I think it is Darren Atwater's 50th today. I wish him happy returns anyway. My own 50th is a week away but I celebrate a few days early so no bearcast tomorrow. In this podcast I discuss: Deltex (DEMG), Union Jack (UJO), Egdon (EDR), UK Oil & Gas (UKOG), FastForward (FFWD) and the bubble in pot stocks and why it must burst, Premier Africa (PREM) and the fraud MySquar (MYSQ) 

Another year, another set of de-listing developments amongst the (few) remaining ShareProphets China AIM 'Filthy Forty'. Who's next to follow the likes of Geong International and co in 'Geong, Geong' and then Gone?...

An update on the 15 weeks to 24th December from Crawshaw (CRAW) commences “Continued progress was made in the period against the group's strategy to strengthen its position as Britain's leading value butcher, delivering great quality fresh meat at amazing value everyday” and sees CEO Noel Collett stating “our biggest ever Christmas week and the record number of meat hampers sold clearly demonstrates the trust our customers place in us for their most important meat spend of the year. This gives us a solid platform to improve trading momentum going into 2018”. Sounds encouraging…

Just when shareholders in Worthington (WRN) thought they would have tradeable golden tickets once again it appears that Whetstone Capital, the son of the late Old Mother, has had its NEX Markets application rejected. We had been expecting trading to start within days but Allan Biggar, the chairman of Whetstone, has posted the bad news. Mr Biggar writes:

Following the utterly implausible spin put on the demise of her flagship, non bill paying, Ariadne Capital company by former Dragon's Den star Julie Meyer MBE, there may be some folks who think that this obsessive self publicist and narcissist is an A Grade bullshitter. Well now let's turn to another of her businesses, Entrepreneur Country.

I’ve been smiling this week at the comments on Woodford’s website as the moderators are desperately sticking to the party line regardless of what is happening in reality or what Woodford himself is briefing to investors privately. Let me explain in the context of his Income Focus Fund.

Yesterday I asked if serial self-promoter Julie Meyer was a bullshitter as she spun the news of the administration of her flagship Ariadne Capital vehicle. Oddly I have been besieged by folks seeking to offer a steer about this member of the Great & the Good. Let's start at Glassdor.com - where employees post reviews of what it is like working for a company. Ho Ho Ho - can you smell the rat?

Madness is afoot at FastForward Innovations (FFWD) with the excitement about the impending listing of its cannabis play, Nuuvera, driving the share price up as high as 30p yesterday. This makes no rational sense as I will endeavour to explain but the summary is simple – if you like Nuuvera, buy it in the market for its market value rather than at 4-5 times its value!

We review the performance of the top shorted London-listed shares as at the start of each year. For 2017 that review is HERE and, from the FCA's spreadsheet of short positions required to be disclosed to it, we now have the ten top shorted London-listed shares at the start of 2018...

Hello, Share Twinklers. Oil is the hot sector at the moment. The price of Brent Crude is recovering fast. Still a long way to go to those heady days of the $120 barrel, but it’s moving up strongly again.

On 11th December CyanConnode (CYAN) noted the (downward) movement in the share price and that it was “not aware of any corporate developments that justify such a movement”. Today a Trading Statement announcement. Should be fine then…

In today's bearcast I look firstly at Debenhams (DEB) and its Christmas trading statement/profits warning. I do not believe what it says on cost cutting going forward and explain why. I do not believe its profits guidance for 2018 either and as such even on an apparent 2018 PE of 7 it is a sell. I also look at Ethernity Networks (ENET) - six months from IPO to shock profits warning, what a disgrace and at Be Heard (BHRD) which forgets that sales are vanity...

Previously writing on Cambria Automobiles (CAMB) I stated trading “in line”, but can that be continued? Today there’s an announcement of “Franchising developments & AGM trading update”…

I knew about this. I was an insider as well as a loyal shareholder. And for that reason I declined to make Fox Marble (FOX) one of my tips of the year. Otherwise I would have been sorely tempted. 2018 may well be the year of the Fox.

I have already given my excuses concerning my 2017 tip of the year Whitbread (WTB), which only went dully up last year. I concluded in that piece that I would 'hold on' and I am. Today's announcement of a change at the top of the company's management structure reiterates such a position.

Like London buses you wait for ages and then suddenly they all arrive at once. Big Sofa (BST) has announced two major contract wins with Target Corporation, a leading US retailer, and Zurich North America, the US company of the global insurance group.

Ex Dragon's Den star Julie Meyer MBE has always struck me as a massive self publicist and an AI bullshitter. Her UK firm Ariadne Capital was put into administration on December 15 but Meyer has published a video (below) claiming that this was all planned and something "every entrepreneur has to do." Hmmm, it is worth having a butchers at La Meyer's track record and also Ariadne's accounts.

After leaking stories of a bid approach to the fraudsters favourite website, MySquar (MYSQ) put out an odd statement yesterday. The shares rocketed. What to make of it all? Remember this is a company that comitted large scale and blatant securities fraud in July 2017 and view matters in that context.

On setting the competition at the end of November, shares in UK Oil & Gas (UKOG) were 3.85p bid. It was unlucky for Dave Jenkins as a share price-bashing “Operational, Technical & Corporate Update” was announced at attempted no-one watching o'clock 27th December - I was watching though...

Hello Share Twangers. After a phoney war start, this winter is turning out to be quite chilly. Most of us saw snow over the Christmas period and though things have warmed up a bit now, there’s still an icy wind blowing. And it's even colder in many parts of the world, including the USA which is seeing temperatures plunge to record lows. Europe has also been unnaturally cold. All this has the effect of using up oil reserves.