You have to have a tiny bit of sympathy for Neil Woodford (just a tiny bit, mind) this morning after yesterday’s market sell-off as the FTSE 100 dropped 2.5%: unless you were in gold (smile….) everything that moved was heading south. So it is little surprise that Woodford’s Income Focus Fund dropped 2.63% in NAV per unit – even if the drop was a little more pronounced...

Hello Share Scrimpers. Sadly, BT (BT.A) is one of my worst long-term investments. I first bought into the outfit when it went into TV in a big way, hoovering up a lot of important sports coverage deals. Even then I had a niggling doubt about whether the viewing public would pay the subscriptions. But at first, I was rewarded with a big jump in the share price as at one stage it hovered around £5. Then came a nasty decline and today the shares are valued at less than £2 a pop...

The FCA has just issued a statement to confirm our story of last Friday that SVS is in special administration. It is full of details on the compensation scheme but the line which stands out is that it acted on a tip-off over where SVS was investing clients’ money. Ouzo time for Tom, then, but sackcloth and ashes for SVS clients...

Previously writing on self-styled “global leader in sustainable LED lighting for industrial applications” Dialight (DIA), early last month I noted argues recovery plans “progress” & “increasingly well positioned”… Er, what about the profit warning? with the shares then down to circa 350p. They have recently been headed back towards 400p, but now results for the first half of 2019…

Pity me dear listeners, I think it is only c20 degrees here in Greece today. Okay I think you are not pitying me are you? In the podcast I discuss Verseon (VERS), Bluejay Mining (JAY), Spud U Like and the minimum wage, Providence Resources (PVR), Lansdowne Oil & Gas (LOGP) and Thor Mining (THR).

Shares in Peel Hotels (PHO) were suspended towards the end of last month as the company was still in the process of finalising its audit and would miss the AIM Rules deadline. It has now published – and the shares are currently around 40p, down approaching 40%...

Having asked for readers tips for 2019 for the amazing prize of a meal with Tom Winnifrith (or the chance to fob it off on someone you don't like) HERE, the following is a monthly update on performance (to be eligible needed to have selected, on a per username basis, a buy & sell pick from the LSE or AIM Casino and the stocks not to have been suspended at the commencement of 2019)...

Neil Woodford is in the press for all sorts of things – bashing by the Daily Mail (another one today), his partner selling his house -The Times which also tells us that he is moving out of biotechs. And on that score, I see that AIM-listed Verseon (VERS) has more than halved in price over the last few days. We’ve not had a statement from the company, although I fancy it is running out of cash quickly, but it seems that someone was very keen to get out last Thursday.

Regular readers will know I am a fan of spin-offs and I loved up the opportunity in Quilter (QLT) which was spun-out of Old Mutual (OMU) a little over thirteen months ago, most recently in this article here. From my original piece it has not been the greatest call but given that any wealth manager is a geared play on the financial markets to some degree (recurring fees are levied on portfolio values typically) there has been plenty of trading scope – getting yourself some Quilter shares for Christmas late last year would have been nicely remunerative. Today's half-year numbers have their good and bad components…

In 2017 the owner of Spud U Like lost £1 million. One senses that 2018 will have been worse. Now the firm has gone tits up with 300 staff now on the dole as a result. There are 4 factors at play:

I commented last Wednesday on Independent Oil and Gas (IOG) and how making sense of the farm-out agreement to CalEnergy announced some 10 days ago was rather difficult. I suggested Independent could perhaps publish a presentation to explain the detail? Independent obliged on Friday morning last week. Now either I’m losing the plot or Independent is? Which is it?

Hello Share Treaders. A 30-year-old retailer that I’ve commended to your further scrutiny before seems to be gaining ground. Pets at Home (PETS) is a seller of stuff for pets. It combines this popular area with vet surgeries in its stores...

A quarterly report from Berkeley Energia (BKY) emphasising “initiatives… aimed at further enhancing the company's strong engagement with its key stakeholders in Spain”…

Minoan Group (MIN) has announced results for its half year ended 30^th April 2019 and that it’s “further progressing its project in Crete as well as entering into new discussions which are intended to lead to the realisation of shareholder value. The election of an avowedly business friendly government is extremely encouraging”…

Perhaps it is a sign that i have been kicking around this investment game for a good few years now, that nothing in today's deadwood press seemed particularly new.  It was last Sunday r that I felt compelled to call out those pleading for the government to block the mooted takeover of Cobham (COB) by a US defence name.  I see the lobbying has now spread to the founding family...who now own 1.5% of the shares.  Well if they owned 30%, 50%, 75% or - let's be radical here - 100% of the business then their view might be more influential.  When you play the capital markets game of selling shares in exchange for capital to invest and grow your business, then you open yourself up to other possibilities...like a takeover.  See last week's piece for a take down on why putting up capital flow barriers - especially to long-established friendly nations - is simply bonkers.   

I commented three weeks ago that the one technical analyst rated by ShareProphets, Jordan Roy-Byrne, was very bullish as we headed for this week’s well-advertised rated cut by the Fed. Well, the Fed duly delivered but Roy-Byrne is still bullish.

Petra Diamonds (PDL) is a company that I covered back in March and so far I have been wrong about it having potential as a speculative investment, as the share price has just taken another big drop.  

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.   

Rob Terry, Jamie Nimmo, Jeff Prestridge, Neil Woodford, another pointless day of shame for the, increasingly limpdick, Financial Mail on Sunday. I discuss this plus why I do not want to come back to the UK after a chat with lovely Eleni and others here in Kambos in today's bearcast

This week is another chart, from Visual Capitalist, on commodity trends, for what it is worth. Are we in a new Supercycle?