When we talk to folk in the industry, about our plans to steam the Pilot, Elke & Narwhal fields in the middle of the Central North Sea, sometimes we get a pretty sceptical reaction, sometimes we don’t. 

They are still dropping like flies. This morning the ShareProphets AIM-China Filthy Forty saw its 23^rd victim as LED International Holdings (LED) had its one-way trip from AIM’s Death Row to the lethal injection room. There are now just 17 of the original forty remaining, of which one is currently suspended. This is an incredible indictment of AIM, and the recent history of LED is the sour cherry on the rancid icing on the mouldy cake.

With the USA recording a higher than expected number of new entrants into the workforce last month, the markets are hopeful that there will be a rate hike in September and that US dollar’s weakness might be over and the optimists are now forecasting a 3.8% third quarter rise in real GNP but recent services data out of the USA has pointed to a weaker number. The second quarter GNP figure which had widely been expected to come in at +2.8% turned out to be only +1.2%. With capital spending following profits downwards and the world economy continuing to be weak, only consumer spending and bank consumer credit lending has kept the US economy rolling along. 

Rare Earth Minerals (REM) has seen its market cap more than double in the space of a month, but it is hard to see anything that justifies such a meteoric rise.

Hello Share Takers. I’ve often thought that companies which do boring things can be perky investments. Is it because punters avoid them as they just don’t seem exciting enough? And then when the penny drops that they are making good money, a welter of heavy buying can make the stock soar. Long after the cannier investor bought them earlier and a lot cheaper.

Say what you like about fraudster Rob Terry, the man is a comedy genius. I am sure that when he does get sent to prison he will be providing entertainment for his fellow inmates in all sorts of ways. But away from the shower block one way will be as a comedian. Terry's latest commentary on the "blog" of his new ponzi, Quob Park Estate is a comedy classic.

We know from an Inspirit Energy Holdings (INSP) announcement on 17 May 2016 that Octagonal (OCT) remains a major shareholder in Inspirit and that John Gunn is a director of both Inspirit and also Octagonal. This really is a cosy old relationship between the two AIM POS companies.

Ok it may be technical analysis and, therefore, by definition utter cobblers but for those who are interested Jordan Roy Byrne at Palisade Capital remains bullish on all things golden. Let us hope that for once TA gives us a correct signal with his medium term targets. 

Last week, Rank (RNK) and 888 (888) abandoned their pursuit of William Hill (WMH), acknowledging that it had been impossible to “meaningfully engage” with William Hill’s board. With a deal off the cards for now, we can get back to thinking about these companies on a standalone basis. And news is imminent: Rank is set to announce its preliminary results on Tuesday.

In this podcast I refer to my non financial podcast today on the great Olympic Con - sport is not making Britain Great again (HERE) and also to part 4 of the new series: The Chairman's Blog by Sir Benjamin Dover HERE. Then I go onto how the corrupt financial press and PR flunkies use and abuse you as readers and investors with special reference to bank closures and Lombard Risk Management (LRM)  in the Mail on Sunday and, especially, Advanced Oncotherapy (AVO) in today's Sunday Times.

The Star Wars imagery should tell you that this is Tom writing not Steve. The series of movies will be my specialist subject if I ever go on Mastermind. Enough geekery, you want to know about marble not that I am losing my marbles.Another day and another operational update from Fox Marble (FOX) sees, on balance, more good news than bad. We will get full interims for the half calendar year by the end of September but the trading update is full. Let's start with the bad.

Following the example set by Paul Warwick the chairman of worthless penny stock Andalas (ADL) in starting a blog, Sir Benjamin Dover of AIM listed Global Mining Endeavours has decided to follow suit and like Paul promises to be Candid in his approach. Day 4

ShareProphets AIM-China Filthy Forty play Origo Partners (OPP) has had its shares suspended from trading pending clarification of its financial position since 11 March this year, and with a six-month timetable to AIM execution due to expire next month things were looking dire until a no-one-is-watching o’clock RNS at 4.50pm yesterday. It seems as though there may be some light at the end of the tunnel. Has the Filthy Forty turned up some good news? I rather suspect the answer to that may just be yes.

As one of those terrible foreigners who have come to steal jobs from hard done by Brits, I'm already subject to a fingerprint check every time that I cross the border. Also, I have to use the terrible foreigner line-up instead of the whizzy EU/UK passport line.

The only fool worse than an old fool (Malcolm - see HERE ) is a young fool, that is to say Graham Neary, see HERE. Maybe I should fire Graham. What do you think?  Having discussed why young Graham is being foolish I move onto gold. Is it too late to buy gold shares? Why is Paul Jourdan not adding Caledonia Mining and how should you buy exposure if you have none?

I note with interest the today’s macro-outlook comments by Malcolm and Tom, each taking different sides of the debate. While I agree with Tom’s analysis, I reckon that Malcolm’s conclusions might turn out be right!

We tipped Berkeley Energia (BKY) at a 20p offer - the shares are now 48p-49p so I hope there are no complaints out there on this tip. What next? The most recent news of note was the Quarterlies. The actually numbers are academic but the only paragraph that matters states:

Richard Jennings of Align Research has written an open letter to Tony O'Reilly of Providence Resources (PVR). Mr Jennings and myself may not see eye to eye on many things (that is a diplomatic understatement of the year entry) but on this issue he is bang on the money. O'Reilly's behaviour is shocking and needs to be curbed. I'd urge other shareholders in Providence to drop Tony a note too. The open letter is below.

Following the example set by Paul Warwick the chairman of worthless penny stock Andalas (ADL) in starting a blog, Sir Benjamin Dover of AIM listed Global Mining Endeavours has decided to follow suit and like Paul promises to be Candid in his approach. Day 3

Now that Teathers (TEA) disgraced Nilesh Jagatia has finally published accounts for another AIM POS, we can have a look at how Octagonal (OCT) has valued its investments. We start by looking at City Golf Clubs Limited.