This time last year I was worried about stock markets. Most had been going up for too long and were too expensive and I thought that this great bull market must be near an end. I was worried about politics: the QE-driven rise in wealth inequality was having consequences – most obviously Corbynism and Trumpism. I expected to see growing state interference in the economy as governments tried to shift profits from managers and shareholders to workers and I was especially concerned that the monopolistic US tech stocks would end up at the centre of that storm. As usual I was a bit early. Last year offered a fair amount of political turmoil but not that much drama.

 In 2016 to great fanfare Julie Meyer's Ariadne Capital announced that it had secured the services of Ilona Simpson as a "senior advisor and venture partner". Heck who would not want to work with Julie Meyer MBE, a member of the great and the good. Ilona is clearly a real BSD in the world of auto and this was a big hire for Meyer. Wind forward to today in Royal Courts of Justice at 2PM

Hello, Share Samplers. Many years ago, I lost money on a company called Stanelco. It became Biome Technologies (BIOM) and I had another go. After a few moribund years, it suddenly took off and I sold to make a fair fist of dough. The reason the price spurted was that there was a hoo-hah in the media about takeaway coffee cups. The huge majority of them cannot be recycled, which means millions of the little beggars are cluttering up the environment. In Blighty alone, we get through two and a half billion disposable cups a year.

In today's podcast I start with a few more words on Julie Meyer MBE although my formal series on her will only continue tomorrow. Then it is onto Neil Woodford in light of today's most excellent piece by Cynical Bear here. Finally I comment on the fraud MySquar (MYSQ) in light of today's article in the Sunday Times.

The Mail on Sunday headline says it all " Brexit fears are diverting cash from vital cancer battle say drug firms." That sod Boris Johnson and the witch Priti Patel - now they are causing more cancer patients to die. Bastards! Er....

Often when it comes to AIM companies investors get far too fixated on revenue and orderbooks, and forget that in reality it all comes down to the bottom line and the actual net profit that the company is either already making, or is likely to make.

I wouldn’t normally cover stocks listed on the Oslo exchange but Thin Film Electronics was mentioned in the comments of a recent Woodford piece and I also noted it was the Share Punt of the Week in the Daily Mail on Friday, so if it is good enough for them to recommend a Woodford-backed cash guzzler to its brain dead readers, it is appropriate for me to provide another side to that story, especially as the cash burn here is off the scale.

There was a time when Premier African Minerals (PREM) looked to have genuine potential, but in the few years since then it has consistently disappointed investors and is now trading at a fraction of the share price it once hit.

I’ve been a bit preoccupied in recent weeks with a certain fund manager so thought I should catch up with a few old friends on AIM this weekend but it transpires that not a lot has actually happened. It made me realise more than ever that AIM is much more about the travelling I hope than the arriving. Accordingly, I thought it was more appropriate to write a piece heralding the 7 Mythical Wonders of the AIM Casino instead.

In the UK, cannabis stocks are fever dreams of bulletin board morons. Here in Canada, it's respectable news in the quality newspaper financial pages.

Shares in MySquar (MYSQ) recently more than doubled valuing the disreputable Myanmar (Burma) play at around £22 million, a ludicrous sum for a transparent scam that stands out even when measured by the exalted standards of AIM.

Previously writing on Obtala (OBT) we noted its view that “in an environment of low interest rates with investors hunting for yield, there is an outsized opportunity to fund our trading business to many multiples of current revenue and profit levels”. There’s now a “Trade Finance Update”…

We review the performance of the shorted AIM 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 shorted AIM shares at the start of 2018...

 hope over the festive period all your Christmas cards and parcels were both received and sent successfully.  Personally I still await the successful delivery of a book I self-gifted...but rather than turn this into a self-centred rant I thought we would talk about the Royal Mail (RMG).  

Results for its half-year ended 30^th September 2017 from Premaitha Health (NIPT) contained some bad news – which sees the shares currently at a depressed little more than 5p, but also many more positive aspects…

As referenced yesterday, the Mrs has whisked me away for a romantic weekend to celebrate my birthday next Friday. For the first time since the birth of Joshua 16 months ago the vermin , as he is known, is elsewhere - with his doting grandparents. I have enjoyed an oatcake which is s sort of pancake up here in the post industrial wastelands and as well as the foreign food am trying to understand what the folks are saying up here in a rural part of the welfare safari. Anyhow a bracing walk this afternoon leaves room in the tummy for a glass or two of red. I'm back on duty tomorrow.

Hello, Share Screamers. I just want to strike one more encouraging note for armchair tycoons like ourselves, before we all settle down to a new year of trading profitably. There are more doom and gloomsters at large than bulls like me. And no wonder with PE’s high and the Footsie breaking new records. But there are reasons for the long-running buying spree and to always worry about a crash is not to take advantage of an established trend.

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…