I do not always agree with Richard Jennings of Align Research but on the matter of Providence Resources (PVR) and the lamentable performance of its CEO Tony O'Reilly jnr, Jennings is bang on the money. He lets rip once again.

There are three bits of news from investment company Vela (VELA) and on balance all are good.

I predicted in November that Mitie (MTO) would soon be issuing its third profit warning and that new boss Phil Bentley had every incentive to clear the decks and start afresh, demystifying the opaque balance sheet bequeathed to him by his prickly and defenestrated predecessor Ruby McGregor-Smith.

Oil and gas company Bowleven (BLVN) is the latest in the sights of shareholder activist ‘flip flop’ Ben Turney – who, is organising small shareholders. But Flip Flop is the Monkey, the Organ grinder - we believe - is an activist hedge fund and this will unlock value. With the shares at a current 24.5p offer price, there is cash, asset (and currently wider industry sentiment) support, whilst we reckon success for the hedge fund in ousting a hated management would see the shares rise smartly in short order.

I recall a couple of episodes from my time on Fleet Street demonstrating the corrupt relationship between PR firms and the press you mistakenly think you should trust. I then move on today's article by Peter Evans in the Sunday Times on the fraud Eden Research (EDEN) which, from headline to conclusion, is misleading, strewn with factual errors and omits the real story of wholesale fraud. It was clearly spoon fed by the PR man, Paul "Queenie" McManus of Walbrook and shows the press in the worst possible light. No wonder so many of us despise my profession, or at least the established dead wood press part of it, so much.

It looked for all the world as though it was curtains for AIM-and JSE AltX- listed DiamondCorp (DCP), but an announcement on Friday sees the company having managed somehow to get a placing away to raise £1 million. Amazingly, with the shares suspended at about 2p pending clarification of financial position in November last year, the placing appears to have been concluded at 4p per share but the issue of warrants on a 1:1 basis, exercisable at just 1p rather takes the shine off that. Even so, the package looks set to raise (assuming full warrant conversion) much-needed cash at an average of 2.5p a share – a premium to the suspension price.

Marcus Stuttard, the head honcho of the AIM Casino would have us believe that the market is tightly regulated by his team of oxymorons at AIM Regulation. In order to demonstrate his faith in his own system we thought it a good idea to pick him a portfolio of seven stocks which we have Red Flagged so that he could put his own money into them and show us all that there is no problem of fraud on the world’s most successful growth market. Here is the January update for Stuttard’s Septic Seven.

Well, this is awkward.. Prime Minister Theresa May will be visiting newly minted US President Donald Trump next week and hopes to initiate some sort of trade deal, a mere 48 hours after Trump told the world of his plans: “From this day forward, it’s going to be only America first. America first.” But I am sure that he'll make an exception for us. TW Note - Does Darren actually bother to check what Trump says on Trade deals? More fake news from remoaning liberal losers...

In this podcast I look at when a stock comes into play on institutional radar, ref Optibiotix (OPTI) and also the lazy bastards at FinnCap who should be hung out to dry. I look at Sound Energy and praise its ramptastic management but the shares are still a sell. Then I look at the latest bollocks from ShareSoc calling for more regulation after the New World (NEW) forward selling scandal. What is not needed is new laws just the application of existing ones by the chocolate teapots round at the FCA.

The mere mention of lithium seems to be enough to send the share price soaring on many small AIM companies, until reality hits home and the almost inevitable pullback starts.

That Cloudtag is a fraud is beyond doubt. Lying to investors and then raising cash ( and also allowing funders to dump shares) on the back of those lies is fraud. I know that, the regulators know that, you know that and so do Tony Rawlinson, Liam Murray and the other banksters at Cairn Financial, nomad to Cloudtag. So why has Cairn not quit?

We have all these businessmen coming to Washington, but are they really going to drain the swamp or do we have new creatures living in the swamp? So said Peter Schiff, the great libertarian and gold bug this week. In his latest podcast the great man analysses what Donald Trump means for America, the economy, shares and gold. It is great stuff.

With a trading update last month having sent shares in market research group BrainJuicer (BJU) higher above 500p, a further update has now helped them to 675p…

After hours yesterday there was another announcement from Strat Aero (AERO), the AIM listed company that has committed fraud and is now just 25 days from running out of cash and going bust with debts of £300,000. It seems that Hulsey Smith, the US businessman who exposed the fraud at the heart of Strat last spring, has dumped another 11 million shares and now has just 7.5 million left.

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 Troggers.  There’s hardly a day goes by when we are not reminded that the National Health Service is in crisis. Hospitals are being overwhelmed by an unfit, ageing population and operations are regularly put off.

Today is Donald Trump day and I have a cunning plan for later which may see me watching Midsomer Murders at last. On the markets I have not a lot to say, other than I'm looking to bank gains and am more and more bearish, so instead I look forward to march 29 and April 1 and there is something I want you ALL to do,

Shares in Biome Technologies (BIOM) have retained a slight recovery above 100p following a 2016 “Pre-close Trading Statement”, though “the board expects the loss before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation… to be similar to the level achieved in 2015”…

Another day and another operational update from jam tomorrow joke stock Golden Saint Resources (GSR), floated at 10p three years ago and now 0.03-0.04p. Sadly there is no news on the football team it sponsors with money raised on AIM but we do at least have an update on the two of the three concessions out in Bongo Bongo land where it is still doing some exploration.

Provider of IT consultants, FDM Group (FDM) has updated that a strong trading performance and favourable exchange rate movements see it now anticipating “full-year results ahead of its expectations” – and the shares have responded more than 9% higher to a current 624p ‘bid’ price. So not a bad tip from us...