Union Jack Oil (UJO) is “pleased to announce that the company has agreed terms… on a proposed farm-in for a 16.667% licence interest in PEDL183… located onshore UK in East Yorkshire”, with this accompanied by a £2.25 million equity raise…

From the FCA's spreadsheet of short positions required to be disclosed to it, the following shows the shorted AIM shares with positions from 2017 and thus far in 2018 (by net short position %) - and if this position has increased (red), reduced (green) or remained unchanged (black) since last week...

It’s been a busy week in the markets, with a number of big names announcing their latest figures. In this week’s article, we cover broker and tipster reaction to a handful of trading updates that have attracted our attention over the last seven days.

US fund manager David Einhorn is having a fairly dismal 2018 but his long term record is good and his biggest short, Tesla (TSLA) is paying off. In his latest missive to investors he compared pothead liar Elon Musk's fraud to Lehman Brothers. Can you really argue with a word he says?

The shenanigans of the Standard-Listing of AIQ are well documented here on ShareProphets, which included an incomplete prospectus, two suspensions due to a disorderly market (the IPO shares couldn’t be traded) and a fund-raising which was delayed – all in its first five months as a listed company! Meanwhile, with assets (all cash – it is a cash-shell) of around 8p a share, the price rocketed to an incredible 135p. We have been saying sell all along.

Hello, Share Scrimpers. Some of us consider ourselves ethical investors. We do not buy shares in companies with products and services which we think may harm people or the environment. But some of us have different views on what is ‘ethical. Now my colleague on this beautiful site Chris Bailey is an enlightened man. 

I can’t help but notice that shares in AIM-listed Haydale have been on the slide once more. Today they are off by another 13.2% - I wonder if the company wants to issue a statement as to the reason why? Na….thought not. Well, just to help out Haydale (‘cos we are such nice guys)…..

Our Winnileaks Matt Earl special on First Derivatives (FDP) has set the cat amongst the pigeons. But I have bad news for the men from God's chosen lands of Ulster who run First. I have more and hope to air soon. Ho ho ho. Get the ouzo and ice ready. In this podcast I also cover spoofing at BlueJay (JAY), Fastjet (FJET), Frontera (FRR), the scandal at Indigovision (IND) which is enough to have us all voting for Jeremy Corbyn, Mayan (MYN) and, in some detail, Condor Gold (CNR), the gold dog which has sent so much of the cash of my good pal Jim Mellon to money heaven. I fear Jim will have to get his wallet out again soon.

Early this year we showed the ten top shorted London-listed shares at the start of 2018. How's the latest performance?...

A “Posting of Circular & Notice of General Meeting” announcement from IndigoVision (IND) sounds innocuous – though the first paragraph then states it is “for the purpose of approving a new Long Term Incentive Plan”. Hmmm…

David Erfle is a skeptic when it comes to the junior mining sector. He became involved in the resource market in 2003, shortly after losing a good portion of his investments in the dot.com crash. Those lessons helped him look for sectors that are undervalued.

For reasons not explained the CEO of Mayan Energy (MYN) has quit with immediate effect. The City's No 1 oil analyst Zac Phillips thinks this is a good move, although probably a prelude to yet another bailout placing. But his report is still damning and is below. 

This morning BlueJay Mining (JAY) announced that three directors had bought shares.  That is a spoof. The amounts are not material and the aim is to try and arrest the share price slide. If anything such spoofing is itself another reason to sell. It gets worse…

Africa forestry and agriculture company Obtala (OBT) has updated on the third quarter of its year, including that it has remained focused “on increasing output from our profitable assets in West Africa and improving margins by leveraging our fixed cost base… year to date revenues have now comfortably surpassed that of the full year in 2017 and revenues for the current financial year are expected to exceed US$10m for the first time”…

Well, maybe I am. Or maybe just misinformed, or I just don’t understand. I see that there has been a bit of bulletin board excitement over reports that the Share Centre is backing Woodford – in particular his Patient Capital Trust – “despite Brexit” but the logic seems to my simple mind a bit wayward.

Ariana Resources (AAU) has announced results for the first half of 2018, including emphasising “production for the year is expected to exceed initial expectations in the second half” and “we are now in the process of committing to a 4,000m RC and diamond drilling programme across certain projects during the remaining 2018 through to 2019 period”…

Hello Share Switchers. Amerisur Resources (AMER) is one of those companies in my bag that have done so badly over years, that the shares are not always worth keeping an eye on. However, there was hope this week for some sort of recovery.

I cannot really speak properly. Forgive me, there is good reason. However I offer comment, breaking rumour and analysis on Tern (TERN),  Purplebricks (PURP) and the plight of the shorter, Berkeley Energia (BKY) and planned yellow journalism by the tossers at the FT and Audioboom (BOOM) and management spoofery.

A “Change of Adviser” announcement from the self-styled “UK's leading value butcher” Crawshaw (CRAW) includes “Peel Hunt LLP has served notice, which has been mutually agreed by Crawshaw, to terminate its engagement with the group as its current nominated adviser and broker”. Who’s the ‘change’ to then?...

We long suffering believers in the only proper currency man does not devalue with the printing press might have hoped for more but we will settle for this if it is on offer.