Here are five long reads that have nothing to do with shares. Put the kettle on, find a comfy chair. You have the time, don’t you? 
 

I indicated a week or so ago that I was bored by gold’s failure to run higher. Maybe that was a buy signal, as it has, since then, gone up! Is gold a barbarous relic or will it zoom as chaos descends on the West? Peter Hambro has been involved in gold for 50 years - if anyone knows, he knows.

Grab a cup of tea, sit back, and test your knowledge against the other ShareProphets members. Write your score in the comments, there are no prizes, and most important of all – no Googling!

On 21 July 2022, sub-Standard-Listed Predator Oil and Gas (PRD) released an RNS detailing a share sale. Given the coverage to date from Tom Winnifrith on this fine website regarding this company, that may be hardly a surprise. But the sale was effectively by the Executive Chairman. Is it time to hoist another Red Flag?

These are the most-read articles and most listened-to Bearcasts of the week. The most read non-Tom article is Don’t panic GSK shareholders! Meanwhile Direct Line Insurance remains a recent comedy by Chris Bailey at number one or number six if you include Bearcasts.

OptiBiotix Health (OPTI) has announced an update on recent scientific and commercial activities, emphasising it is “increasing the range of products, applications, and territories creating the potential to open larger market opportunities”.

It is hard to imagine a more perfect storm than the one that now faces Cineworld (CINE). I know Lucian and I have been telling you to short it for some while, and you will be well in the money if you have followed that advice, with the shares now just 21p. But that is 21p too high, and so it is not to late to open a short or to add to your position.

San Leon Energy (SLE) has just announced a transaction which would give it a much more significant stake in the OML18 field in Nigeria, which constituted a reverse takeover and required an admission document to be published prior to trading in the shares recommencing.

I start with a few reflections about being alone on holiday for the first time in two weeks. It is a short respite, but blissful. Then, it is onto Julie Meyer and why she is so wrong about the economic prospects of her latest bolt hole, Greece. It is doomed. Then, onto delusion among shareholders in the fraud, Supply@ME Capital (SYME). And finally, why you should book your tickets for ShareStock, on the banks of the river Dee in Wales, on September 10 HERE

One of the reasons I have always perceived crypto as a bubble, is that its promoters spout goobledygook which is clearly designed to deceive and befuddle rather than to enlighten investors. Maybe, one of our in house loons (calling Jimbo!) can translate the sentence below into understandable English. Good luck all.

Gold ended the week at $1728 – up (at last!) from last week’s $1709. It may not be much, but bearing in mind what happened in between times, I wonder if this may be the start of a rebound. Gold has had few friends for weeks and even Tom Winnifrith, a Gold bull (if a bit less madly so than me) was expressing doubts. If even he is having doubts, have we reached capitulation and finally turned the corner?

Hello share collectors.  This old punter is still mostly in cash. There’s nothing in the runes makes me believe shares will rally soon. In fact, the economic indicators are getting worse. However, we still have some sectors that could thrive even in the alligator swamp. And some that will be bitten more than others.

Previously writing on ventilation systems and window and door hardware company Titon Holdings (TON), in May with the shares at 75p I noted supply chain, inflationary and consumer pressures and economic activity uncertainty saw me continue to avoid. The shares last closed at 82.5p but are currently back to 75p, a £8.4 million market cap, on a “trading update”.

Anyone who invests in a company run by serial value destroyer, Arthur Milholland, is asking for it. After deceiving investors ahead of its last placing, his latest vehicle for self enrichment, Canadian Overses Petroleum (COPL), has today served up a new debt structure, which is so utterly horrible it tells you just how badly Milholland and Canadian are perceived. I discuss this, the shambles at Mirriad (MIRI), Eden Research (EDEN) and at cash strapped Asimilar (ASLR).

‘Hotter Shoes’ brand 55+ demographic footwear group Unbound (UBG) “is pleased to announce that, further to the announcement made on 21 July 2022 regarding the fundraising, an aggregate of 20,783,334 placing shares have been successfully placed by Singer Capital Markets Securities Limited at an issue price of 15 pence per placing share to raise gross proceeds for the company of approximately £3.3 million”. With the shares currently down more than 40% in response, should it be pleased to announce this?!

The half year trading update from Mirriad Advertising (MIRI), out this morning, is truly appalling, and shows that those running the company are living in a parallel universe of self-entitlement. This company, which has never turned a cent of profit and whose revenues have always been less than your average East Midlands corner store, pays bonuses. Bonuses for what, FFS?

Tom was absolutely correct in yesterday’s Bearcast to observe that the news late Wednesday/early Thursday that Carnival plc (CCL) “has priced its previously announced underwritten public offering of 102,139,621 shares of common stock of the Company at a public offering price of $9.95 per share”, was not the greatest. Somehow the shares are still up in July…but we will not mention the year-to-date or last three-year performance.

Previously updating on the UK’s largest pawnbroker and a leading retailer of new and pre-owned jewellery and watches, H&T Group (HAT) we concluded that we continued to look for further news flow to drive a return to an above 350p share price. The shares have now reached further higher than that.

Thursday was a busy day with a thousand (and one) corporate names reporting and the European Central Bank finally seeing common sense and raising interest rates after 14 years to (wait for it!) 0%. What a world we live in… And talking about the excitable world out there brings me back (again) to Ocado (OCDO). Last month - despite being an occasional user – I noted it is still bonkers that the grocery technology name has a c. £6.5 billion market cap (even if it continues to sign various global deals). What did Ocado’s first half 2022 numbers say yesterday then? No surprise it is still talking about losses (and hopes for the future).

I am, after all, an expert on divorces and failed marriages. But this one failed even before the two made it to the altar, as Pires Investments (PIRI) shareholders rejected an all share merger with TERN (TERN). I salute them. I look at why this deal failed, the logic behind it for Tern (TERN), viz an escape, the logic for Pires - arguably the right strategy but the wrong target - and where both go from here. I make Pires an offer it should accept, if it is to consider any more M&A activity.