‘Twas the night before Christmas.  The man who liked to be known not only for his humility but also for being Britain’s greatest ever fund manager lay back on his disruptive Eve mattress next to his rather flatulent but ever faithful old poodle Dampers. Whilst his companion snored loudly, Neil Woodford was deeply troubled by not just one but a second ghostly apparition that night.

Between now and January 2^nd we shall be publishing more than 20 share tips of the year – buys and sells. We kick off with one from Gary Newman 

Every day until New Year's Day, we'll publish a picture of the view through a reader's window. Kicking it off today is Paul C from Maleny. Remember to send your Christmas view to editorial@shareprophets.com

In today's bearcast I look in detail at Frontera (FRR), at mystery share sales of late, at market abuse and at the scallywags who were enablers such s Yellow Jersey PR and the whore blogger Malcolm Graham Wood. I look at Victoria Oil & Gas (VOG) and also at Westminster Group (WSG) run by vile slug Tony Baldry. I urge you to enter the reader's share tips 2019 contest and I wish you all a Merry Christmas. The next bearcast will be on Boxing day.

‘Twas the night before Christmas.  Neil Woodford had pushed the apparition claiming to be the ghost of Christmas Past out of the window’s provided by “our locks are as safe as our dividends” Kier and had now bolted them firmly shut.

Well I did say to get the popcorn out on Superdry (SDRY) and the excitements continue with weekend reports observing that Julian Dunkerton - the 18% shareholding co-founder of the 'faux-Japanese' clothing retailer - is preparing to launch a proxy battle against the board in an attempt to secure a return to the company…

The shift to tighter monetary policies in the West is weakening credit markets and over-indebted emerging markets face headwinds from rising borrowing costs and dollar shortages, therefore investors need to focus on their response to financial stresses in an era in which policymakers will be constrained. This means that the “everything bubble” is deflating and the fact that it is happening relatively slowly should not blind investors to the threat. The world is dangerously underestimating how hard it’ll be to deal with the fallout once reality, which has been suspended for ten years, reasserts itself...

Given that its IPO prospectus was fraudulent and how its earnings have been materially overstated in recent years as demonstrated here, only the sort of moron who would back the fraud Globo to the hilt would still be owning shares in First Derivatives (FDP). They are an outstanding short at 2125p. But now lets look at kX and something that might just blow up First early in the new year.

Perhaps it is just too close to Christmas but i am surprised there is not more about the various shenanigans in global stock markets in the weekend press.  Of course the retail angle is played out en masse and this is fair enough given it involves us all at some level and consumption is two-thirds of our economy (and the same for most other developed market economies).  I have no view about how 'Super Saturday' went given my proclivity to go shopping at the same time as everyone else is approximately zero...but clearly it has been a long way from easy.   

I have spent all weekend being abused on twitter by morons who own shares in Frontera Resources (FRR) - notably @keithcareth, check his feed he is insane -  who insisted that I did not know what I was talking about, that the FCA was after me, etc etc etc. I await an apology as today – as was inevitable after our weekend revelations HERE and HERE – the Nomad, Cairn, has quit. The shares are suspended and here is why it is game over.

AIM-listed and permanently on the edge of insolvency RM2 (RM2) has announced some good news. Well, sort of: the executioner is still booked, but at least the taxman is off its back.

A spot of maths and it seems that we were all wrong! In the prospectus for the rights issue by Kier Group (KIE) we were told that Neil Woodford was sitting on 13,797,000 shares, or 14.13%. We were also told that if he took up his rights in full he would hold 22,903,020 shares, or 14.13%. We know that Woodford piled in for more shares after the rights offer was announced. So what did he end up with?

It did not come as a surprise that last week Eight Peaks Group (8PG) carried out a new placing given that the company was running on fumes as flagged by us only days before. We were surprised however at Karma Towers that boss Zafar Karim managed to convince more punters (err, investors) and, indeed, NED Lord Monson to throw more good money after bad. 

The column below is by Trey Reik, a Senior Portfolio Manager, Sprott Asset Management. It covers the US economy and US house prices. Buy a) all asset classes are global, they are linked so if US house prices crash there will be a slump in the UK too and b) exactly the same factors are at play here as in the land of the free. Read and consider...

Hello, Share Jinglers. What shares should we look at now as our break from Europe gets ever nearer? One suggestion of a big enterprise that should not be affected by the big change, whichever way it goes, is the National Grid (NG.)...

In 2018 in the first Rogue Bloggers for Woodlarks 33 mile walk, myself, Brokerman Dan and Lucian Miers raised more than £25,000 (£32,000 with gift aid) for the amazing, if unfashionable, Woodlarks Charity which provides unique holidays for severely handicapped young people and adults. Without the Woodlarks camp very few of those folks would get a holiday at all.

I start with a look at Frontera Resources (FRR) and what should and what may happen on Monday in light of this weekend's revelations. You would not want to be long of this one. Then I look at the most shorted shares on AIM and explain why for many of them, notably IQE (IQE), Telit (TCM), ASOS (ASC), Boohoo (BOO) and Victoria (VCP) the bear c ase has just got that much stronger, by an order of n, in the past few weeks. Finally a warning for shareholders in First Derivatives (FDP) - I have a small present for you tomorrow. :)

We are days away from the end of 2018 and so it is time for almost the final reckoning for my portfolio of 5 shares to sell this year. I say almost the final reckoning because Tom Winnifrith’s Winnileaks has been receiving a few things which suggest that AIM-listed Frontera Resources (FRR) may well be facing its final reckoning extremely soon – ouzo at the ready, then!

This case relates to the Outrider dispute. It is not in itself massive othern than showing that when Frontera (FRR) blusters in RNS about its confidence you should know it is bluster. This particular episode should have been an easy one for Frontera but while racking up its costs it fecked up on its paperwork and thus lost. Poltroons. The Court filing is below.

Petropavlovsk (POG) has updated that the first stage of its plan to reduce its guarantee for 31.1% owned IRC Limited is completed and that “with the twin events of concluding the restructuring of the IRC Facility, and with the successful ongoing ramp up of Petropavlovsk's Pressure Oxidation Hub, the company is poised to generate returns for its stakeholders in 2019 and beyond”…