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? 

On February 11^th AIM-listed Mediazest (MDZ) announced that it expects its results for the 18-month period to 30 September 2020 to be announced by the end of the month. Next week is the end of the month – the question is whether its expectations are to be believed, or whether they are in the same mould as Tom Winnifrith’s expectations with regard to Britain’s favourite chanteuse.

The most read non-Tom article this week is Ariana – Ozaltin deal completes. Now, what to do with £25 million (that’s alot of Ouzo…) by Nigel Somerville at number three, or  number ten including Bearcasts and Tom’s new shareshow. Which one is the best of the week? Tell me in the comments.

I start with a look at Purplebricks (PURP), my mother-in-law and Uber and a potential bombshell. Then I go onto IG Index changing its terms of trade and how this could create a bull squeeze in stocks including Versarien (VRS), Zoetic (ZOE) and Eurasia (EUA). The article I reference on my own website is HERE. And no-one has yet guessed the horse-riding person who interviewed me yesterday. It was fun.

The thief in the night is selective….

When you elect a socialist crackpot like Justin Trudeau, a hereditary politician and all round knobhead, it will eventually end in tears. The problem with socialists is that eventually they run out of other people’s money, as the greatest leader this country has ever known once observed. So in the snows of the socialist hell hole that is Canada, they are not yet at the pet eating stage but homelessness and hunger are a growing problem. But at least Mr Trudeau hopes to end lockdown in time to wear his Eid socks at the Pride parade. Or is it the other way round?

OptiBiotix Health (OPTI) has announced a trading update, emphasising “another year of progress… probiotic and functional fibre divisions achieving profitability”. The shares have though currently responded lower to 55.5p, so what’s the current situation here? We’ve spoken to Chief Executive Steve O’Hara and we believe that Mr Market has got this one wrong.

Following on from Part 1 my analysis of the Metal and Hard Wear division, I now take a look at the Graphene and Plastics products segment of Versarien (VRS). This is the sexy bit used by loathsome Neill Ricketts and his moronic followers to justify a market cap of £88 million, at 47p. As we saw earlier, the rest of the business cannot be worth much over £3 million!.

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…

The UK subsidiary accounts for Versarien (VRS) have finally appeared at Companies House (despite being signed on 16 November 2020) and in this deep dive note, I take look at the original trading segment of Versarien namely the Hard Wear and Metallic Products segment and update prior year note. It is, neededless to say, not impressive and showds what a con was the initial IPO in 2013.

Hello, Share Placers. Have you heard of the circular economy? It’s taking off big time. And you can buy shares in a growing army of companies that are involved in it.  The pandemic has given a huge boost to the circular economy. But what exactly is it?

Fox Marble (FOX) has announced an operating update on a tough 2020 but that it is starting to see some green shoots of recovery. The buy case is intact…

Specialist supplier of colour cosmetics and owner of the W7 and Technic brands, Warpaint London (W7L) “is pleased to announce that the contract with Ward & Hagon, has been renewed for a further 12 months”. I bet one Warpaint London director is particularly pleased…

This podcast is mainly on the pot bubble looking at Cellular Goods, Kanabo (KNB), Path Investments (PATH) and the odd goings on at Voyager CBD and strange share price moves ahead of today’s placing and Zoetic (ZOE). I also look at Bluebird Merchant Ventures (BMV), Yourgene (YGEN) and naughty Manc scallywag Dan Levi. Finally a comment or two on Scancell (SCLP). The Path/Voyager screenshot is below.

As ShareSoc attempts to push more folks mugged by Neil Woodford into backing a legal claim not yet launched by a firm that made its name suing the British Army over false allegations of brutality in Iraq, a claim that will not be launched for many months if at all, rather than one launching within weeks HERE, it is hosting an event “Neil Woodford, Reflections, Redress & Reform. Its star speaker on Reflections is not one of the three journalists who exposed Woodford with more than 1000 articles from 2015 onwards. Nope it is Captain Hindsight. His colleague, Corporal Hindsight is not attending.

Jim Forsythe served in the USAF and campaigned for the great Ron Paul, my hero, back in 2008. So he can do no wrong in my book although his participation in the recent #silverrsqueeze is perhaps a minor blemish. Jim says that learning from Ron Paul helped him understand the economic system that the world is under, and “The bigger problems facing the U.S. that are internal.” He has been a firm gold and silver believer since 2007, investing in both miners and physical. He says, “People need to make their own choice to have gold and silver as money.”

Pensana (PRE) – now to be listed solely in London after giving notice to de-list in Australia - is progressing towards establishing the world’s first fully sustainable mine to magnet metal supply chain – materials for emerging industries including electric vehicles and wind turbines. The shares reached 120p early this year, since when the company has announced further progress towards its mine-to-magnet metal goal, but the shares are now lower…

The last time I wrote about gold stocks was here in late January.  As noted a few weeks back, my top sector holding for many years was the London listed Randgold, but a couple of years ago this company was purchased by the US/Canadian listed Barrick Gold (GOLD on the American markets).  So how do the full-year numbers and profile for the next few years look?

Previously updating on Panther Metals (PALM), in December we noted the shares had jumped up to above 12p from our 10.5p offer price October tip and that we continued to target 15p+ on the further anticipated news flow. The company is now excited to be getting ‘boots on ground’ at Merolia to test a priority target zone…

Toxic David Sefton of Anglo African Oil & Gas (AAOG) and Iconic (ICON) infamy has cost mug punters, who ignored my numerous warnings, a fortune. And it seems as if some of them are rather angry. The chap in the video below uses language which makes even me blush but he offers a challenge to Dave which would raise £10,000 for charity and, once social distancing rules are relaxed, would be greatly enjoyed by many folks. So come on Dave, say you will do it…