IQ-AI (IQAI) Chief Executive Trevor Brown is “pleased to announce… unaudited financial results for the six months ended 30 June 2021”. So ‘pleased’ that he’s done so at an intra-day 9:57am on the Friday before a bank holiday weekend… not usually a time to announce ‘pleasing’ financial results Trev! But then this is the Trevor Brown of pumping & dumping, spiv infamy. Now, why may these results not be pleasing for shareholders?

I start discussing Laura Ingalls Wilder and why I read her books to Joshua and as an aside, have an amusing – one has to laugh – tale from Sweden. Elsewhere, I look at MyHealthChecked (MHC), Nanosynth (NNN), Amigo (AMGO), Chill Brands (CHLL) and Dev Clever (DEV). Enjoy the bank holiday weekend. I shall as my mother-in-law is coming to stay. You see, irony is not dead.

Back in April I observed that at the time it was ‘getting closer to my two quid and out share price target on Barclays (BARC)’. Well that was true at the time…and sort of still true today even if the shares today are slightly lower than it was a few months ago. There are a few reasons for that.

Normally companies will do anything they can to stop auditors or anyone else saying that there is any uncertainty at all as to its ability to continue as a going concern, that is to say not to go bust causing investors to lose all their money. But today, loan shark Amigo (AMGO) stresses most clearly that there is a material uncertainty and still its shares are bid higher. Crazy stuff.

I noted the other day that AIM-listed John Zorbas vehicle URU Metals (URU) seemed to be an accident waiting to happen. With a boat-load of death spiral shares and warrants to come at 85p against a then share price of 405p, that was surely enough of a Red Flag, but with its main asset now held in TSXV-listed ZEB Nickel (ZBNI) following a “disposal” which was not really a disposal, whose shares (of which URU holds 41 million of, but mostly held in escrow) and ZEB’s shares sliding alarmingly since the suspension was lifted, the Red Flags were certainly fluttering wildly in the wind.

Okay, the call is from a chartist so you may wish to ignore it but since it will annoy some folks here goes anyway.

I always took the view that Salt Lake Potash (SO4) was an over-pumped promote, touted as the next big thing by the likes of Alan Green and the scumbags at Vox markets and that its CEO Tony Swiericzuk was an arrogant and monstrously overpaid ( A$2.2 million last year) prick. As if there were not enough red flags…

After the longest formal sales process in UK stockmarket history (315 days), Eurasia Mining (EUA) announced on May 14 that it had received no actual bid. But at least the hope of one had allowed it to get a bailout placing away at 22p, notwithstanding pledges months previously that it would be paying dividends. Then what happened?

It was a fight to the death – well, not really for ShareProphets readers are far too civilised for that. In the blue corner we had Putneywill thinking that the massively long-awaited special dividend from Ariana Resources (AAU) would see the shares tick down by less than the dividend when it finally arrived. In the red corner we had Pierotlunaire arguing that it would not – and a bet ensued, with ShareProphets’ favourite charity Woodlarks the winner. The stats say there was a winner – but this is ShareProphets, where our readers operate by different standards, and it seems that in the end Woodlarks won one and a half times over.

Hello, Share Campers. When the Footsie’s falling and you hold a share that’s just reached an all-time high, you know you might, in the words of Herman’s Hermits, be into something good. Strix Group, with the amusing epic code of KETL, is one such baby in my book. It’s worth taking another peek at its credentials.

A “Trading Update” announcement from Parity Group (PTY) at an intra-day 10:40am. Such is rarely good news and so what about the latest from this self-styled “data and technology-focussed professional services company”?…

Earlier today, I broke the news that MyHealthChecked (MHC) where I am, of course, a loyal shareholder is now selling its covid tests via Lloyds Pharmacies. We do not know if it is just online or in any or all of the company’s 1400 stores but this is clearly material. MyHealthchecked has announced nothing. At one point earlier, the shares were up 38%. My job as a journalist is to break news which I did. I will not trade any shares until the company comes clean and probably not even then. The company’s duties under AIM listing rules include maintaining an orderly market in its shares. It has failed in that. I have written to the Oxymorons at AIM Regulation demanding an enquiry and a statement.

Collectibles group Scholium (SCHO) has announced results for its year ended 31st March 2021 emphasising “a significant and encouraging increase in online sales across Shapero Rare Books, Modern Prints and Mayfair Philatelics” and that it “is now trading profitably in the first four months of the current year”. So why a current more than 6.5% share price fall to 28.5p?…

Today’s scoop on MyHealthChecked (MHC) has moved the shares and looks like great news. But it might not be. What I have engaged in is not as one moron on ADVFN suggests “willy waving” or “ramping” but good journalism, that is to say breaking news someone does not want published. MyHealthChecked has broken AIM Rules and so created a disorderly market and though I own shed loads of shares, I must be consistent and report the company. AIM Regulation should be slapping someone’s wrists. I also comment on Helium One (HE1) and Verditek (VDTK).

Has toxic David Sefton pulled off a £1 million heist at Iconic (ICON) which will see investors utterly screwed? After an RNS yesterday, I fear the worst.

Nearly seven months ago I observed that you should ‘always believe in gold…but stick with Barrick (GOLD) and Polymetal (POLY) and not Yamana (AUY)’ HERE. Most gold stocks are down year-to-date – after an excitable previous couple of years – and these three stocks have been no different. So what do I make of Polymetal now after it published its first half numbers today?

This is massive. Lloyds has 1400 stores across the UK. And as you can see HERE, it is now selling the MyHealthChecked (MHC) covid test. Boots is selling the test from more than 500 stores and that deal plus sales from MyHealthChecked’s own portal managed to drive sales of c£3 million in May and June alone. So gaining this additional distribution (plus that from partnering with EasyJet) is surely highly material. Why no RNS? 

It is only two weeks since Crowd For Angels, the world’s worst crowdfunding firm, closed its failed attempt to raise £500,000 for the serial liars at Verditek (VDTK) and now we get interims which tell you that, by Christmas, those fools lured by Richard “Gollum” Gill’s grotesquely misleading financial promotions into backing the bond will be at risk. These numbers are a disaster for the company led by Tory toff Lord Willetts. Insolvency beckons.

When I last looked at the ongoing shenanigans at AIM-listed Block Energy (BLOE), the rebels had lost their first attempt to get their own way at the requisitioned EGM failed to support their attempts to remove Block Energy’s Chairman. As the second requisitioned EGM approached (next Wednesday), the rebels, whose behaviour in light of their track record is questionable as I revealed here, attempted to move the goalposts by offering to pay for the requisitioned forensic investigation into the company’s affairs. Now the sitting board had come out fighting: grab your beer and popcorn, and read on…..

Hello, Share Chasers. There may be glittering prizes around for some folks holding some shares. I refer to the craze among foreign private equity outfits for eyeing up British companies, some of which are household names. A reasonable stratagem then is to buy shares in likely targets. But what are the best bets?