Fund managers hedge against sharp stock market fall, Break up Facebook? & more...

Hello, Share Crumblers. Three or four years ago, I sold all this family’s shares in the big engineer Spirax-Sarco (SPX). The reason was that the company had such a long good run, improving year after year, that I thought that all good things come to an end. However, the outfit has since gone from strength to strength. Typical!...

Anglo Asian Mining (AAZ) has announced results for the 2018 calendar year and that it is “on track” to achieve a 82,000-86,000 gold equivalent ounces production target for 2019…

Yu Group (YU.) has been the AIM darling this past week and I see the usual suspects are out in force telling the
masses how the company should trade at many multiples blah blah blah. I wonder how many millions all
these guys have made seeing as they put Warren Buffett to shame in finding truly undervalued shares.

As I write the Dow Jones has recovered most of Monday’s fall, but it still looks possible for it to be down for the fourth straight week. Either way, it looks like this year’s straight-up rally is running out of steam. In my view, a good way to play market downside, rather than shorting the Dow or S&P, is to be short the cannabis craze…

When I last wrote on one of my tips of the year Sage (SGE) I observed that i retained clear hopes 'of a 7 or an 8 in front of the share price in 2019. Buy'. Well blow me down...the shares finished last week in the 740s, following the publication of its latest trading update. 

So much for Woodford’s problems being the nasty press! Only this week, Neil Woodford was complaining bitterly about all these nasty hacks out to destroy his reputation at the Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) AGM which our very own Tom Winnifrith attended. But MorningStar is a different kettle of fish and its analyst has put up a new report on Woodford’s Equity Income Fund (EIF) which is, quite simply, devastating. In the light of the new report, I would suggest that even the most sycophantic IFA cannot recommend to its clients that they leave cash in this fund. Prepare for an even greater tsunami of redemptions.

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.   

This week saw a bit of a landmark as Neil Woodford’s Equity Income Fund (EIF) crashed below £4 billion in value. It was £4.7 billion at the of February, and £4.4 billion at the end of March – but it peaked at over £10 billion. It is an astonishing collapse of confidence in Woodford. But the end-April numbers revealed a few surprises.

I am speechless. Someone has anonymously donated £11,361.24 to the Rogue Bloggers for Woodlarks appeal. And I don't think it is Neil Woodford so there will surely be more to come. Maybe it was Neil (TW Note: I know who it was but am sworn to protect their identity, which is all the more credit to them. It was not Woodford). The anonymous benefactor left a clue so can you guess who it was HERE.

I was going to give the Visual Capitalist charts a rest for a few weeks, even though they are popular, because we don't make them ourselves. But I noticed this morning that they are produced in my hometown of Vancouver. So I looked at their site to see if I knew any one who worked there. I don't - but I saw that they literally occupy the old office space of my last business there. If that's not a reason to run another one, I don't know what is.

Africa timber production and trading company Woodbois (WBI) - the former Obtala - has announced results for the 2018 calendar year and emphasised “$10m in additional trade finance funding being committed during the first quarter of 2019… signifies a landmark breakthrough”…

Union Jack Oil (UJO) has announced results for the 2018 calendar year and that “the company eagerly awaits the results of the current drilling of West Newton A-2 appraisal well, the result of the Planning Appeal at Wressle and the re-processing of 3D seismic in respect of Biscathorpe. These ventures are expected to provide a steady stream of newsflow throughout 2019 and success at any one of these projects has the potential to dramatically transform your company”…

Today's Bearcast is late and I did no training walk as I feel a touch under the weather. On Thursday I quizzed Neil Woodford about Proton Partners International (PPI) and he bull-shitted for England. On Friday he chucked another £10 million of other folks cash down the Proton pan which opens up a whole new can of worms in terms of valuations which I discuss in detail. Neil has yet to donate for Rogue Bloggers for Woodlarks despite my polite AGM request and 70% of bearcast listeners have not chipped in either. Please rectify that HERE

Concepta (CPT) has announced its calendar 2018 results which are truly ghastly. But that is all rear view mirror stuff and so at 3.7p the shares are, we suggest, a gamble but a BUY.

Wey Education (WEY) suddenly seems to have become very popular and the share price has pretty much doubled in recent weeks, but I’m struggling to see what the attraction is with this company and why people would invest at this level.

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...

Avesoro Resources (ASO) is a good example of what can happen to a share where there is a forced seller and generally low liquidity in the trading of the shares.

Hello, Share Puddlers.  It’s very possible that the next leader of the Tory party will be a tougher negotiator than Mrs May. This would be more likely to end in a no-deal Brexit. So how will this affect the companies we share shifters invest in? Here are some precautions you might take.

Columbus Energy Resources (CERP) “is pleased to announce that it has been granted a Private Petroleum Licence for the Bonasse Licence Area in the South West Peninsula of Trinidad”, with Executive Chairman Leo Koot adding “without it, we would not have been able to drill the upcoming well… I am confident that even a modest discovery in the SWP has the potential to transform the company”...