Between December 24 and January 2 we are serving up 24 share tips of the year from our team of writers at ShareProphets. The share tips are for paying subscribers only. Next up, the first of two ideas from Steve Moore

I’m going to draw together my analysis on Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) in one piece now so that if you’ve actually been enjoying Christmas rather than reading Shareprophets, you can start here and work backwards. I will also add a few words of caution that I picked up from the book “The Big Short” itself.

In this bearcast I look at the role of NEDs and their failings in a bull market. that is a general point I then discuss the NEDs at Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) and how they MUST be replaced at once. The COI are surely too great. I then discuss a woman reduced to tears by charlatan and snake oil salesman Darren Winters this Christmas Eve.This story will horrify you. I then discuss Christmas. Whatever you do, however you spend the day I hope that it is in some way joyous. That magical moment at Midnight Mass as you sing "Yea, Lord, we greet Thee, born this happy morning" and you realise it is Christmas Day is now only hours away.

Between today and January 2 we will be serving up 24 share tips of the year from our team of writers here.  The share tips are for paying subscribers only. Next up, the first of two ideas from Gary Newman. 

Er….hi, just me again! This Chapter of “The Big Short” looking at Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) wasn’t in the original draft manuscript sent to my editor but as something truly astounding was pointed out to me in the comments of my piece yesterday, I thought I’d better add to the opus. Hat tip to Robert Dwek for spotting it.

Between today and January 2 we will be serving up 24 share tips of the year from our team of writers here.  The share tips are for paying subscribers only. We start with the first of two ideas from the grandfather of share blogging Malcolm Stacey.

Having looked at the unquoted risk and the level of debt and connected liquidity issues within the Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT), it is time to look at the tricky topic of valuation policy as it looks to me as if Woodford is taking a particularly aggressive approach, albeit a flexible one, to the valuation of the unquoted stocks (almost all the fund!) that casts further doubts on the underlying NAV.

I start with the issue that has been bugging me all week, there is light at the end of the tunnel. I review a number of villains like Rob Terry, MySquar's holocaust denying fraudster scumbag of a CEO Schaer & also the China team at Pinsent Masons and look at what 2018 has in store for them. I ask very serious questions indeed of the compliance department at Woodford Capital as Cynical Bear continues to take Neil Woodford apart. My experience as a failed fund manager gives me some insight into the mess I think Nomates is now in. I look at the shocking behaviour of London Capital (LCG) and Real Good Food (RGD) on Friday. Tosserrs. And, like Malcolm, I have a Christmas message for you all and send you all my best wishes. That is unless you are Woodford, Terry etc

Gold Guru Adrian Day notes that only two gold stocks have outperformed gold itself in recent years. This underperformance is one of the reasons why many investors are not particularly interested in the sector. There are many inherent problems in mining, and poor management decisions exacerbate this.

Ahead of 2018's selection to follow over the next week or so, how have 2017's tips fared to-date?...

Continuing  my festive series on The Big Short, Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT), having highlighted yesterday the huge unquoted risk within the portfolio and having to clean up after its big brother, the Equity Income Fund, I wanted to turn next to concerns I have over its debt levels which leads on to liquidity issues.

From the FCA's spreadsheet of short positions required to be disclosed to it, the following shows the shorted AIM shares with positions from 2016 and thus far in 2017 (by net short position %) - and if this position has increased (red), reduced (green) or remained unchanged (black) since last week...

Hello Share Revellers. As I've traded shares longer than my talented fellow writers, may I take the liberty at this jolly time of year to reflect on how Christmas should influence our dealings in the wicked, wicked City. We should BUY integrity, HOLD morals and Sell dishonesty in keeping with the spirit of Xmas. Because it's not just dodgy directors that try to pounce on money they're not entitled to.

The fraud du jour of 12 months ago Cloudtag (CTAG) continues to pretend it is a real company with real operations. Its website even has a year end message from CEO Amit Ben Haim. It doers not have FY 2016 or H1 2017 financial results but who cares about numbers when you have Amit spouting 100% bull. Amit tells his moronic followers: 

I am still in a foul mood about you know what. In this podcast I cover Westminster Group (WSG) and its vile chairman Tony Baldry, Concepta (CPT), Servision (SEV), Inspirit (INSP), Sabien (SNT), Milestone (MSG) and a broken promise, Conroy Gold & Natural Resources (CGNR) and Integumen (SKIN)

Via our broker,the London Stock Exchange (LSE) warned me that unless FIML and also my pension fund had what is called an LEI number by January 3rd it would be unable to trade. I filled in complex forms on behalf of FIML and applied. I handed over £138 including VAT and today FIML got its number.

An AGM statement from mobile media company Mobile Streams (MOS) commences “in India, Mobile Streams is gradually establishing itself in the market by working with the majority of telecom operators and forming relationships and partnerships with a number of the industry's leading players”. Sounds promising…

The above piece, from the staff gazette of logistics compamy Hoyer (which was sent out three days ago) had the retail faithful in charlatan oil promotion UK Oil and Gas jumping up and down with excitement today as they marked the stock up 18 % yesterday and endlessly circulated it on Twitter.

I started my festive series on The Big Short, namely Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) earlier by providing some wider context about some of the challenges Woodford faces particularly with his flagship fund, the Equity Income Fund, but let’s get into the details of WPCT itself. I’ll start with the ever increasing size of its unquoted portfolio and what appears to me to be a massive conflict of interest.