I discuss one of them in full. One have referred to before, part 2 is tomorrow bt I can't say what it is for another few weeks. Then I look at today's Neil Woodford shocker Benevolent AI and how much Neil personally has trousered from valuations now shown to be a joke. Then the attack on Saudi Arabia and what it means for oil prices, gold and the global economy. It is not as dramatic as if this had happened in the 1970s. But there is a dramatic scenario to consider.

The Sunday Times carries a scoop that Neil Woodford's play on revolutionising biotech, BenevolentAI - held in both WPCT and his Equity Income Fund - is being written down because of a fundraise. Of course, ShareProphets worked it out a few days ago when WPCT announced a writedown to an un-named stock but the Sunday Times has it confirmed. 

Folks who own shares in companies that repeatedly lie via RNS are clearly morons. And as Gary highlighted earlier, Iconic (ICON) is just drowning in red flags.But still its investors continue to demonstrate on twitter just how thick as pigshit they really are as I showed yesterday HERE and HERE. Now for another dose....

Fresh back from the Sunday morning bike ride I dip into the (online) Sunday press and see a couple of relevant stories for two old 'friends' I have written about on these pages just a few times. 

All small companies need cash and ideally that will be spent on adding value to the business rather than just to cover its running costs.

AIM-listed Eddie Stobart Logistics  (ESL) was spun out of Stobart Group (STOB) is, of course, a Woodford Dog – Neil holds about 23% of the stock. When the shares were suspended last month in the wake of an accounting scandal because the interims would be delayed, we were told that the numbers would appear in early September. Well, they haven’t appeared and the next opportunity for release falls on Monday – the sixteenth of the month. According to my maths, that will therefore be the second half of September. Where are the numbers?

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 have commented on I3Energy (I3E) over the last few days concluding this company is uninvestable and noting the company Nomad seems to agree with me. After market close on Friday the company PR man issued an e-mail update to some shareholders. It confirms my thinking. This company is utterly uninvestable at best.

This has nothing to do with shares or investing or anything. It's the end of the weekend and we've organised a quick pub quiz. Grab your own beer, there are no prizes, and for Pete's sake, no Googleing! Only I get to do that.

Tom Winnifrith has already covered Neil Woodford’s crown jewel turned liability Oxford Nanaopore and its latest set of results in today’s Bearcast. But I have a few points to add of my own, and it seems that Oxford has a few problems in the US Courts to deal with next March. Oh dear…..

Right now, we're number seven by GDP in the world economy leaderboard. By 2030, we'll be far down the list and number seven will be taken by Egypt. This is a prevocative prediction for only 11 years.

On the surface, Neil Woodford has had quite a good week. Well, apart from the after-hours shock of another write-down in an un-named asset held by WPCT (and presumably his Equity Income Fund, WEIF). Not to mention grim results from Oxford Nanopore snuck out yesterday and the continued suspension of Eddie Stobart (ESL). And not forgetting the additional £12.5 million he has had to find from WEIF for the totally illiquid, unprofitable, non-dividend-paying Rutherford Health (RUTH, formerly Proton Partners) when he is supposed to be repositioning WEIF towards FTSE100 stocks. And we are yet to hear from Verseon (VERS) and Xeros (XSG) in relation to how funding rounds are going. No, apart from all that, he’s had a good week – relatively speaking.

Since they were launched by the John Major government in 1995, Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs), which are closed end investment trusts that provide finance for small and growing unquoted UK companies, and which are listed on the main market, have given investors a bumpy ride. The tax breaks remain generous, albeit not as generous as they were initially, and some of the now-established generalist ones have provided and continue to provide investors with a steady income from tax-free dividends with relatively low risk, whilst most of the worst ones have fallen by the wayside, taking a large chunk of investors’ money with them. I remain, broadly, a fan but there are still some appalling examples of around.

Oxford Nanopore is the flagship unquoted in the Neil Woodford portfolio both at EIF and WPCT. Yesterdaty it snuck out red flag strewn results and on a number of counts this looks utterly grim for Nomates.

I despair at the stupidity of some investors. I detailed earlier a series of threatening and frankly idiotic tweets from Iconic (ICON) shareholders to me encouraging me to stop doing my job, with threats and abuse. But one moron stands out for his stupidity.

I like Jordan Roy-Byrne’s analysis – even though he’s a technical analyst. Part of that is because he doesn’t draw magic squiggly lines and predict what the CEO of a company will have for breakfast next Tuesday. Part of it, however, is that he’s not just a technical analyst – he learns from history too (something I wish the great and the good at Westminster would follow), and looks at fundamentals too. So with all the gold so-called experts seemingly in mega-bull mode (and we’ve featured a good many on ShareProphets), for balance I thought I would share some of his thinking, because he’s no bull right now – although be in no doubt, he is in the longer term.

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...

Anyone who owns shares in a company that tells demonstrable porkies, via RNS, is by definition a moron. And, after events this week, that clearly includes shareholders in Iconic Labs (ICON). But they do not like the demonstrable falings of Iconic being pointed out to them and a small band of lunatics have taken to twitter to attack me.

Previously writing on Tex Holdings (TXH), in April I noted from two weeks ago bank covenants breach partially caused by accounting change… to now, no it isn’t!. Now a Friday 2:23pm “Prop Related Party Transaction Transfer of Listing” announcement. Hmmm…

I’ve already waved bye-bye to Haydale (HAYD) when it collapsed earlier this year on a massively discounted rescue refinancing – as long predicted by yours truly – saw me call it a win. Now it seems that Walcom (WALG) is finally heading for the corporate knackers’ yard next month, unless some miracle happens and the shares are down to just 0.25p. That will be two out of five if/when (with emphasis on the when) it happens. All hail the ShareProphets AIM-China Filthy Forty, from where it made this year’s sell list.