What a day out that was! The Wray family may be running the investor show now, but the sparkle was still there – even if I missed the acid wit of Tom Winnifrith. But it was great to catch up with the other writers at ShareProphets and in particular it was good to call in at two stands – those of Ariana Resources (AAU) and Sosandar (SOS).

Yesterday I explained why Management Resource Solutions (MRS) was technically insolventand why its propsed £1.32 million all share purchase of drone start up Alerion was a joke that no respectable Nomad would have signed off on. But it gets worse and there is another massive question for hapless Nomad Arden to consider....

Citywire yesterday published an article which stated that Neil Woodford has listed four previously unlisted investments held by  Woodford Equity Income Fund on the International Stock Exchange in….er….Guernsey. Surely even Guernsey’s own residents would agree that this is not exactly the London Stock Exchange! But the odd thing is that Woodford himself seems to have been a tad reticent on the matter – I don’t see any headline proclaiming great success in gaining a listing in Guernsey from Neil Woodford! Why might that be? And that appears to be the nub of the issue.

If you had told me last year that 48 hours after Independence Day we would still be in the European Union, I would ask you have a glass of the same thing that you were drinking.

I've been part of ever one of Tom's investor shows since 2008, where as a new employee of t1ps.com, I was assigned to watch the door of a breakout room. This is the first year that I have largely seen it as a punter.

Management Resource Solutions (MRS) has form when it comes to doing crackers deals to destroy shareholder value. Do you remember this one? (Carry on Dogging?) . Well now we have another corker. How Nomad Arden Partners signed off on the lastest crock defies belief. Management is buying fledgling drone operation Alerion for £1.32 million in shares at 5p. It is ‘avin’ a Turkish.

Sure, the speakers are the stars of the show. But the stands and the people behind them are where the real action is. 

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...

Everyone who enters the show gets a goody bag. Let’s take a look at what’s inside. 

I am not at the UK Investor Show today. I hope you are as sparks will fly. But I explain my absence, discuss a CEO who is - I think - a liar and say what I do next. It's time to take the gloves off and stop mincing my words!

With Nigel Wray’s family fully in charge of the Global Group UK Investor Show, this is the first time in six years that I have not been up at 4am to put out last minute fires. Now I get to see the show as a regular punter. And it looks great . I’ll be posting some photos throughout the morning of what I see.

Hello, Share Cobblers. As I’m hosting the UK Investor Show this weekend, I can’t topically research any individual shares for your attention. And I’ve said all I can say about Brexit and my portfolio.  Briefly, I expect shares to come back strongly once the process becomes clear, just as falling shares did at the outset of World War 11. So may I write about catching a cold, instead?

AIM-listed Turkish gold producer Ariana (AAU) has announced a positive update this morning regarding its satellite prospects around the Kiziltepe gold plant and at Salinbas on the other side of the country. The news has gone down well, with the market pushing the shares back towards the 2p mark in response...

“Idox plc (AIM: IDOX), a leading supplier of specialist information management solutions and services… remains confident in the prospects for the business and is pleased to confirm that the group continues to trade in line with market expectations”. The shares are though currently lower, below 37p…

Petropavlovsk (POG) has announced “it has received the Rouble equivalent of approximately US$57 million as full repayment of the two bridge loans advanced by Petropavlovsk to IRC during 2018”…

Mobile Streams (MOS) has announced results for its half year ended 31st December 2018, including emphasising “the company is currently working with some of the largest carriers in the India market: Vodafone-Idea, Jio and BSNL” and “we anticipate increased performance from our relationship with the newest entrant to the Indian telecom market”. So why are the shares currently further materially lower, to 0.25p?...

Neil Woodford needs money for his funds urgently but to give to a far more deserving cause which I may have mentioned once or twice go HERE. I discuss damning statistics for the AIM Casino, Inspirit (INP), Mobile Streams (MOS) and in the Woodford section Paypoint (PAY), Imperial Brands (IMB) and now Strix (KETL), another jolly good income and growth play he is dumping. 

Copper has always been a favourite metal for geologist turned broker Barry Dawes, being the third largest metal in terms of consumption and continues its historical pattern of long term growth. China and Asia use an enormous amount of copper and shortages are developing. This should result in a boom in copper prices and then new exploration.

News from the boiler room this morning is that AIM-listed Inspirit Energy (INSP) is pleased to announce its interims. I’m not sure why – they are awful! But perhaps the pleasure relates to the fact that they are out at all, for the numbers show a deficit of net current assets. Is it bust yet?

Yes it really is