crash - doesn’t continue to threaten us. So what should we do to preserve our assets now?

In December, I detailed my share tips of the year for 2018; uranium-focused Berkeley Energia (BKY) and precious metals company Goldplat (GDP). The following updates…

Stanley Gibbons (SGI) has announced a Proposed Refinancing, including raising £6.2 million at 2.5p per share… and the shares have currently responded more than 15% higher on yesterday, above 5.5p…

Gold has rallied back close to trendline resistance. Will it push through this time? That will depend on if Gold can breakout in real terms (against stocks, currencies) as its strength over the past year has been driven by only US$ weakness. This is the question answered by the only half decent technical analyst on this planet, Jordan Roy Byrne in his latest Palisade Capital podcast.

Oddly enough Britain's most conceited fund manager Neil Woodford has yet to agree to appear at UK Investor Show to answer some simple questions from me. What is he frightened of? I will have to go ahead with the session without him but I hope that he does not bleat on about how he had no right of reply! Anyhow, I discuss my futurology piece of yesterday and how it should be viewed if you are, like Nomates Neil, a big holder of auto related stocks. I cover BCA Marketplace (BCA), The AA (AA.) and Northgate (NTG) in this section. I also look, en passant, at another Woodford dog RM2 (RM2). Then I cover Milestone (TOAST) and finally pick up on the most excellent post on the comments section of this site by Drunken Sailor on POS Andalas (ADL)

Picking shares should be easy, right? Find a company where both profits and cash flow generation are improving plus where investor sentiment is shot to bits and the Gods of both fundamental analysis and investor psychology should be on your side.

Union Jack Oil (UJO) has updated including noting a draft decision advertisement issued by the Environment Agency that it is inclined to award a bespoke environmental permit for drilling and testing the Holmwood exploration well in PEDL 143 and how the company “is positioned to deliver ongoing news flow throughout 2018 from our onshore portfolio of producing assets, drill-ready appraisal and exploration targets”…

England’s newest Alternative Merchant Banking company First Sentinel PLC has one mission for its shareholders: value creation and growth. Sometimes it can be hard for investors to find the right opportunities offering good returns with an acceptable level of risk. Often investment opportunities are made available to institutional investors with retail or high net worth investors coming second. First Sentinel works diligently to gain access to such investment opportunities to the benefit of shareholders.

Hello, Share Pickers. Previously, I’ve recommended the old Royal Insurance Company which is now RSA (RSA) to your further probing. And having now reviewed last year’s results, I’m rather glad I did.

I previously wrote on touch sensors company Zytronic (ZYT) in December, concluding then that a circa 500p share price looked little, if any, better than fair enough. There is now an update on the first four months of its current financial year…

Hat tip to Andrew Monk of VSA for spotting this paper from Hult Business School. It does give you food for thought. Certainly why would anyone invested in a heavily indebted business with bigg exposure to the carrying value of cars as we known them ( Northgate or BCA Marketplace for example) or the AA? Maybe Neil Woodford should read this and ponder before he buys any more shares in the AA or BCA? 

Loyal readers will know that I, like Mr Woodford, love a quiz and with my favourite week of the year fast approaching, I thought I’d run a (simpler) quiz with a Cheltenham-related prize. There’s only two questions, so I’m hoping for more than one entrant this time!

On 18th January Starcom (STAR) was “pleased to provide an update in respect of the results for the year ended 31 December 2017, which are subject to final audit… it is anticipated that the consolidated net profit after tax will show a breakeven position or a small loss”. It was then placing ahoy. Now “although the audit process is not yet completed, it has become clear that the final results for 2017 will differ materially from those previously anticipated in that announcement”. It better hope in a good way then…

AIM-listed Milestone Group (MSG) has this morning posted the most awful set of results. Having been on the AIM Casino since 2003, the company clocked up losses of £2.26 million on revenues of a paltry £24,640. Retained losses stood at a jaw-dropping £33 million and the audit report (needless to say, missing from today’s RNS) contains, we are told, a material uncertainty paragraph. I should coco.

No I have not changed my mind. I am still a bear and stand by my target price of 0.4p but after chatting to a number of folks I try to see if there is a bull case. And I record this before setting off to the Greek Hovel which is my main focus of attention pro tem to prove to my friend and fellow Hammer, Thirsty David Bick that I am still alive, I hope that he takes up my invitation to come and watch the foul mouthed ladies of West Ham in action.