Is there anything better than sitting back and reading a well-written article on a lazy Sunday? Every week ShareProphets features some long form journalism that you'll find of interest. Grab your cuppa and enjoy these five articles. 

I do have a little sympathy with the green brigade because if you think about the essence of economics, it is all about the efficient and sustainable use of factors of production.  However, where even the financial world has gone mad is the rise and rise and rise of environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing, which has certainly overhung shares in sectors such as tobacco, energy and the automotive space globally.  And do not even get me started on green activists who do not want to fly on planes or start families until climate change issues are 'sorted'.  

In yesterday's Bearcast, Tom talked about some of the outlandish claims in this article covering my favourite company, We Work. WeWork (actually known as the We Company) is attempting to IPO in the US. Let me highllight some of choice bits of the article that Tom didn't get into.

A “GoFigure agreement for Southern Africa” announcement from OptiBiotix Health(OPTI) Does this matter? Yes it all helps.

Gamfook was a Jersey Registered China play. That is always a good sign it was a fraud. It listed on the NEX lobster pot on Christmas Eve 2018 with Daniel Stewart, a firm with a fine history of floating frauds both British (Quindell) but also Chinese.  The tale of what happened next is a scandal.

Jim Mellon says he loves listrening to my podcasts and has sent over a very interesting article following the pulled We Work IPO which I discuss at length. The into PureCircle (PURE) which Lucian has called brilliantly, notably here. Yesterday's shock warning tells us so much about the disgraceful apathy of folks like Numis and PWC when evidence of aggressive accounting was there for all to see over many years. I discuss another company shown to be swmming with no trunks. It will not be the last.

The Daily Telegraph yesterday reported that Oxfordshire-based biotech Immunocore, of the Neil Woodford unquoted stable, has raised £60 million in a funding round due to complete before the end of this year as the company raises up to £100 million. Great news…….apart from one small detail.

From the FCA's spreadsheet of short positions required to be disclosed to it, the following shows the shorted AIM shares with positions from 2018 and thus far in 2019 (by net short position %, those in bold not on the list at the start of 2019) – and if this position has increased (red), reduced (green) or remained unchanged (black) since last week...

Yesterday the FTSE All-Share (Neil Woodford’s benchmark for his Equity Income and Income Focus funds) closed almost flat on the day. Happily for Neil his Income Focus fund put on 0.23% in NAV per unit and Equity Income put on 0.57%. although the reported figures are still distorted by the continuing suspension of Eddie Stobart (ESL) after  its shocking news earlier in the week.

Analyst and entrepreneur Brandon Munro discusses the improving tone of the uranium industry that he is seeing while attending the London World Nuclear Association Symposium. Russia’s export program has an improved order book, and US regulators are working hard on initiatives to support their industry. China and India are resuming their reactor build programs by both announcing new reactor plans. There is a strong sense of anticipation throughout the industry.

Hello, Share Scrimpers. Opening a letter from one of my brokers I discovered that a company I’d long given up on was paying me a special dividend of 6p a share. As I only hold 13 shares apparently, I benefit by 78p. I wish there was a way of getting rid altogether, but to sell this piddling number of shares would probably cost me much more than I’d get back.

Yes, folks, it’s that time of the month again when Neil Woodford updates us on his funds, and what is in them. The good news is that both unit trust (Equity Income and Income Focus) had net cash as at 31 August…….and Woodford Patient Capital (WPCT) didn’t.

The Independent Newspaper thinks that I and 17.4 million others need a better education. Does anyone read that rag anymore? In today's podcast I look at Neil Woodford's Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT), notably its holdings in Autolus and Purplebricks (PURP) in light of data out today, Eve Group (EVE), Nigel Wray's Simba, Thomas Cook (TCG), i3 Energy (i3E) and Iconic Labs (ICON). 

“Arena Events Group plc (AIM: ARE), is pleased to announce that it has completed the installation of the largest single temporary hospitality structure ever installed in Japan”. However, it’s an RNS Reach announcement…

A “Funding update”, following half-year results from gold miner in Kazakhstan Altyn (ALTN)...

Previously writing on provider of online B2B platforms for the UK conveyancing and financial intermediary markets ULS Technology (ULS), in May with the shares at 70p I concluded doubting the investment here can insulate it sufficiently, avoid / sell. Today a “Customer update” announcement – and the shares further lower, below 50p. Uh oh…

There is quite a lot of news out for a Friday. I was pleased to see that the industrial to medical conglomerate Smiths Group (SMIN) - which I wrote enthusiastically about in March - has blasted today deeper into my then hoped for 1600-1800p share price range…

Analyst Tavi Costa sees the current business cycle as being almost over and is waiting on an overall downturn in equities. Two-year yields reveal that we are near the top of the cycle. In the US, manufacturing reports are trending lower, and non-farm payrolls have had a sizeable downward reversion. 90% of the yield curves in Canada have already inverted, and many other countries are similar.

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. It is a recurring nightmare for Neil Woodford’s disruptive play on all things sleep related as AIM-listed Eve Sleep (EVE) has announced yet another profit warning as the company also announced that merger talks with Simba are all off. It is enough to disrupt even the heaviest of sleeps and the shares have opened 28% down – and are still falling.

When a share keeps on falling you have to decide whether the decline is terminal or how good the chances are of a recovery at some point. In some cases you will just be throwing good money after bad, and just because the shares have traded at a higher level in the past doesn’t mean that they will necessarily do so again if the fundamental changes to the business are terminal. But we also see cases where there is a temporary decline followed by quite a strong recovery, especially where the business is reliant on factors that are cyclical – such as in the natural resources sector as commodity prices fluctuate – or where it has suffered from shorting or a persistent seller, or even a combination of all of these...