Gold and silver have been extremely weak in recent weeks and investors, certainly retail, seem to be moving away from these metals, but I would question whether that is the right decision to make at this time.

Having spent the Woodford years attacking the chap who exposed disgraced fund manager Neil, while giving Mr Woodford a free pass, the organisation that claims to stand for private investors continues to mislead folks about claims against Woodford, or rather his ACD, Link.

I noted the huge potential for free entertainment at Aquis-listed TruSpine (TSP) in the New Year Red Flags Sweepstakes results, when TruSpine had achieved the dubious double of a Red Flags Christmas Eve RNS (a three month delay to the application for FDA clearance of its Cervi-LOK product that was due at the end of the month which it apparently had only just noticed) and another on New Year’s Eve in the form of Interims to September 2020 showing net current assets of just £511,813 after a loss of £423,148. This week saw some news. No sniggering at the back……..

From the FCA’s spreadsheet of short positions required to be disclosed to it, the following shows the shorted AIM shares with positions from 2019, 2020 and thus far in 2021 (by net short position %, those in bold not on the list at the start of 2021) – and if this position has increased (red), reduced (green) or remained unchanged (black) since last week…

Well you heard it here first. Actually you did not.As you can see below this report comes from an impeccable source: twitter where Jack Dorsey et al ALWAYS act to censor fake news so you can rely on twitter to give you the truth. Perhaps that is why 26 folks liked this tweet and 1 has retweeted it. Sadly for those 28 losers ( the author, RT and likes) this is demonstrable fantasy.

Hello, Share Searchers.  When this magnificent website became the first to predict that oil prices would slump into negative territory, I choked on my cornflakes. After all, my biggest holdings are in BP (BP.) and Royal Dutch Shell (RDSA). And scarily Shareprophets turned out to be dead right – for a brief period you couldn’t give oil away.

Xeros Technology Group (XSG) “is pleased to announce… the company has conditionally raised gross proceeds of approximately £8.0 million, through the successful placing of 3,333,333 placing shares” and that it “intends to provide… up to 416,586 open offer shares”. Just how ‘pleasing’ really is this though?…

For the record, I do not believe management at ShareProphets AIM-China Filthy Forty play Origo Partners (OPP) have anything to do with this- indeed, my view is that head honcho John Chapman is a breath of fresh air. But shares in Origo seems to have gone stark raving bonkers – only on Wednesday they closed at 0.145p and now they are 0.275p, having peaked at over 0.4p. What’s going on?

In today’s bearcast I look at Zoetic (ZOE) and why its monster lie from April Fool’s day 2019 does matter, even as Seth Freedman, at the behest of a Zoetic shareholder, harasses another one of our writers at 11 PM. I also look at Peter Brailey’s call on oil, why I agree and how to play it.

In the old days misleading investors with lies or grotesque exaggeration was frowned upon but it seems we live in a new modern world where this sort of thing is just fine and dandy. Let’s go back to April Fool’s day 2019.

I have already dealt with the imminent demise of its sister company, One True View, where a sham £186 million bid evaporated and where the end is nigh. Now to Appbox Media, the first company set up by Polat Hassan as part of his City boiler room operation which has stolen £30m from naïve investors. The FCA was warned by me as long ago as November 2019 but natch has done nowt.

Shanta Gold (SHG) has announced results for its year ended 31^st December 2020 and claims that “2021 presents huge opportunity for Shanta as we continue to strengthen our core operations at New Luika, progress mine construction at Singida that began in Q4 2020 and continue the drilling campaigns underway at our high-grade West Kenya project”. So what’s the detail?…

Who’s a clever boy then? Me. I hope that you are happy holders of Aggreko (AGK) on my advice. Send the thank you ouzos to Tom as I do not drink.

Red Rock Resources (RRR) has made an Australia joint venture update and an acquisition update, both of real potential significance…

As per its recent trading statement, Finncap (FCAP), like every other City advisory and broking firm, has enjoyed a quite amazing year. It is the nature of this industry that it is either feast or famine and with massive M&A activity, debt and equity refinancings and even IPOs in the small and mid cap space, even Finncrap must have coined it in. That brings us to today’s news that its, self-important, smug and woke, CEO Sam Smith has bought 130,000 shares at 30.5p.

It was only some 11 weeks ago (a few days before Christmas) I put views down on my view of the oil price outlook for 2021. In normal times I would not expect to update my views after such a short time – but I do today. I now see significantly higher pricing and I think this benefits articulation. I also refer to the passing of an old family friend – Ahmed Zaki Yamani.

Hello, Share Twiddlers. The house builder formed from a merger between an arm of Galliford Try and Bovis has reported a big Covid hit. But now the pandemic approaches its final months, we can expect better from now on. Especially as the Chancellor has extended the stamp duty holiday…

I commented back in January on AIM-listed URU Metals (URU) and its proposed sale of the Zebediela project in South Africa to Canadian-listed cash (-less) shell Blue Rhino Capital. Suffice to say I wasn’t impressed. Yesterday the company called its AGM and on the agenda is this “disposal”.

Just a few housekeeping points. I have spent a happy 1/2 hour chatting to North Wales Police about harassment. The miscreant now finds two forces looking at him and a third may join soon as he has, I discover today, also harassed a couple in Dorset as they grieved the chap’s poor father.  Secondly, I’ve invested a five figure sum in a stock which will shock you. All is revealed on my latest video show out today.  Thirdly, my main energies remain on new family enquiries. Then there is a detailed look at Marchale (MAC), Chris Akers and its patently forced and misleading Trading statement. Finally onto Remote Monitored Systems (RMS) and digging into its new distributor. It is ‘avin’ a giraffe if it expects anyone to take this nonsense seriously.

Early this year we showed the Shorted AIM shares at the start of 2021. How’s the performance (those in bold remain from 2020) as at the end of February?…