Sometimes I look at a company and think its shares are just too cheap at the current market cap and is pretty much being priced to fail, yet in some cases there certainly doesn’t appear to be anything fundamentally wrong that suggests that to be the situation.

Running an investment company should cost peanuts, especially when its portfolio is tiny. Yet with a portfolio now worth just over£1 million, the Colin Bird run Tiger Royalties has just ‘fessed that in the first half of 2021 its running costs were £148,204.  If you are spunking £300,000 a year running a portfolio of c£1 million then even Warren Buffett (23% a year) would eventually go bust. And Colin Bird is no Warren Buffett.

Itaconix (ITX) “is pleased to announce its unaudited interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2021”. The shares have responded currently approaching 7% lower to 8.3p. So “a leading innovator in plant-based specialty polymers” or still another Woodford pick dog?…

Asset manager Jaime Carrasco of Canaccord Genuity warns that we’re about to re-enter the storm that began back in 2008. He says, “Get your ship prepared.”

I may not have been on a plane since January 2020 but I still like easyJet (EZJ) shares and was pleased to read earlier today on the ‘31 for 47 rights issue of 301m New Shares at 410p per New Share…valid acceptances representing approximately 93.0%’. Whilst most money raisings will induce volatility, earlier this month I wrote about how I backed this deal. Frankly, I am amazed that 7% of investors failed to do this. That’s their mistake in my view. Easyjet remains a buy for me. I might even get the chance to travel on one of its planes over the next year. Also earlier this year I talked about looking for the opportunities to buy the ‘British multinational diversified engineering business’ Smiths Group (SMIN) when its shares fell below £15.

Hello, Share Swallowers. When a company I’ve commended quite a bit posts more interesting news then it justifies a little more coverage. Especially when that news chimes with one of the company’s policies which first attracted attention in the first place.

Central Asia Metals (CAML) has announced results for the first half of 2021 and said that the outlook for the remainder of 2021 is positive, including strong demand for the metals that it produces.

The CEO of Microsaic Systems (MSYS) Glenn Tracey is “thrilled to report this transformational performance for the first half of 2021”. The shares have responded to the half-year results announcement to currently 0.22p, more than 12% lower! So what’s going on?…

I explain why there was no bearcast yesterday. Then I look at the part this household is playing in the fuel crisis. It is all about psychology. Then a look at Real Good Food (RGF) and companies delisting before a look at the pathetic punishments for the enablers of fraud at Patisserie Holdings (CAKE) I also look at what Australian regulators are doing to tackle pump and dump twitter gangs while the FCA jerks off on more ESG porn doing nothing about tackling real crime. I flag up Aura Energy (AURA) in this regard.

We on this website, have warned you numerous times abut the financial house of cards, built on sand, which is All Active Asset Management (AAA). But still folks discuss what colour Porsche they will buy when they sell. They assume that the shares must be worth at least 80p, based on the current £120 million fundraise closing, at that price, on October 28.

Just over a week ago Ethernity Networks (ENET), describing itself as “a leading supplier of data processing offload solutions on programmable FPGA (field programmable gate array) hardware for accelerating telco/cloud networks”, was “pleased to report” that its ‘UEP-20’ product “passed the field trials, with bonding successfully performed on a variety of products from multiple vendors, indicating the ability of the solution’s interoperability and flexibility”. The announcement was though an RNS Reach i.e. “non-regulatory”, and I’ve stated the question to ask on such announcements to be ‘Is there a financial reason for such an announcement to now be made?’. Today a placing and subscription…

It is hard to know where to start with the ludicrous announcements from Aquis Listed Eight Capital Partners (ECP) controlled by former Supply@ME Capital (SYME) boss Dominic White. But having seen the FCA overlook industrial scale fraud at Supply, in its capacity as , ahem, “regulator” of the Standard List, White says he is going to move Eight to the Standard List. Surely the FCA has to reject this application? Why?

Previously writing on Real Good Food (RGD), last week I concluded that, despite the shares being down to below 3p, this was still not an illiquid position I would like to hold. Today came a “Notice of AGM and Proposed Delisting from AIM”  and the shares have slumped again from 2.7p towards 2p.

Nobody doubts that Patisserie Holdings (CAKE) was a fraud and it was a spottable one.  This website expressed its professional scepticism about how sales were surging while footfall in the malls where patisserie outlets were sited were collapsing. Others questioned how a company claiming huge cash balances has almost no net interest income. Yet Grant Thornton lead by partner David Newstead signed off on its accounts for the years to September 30 2015, 2016 and 2017 without question. They were sheer fiction.

Early last month I observed a bunch of ‘medium-term efficiency shifts centred on ultimate zero emissions’, but also ‘demand for tech-led solutions’ and ‘net zero pathway announced’ by 2050 which are all excitable news over the next few years for Rolls-Royce (RR.). That’s why I was excited back then for a 140p plus share price against the then 108p level…and this morning we are there.That is not too shabby for a stock that is now up 170% since its money-raising a year ago.

Hello, Share Takers. You may agree with me that now Covid is in retreat many companies with household names should recover pre-pandemic momentum and probably do a lot better in the next few years. Now you can either invest in these companies or you can buy shares in an outfit which serves many of those famous British brands. I’m thinking of a promising set-up called LondonMetric Property (LMP). It rents out premises to big companies.

Another week goes by and Gold is testing the nerves: having bounced between $1750 and $1830 or thereabouts over the past three months, this week the direction of travel has been lower and the price closed the week at $1751. Worse still, we have seen a series of lower highs.

It is a good debate whether the weekend is the start of the week or the end of the week.  Given a choice I would say the latter and – reflecting this – it is time to play a bit of catch up on three stocks I have mentioned before.  

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? 
 

Remember Drive Software? This was, according to Julie” lingerie on expenses” Meyer, going to be Tesla meets Fitbit. More like British Leyland meets Enron. Accounts for the year to March 31 2021 are out and are a car crash.