Purplebricks (PURP) shares continue to tumble despite it attempting to attack a damning report out late yesterday from broker Jeffries which claims to show that the company may have been lying. The Purplebricks response , a denial, simply does not convince.

Yesterday afternoon I received an email from a fellow who had bad news about Falanx (FLX). But it was fake news. How does a company react to fake news, I don't know is the answer. So what happened?

As we have seen with the debacles at Provident Financial, Capita and elsewhere, Britain's most conceited fund manager, Neil "Nomates" Woodford likes to bet - other people's money - against the herd. A share price is tanking, the market must be wrong. The bears are adding to their shorts. They must be wrong too. Nomates always knows best, I demonstrated this with a chart looking at Capita (CPI) the other day HERE. Now I offer up three more Woodford dogs...

In June 2016 Comptoir Group (COM) was “pleased to announce its admission to trading on AIM” at a placing price of 50p per share, stating it “provides us with the platform to accelerate the growth of the business”. Now the Comptoir Libanais, Yalla Yalla, Shawa, Levant and Kenza restaurant group is “pleased to report that trading for the 52 weeks to 31st December 2017 was above market expectations”. The shares have responded, er, less than 3% higher to, er, 19.5p. Hmmm…

Hello, Share Bunnies. The nearest you get to a joke in the bible is when someone asks about Jesus, ‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?’. As a Northerner, I could say the same about Woking. However, I know of at least one good internet firm based in Woking and I commend it to your further attention now.

Shares in the former Jubilee Platinum, now Jubilee Metals Group (JLP) have recently been on the slide – and this including after a recent Operations Update…

I realise that there may be a spot of nervousness in the market at the moment – especially in the wake of disasters at Carillon and Capita. Does that explain why shares in fully-listed Interserve (IRG) are off by 15% today, with no RNS announced?

I have to say I’m puzzled by this morning’s announcement from AIM-listed Tern (TERN) regarding the proposed (and so far failed) funding round for Device Authority via US Capital Markets. Silly old me, I thought it was dead in the water – after all, an outfit called USCIM Fund XXXIII Device Authority LLC has been dissolved. I can’t find a replacement.

Okay this is a Proactive interview where the sycophantic cocksuckers ask only soft questions. But the statements Steve O'Hara of Optibiotix (OPTI) makes on the value of deals signed ( 4 minutes in) and the pipeline explain why I am so bullish. And perhaps why the chairman has just bought £100,000 worth of shares, something announced this afternoon.  At 63p offer the shares are a storming buy ahead of a stream  of big contract wins which will, finally, push the stock to 100p and beyond, IMHO. 

AIM-listed Ariana Resources (AAU) has delivered its Q4 update from its joint-venture Kiziltepe gold mine in Turkey. The news looks to me to be very good on several fronts.

My Woodford piece earlier today highlighted the challenges of taking too much notice of what you hear from the company itself. I think the same can be said in connection with Big Sofa Technologies (BST) following its poor trading update yesterday.

My conclusion to The Big Short series over Christmas was that although it was a long-term play, Neil Woodford was only a few pieces of “bad luck” away from a speedier, more dramatic implosion. This week’s Capita (CPI) news is the second of those already and we’re only one month in. Further to the excellent pieces on Capita yesterday (HERE and HERE), a few further observations on the wider Woodford story from me.

In December I warned, with its shares towards 8p, that despite there looking interesting growth value on positive trading continuing, a statement on its order book from X-ray screening systems company Image Scan Holdings (IGE) created current year doubt and made me cautious. Today a Trading Update…

If I mention the names Vodafone (VOD), Royal Dutch Shell (RDSB) and Unilever (ULVR) to you, what is your first reaction? Stalwarts of the FTSE-100? Dividend-heavy behemoths that will never let you down? Holdings in my company pension fund? You could also add three names that reported earlier today and collectively add up to a very decent chunk of the UK's leading index.

In today's bearcast I ponder why on days like this I bother. I look at Big Sofa (BST) shares in which, I am delighted to say, we own. I look at Versarien (VRS) owning morons at former Rob Terry fave Imaginatik (IMTK), for strategic review read we are fecked, at SIG (SHI) and at Image Scan (DOG).  PS Ben Turner calls me to say we did not fire him. As I said Alzheimers.  I am happy to stand corrected.

The City's No 1 oil analyst makes an oblique reference to the shoddy way this stock is promoted but the reality is that today's news is grim and it is placing ahoy (YET AGAIN). Zac "the Knife" Phillips of SP Angel opines:

Having asked for readers tips for 2018 for the amazing prize of a meal with Tom Winnifrith (or the chance to fob it off on someone you don't like) HERE, the following is a monthly update on performance (to be eligible needed to have selected, on a per username basis, a buy & sell pick from the LSE or AIM Casino and the stocks not to have been suspended at the commencement of 2018)...

Hello, Share Tweakers. As my wise colleague Gary Newman said last year, it can be a wizard policy to invest in a big company which hits a bad patch. I think the reasoning is that the sell-off is usually overdone and that a big company has the resources and experience to rectify mistakes.

Sabien (SNT) has released dismal interims today. It boasts about its cash position but how has that been achieved? This short podcast is a lesson in how balance sheets can deceive to flatter. This company deserves to go under.

Previously writing on Real Good Food (RGD) in October I noted a Trading Statement including “revenue growth, however, is not currently being translated into greater profitability where H1 performance has been disappointing compared to the board's previous expectations, particularly in September”. There’s now a 10:30am Trading Statement. Why am I not confident…