For a decade, investors around the world have ridden a rising tide of more than $12 trillion - the extra cash pumped into the global system by key central banks to counter the deepest financial crisis since the Great Depression and its aftermath. Now that flow of so-called quantitative easing is turning to the ebb of quantitative tightening, and markets are - perhaps not coincidentally - showing increasing volatility.

This may surprise a few people given my pessimism on the housing market and the housebuilding sector but I am not bricking it about the world of bricks. Now maybe it is because I am a sentimental old fool who lives near an area whose heritage is wrapped up in the world of bricks, but my simple observation is...

I commented at the start of the month (HERE) that it could be the end of the road for Lord Razzall and the gang at Boxhill Technologies (BOX) after a disappointing trading statement and I understand things are getting worse but before going into that, I need to cover the shoddy deal from earlier in the month in which yet another payment company is jettisoned!

Over the years the one area of growth where Range Resources (RRL) has really excelled has been the number of shares in issue, with 8.5 billion of them now trading following the latest placing. The oil and gas company, which has interests in Trinidad and Indonesia, announced last week that it has completed yet another placing, and this time it raised £1 million at a share price of 0.11p.

Hello, Share Pedlars. Pearson (PSON) is still perceived mainly as a publisher of printed material. But that is changing fast. For example, it used to own the Financial Times and the Economist. But it sold them off. The famous firm is moving more towards e-publishing, including its very prominent online educational courses.

This week, we use the 38,000+ stock tips currently performance-tracked on the Stockomendation platform to analyse the relationship between a company’s size and the level of scrutiny it typically receives from brokers and tipsters.

The 33 mile walk from Horse Hill to Woodlarks was actually a bit longer for myself and super-fit Dan Levi, Brokerman Dan. At about fifteen miles Dan and Lucian were striding ahead and myself and Andrew Bell were somewhat lagging. We came to a junction and the sign clearly said head left, downhill. And so we did that. Worrying that we might have made the wrong decision I called Lucian who assured us that it was okay to follow the sign at the gate. He said Dan and he would wait.

I am ever more convinced that there is some big news coming from AIM-listed Minoan (MIN) and that it could well be this coming week. We have been told the sale of the travel and leisure business is on the way, and that the company expects to settle the Hillside loan which has been extended (yet again) to a long-stop date of the end of August. But we have also been told a general meeting will be required.

It was interesting to listen to yesterday’s Bearcast Special, with Tom Winnifrith joined by Lucian Miers and Brokerman Dan – the last of whom sounded like a jolly good cynic to me. He described AIM as “all puff” and asked which company could go to zero he said any AIM company. Of course, I think there are a few exceptions but in general the cynic in me enjoyed hearing what he had to say. Perhaps that is partly why I’ve been looking to put a dividend muncher’s list together, as well as having some stocks I can invest my cash in to generate a return even if the general market keels over.

I note the piece from Hotstockrockets which explains part of what Miles Pelham has been up to. Essentially he has been offloading AIM-listed Obtala (OBT) ordinary shares and picking up convertible prefs (which pay 5%).

Some of you are reading this in fantastic parts of the world. Places on the edge of blue waters or beneath the caopies of rainforests. Cosied up in rooms with constant ambient temperatures.

It's mile 27 - only six miles left. Joining the trekkers at this point is Aidan Earley.

Lucien and Tom are outstanding in their field at mile 22. Dan assures Lucien looks cool in his Yassir Arafat ensemble. 

The share price of Mobile Streams (MOS) has pretty much halved since I recently covered it as one to avoid at all costs, but despite that drop I still see no value in any investment here.

Lucian, Brokerman Dan, Tom, and Andrew taking a break. And are not lost, we are assured. To help us keeping raising money throughout the day, please make a small donation HERE

The halfway point has been reached. At this point, Brokerman Dan has been informed that the £25,000 barrier has been broken and he will be duty bound to walk the final mile in his Man U pants. But why has the 33 mile trek been extended by a half-mile?...

I suggested five stocks to sell for 2018 as part of the ShareProphets Christmas tipfest some seven months ago. This tale this month shows just how mad the AIM market is in this bull market: it seems that investors have simply lost their senses.

Two and a half hours in and Tom is already taking a break. With approximately nine more hours to go, is the Sheriff of AIM up to the task? To help us keeping raising money throughout the day, please make a small donation HERE

Tesla (NASDAQ - TSLA) reports Q2 numbers after the close on Wednesday and after Elon Musk’s bizarre performance on the Q1 earnings call, this one is likely to be box office. Far from learning from that meltdown back in May, his behaviour since has been even more erratic - with his spiteful reference on twitter to the British diver involved in the Thai cave rescue as “that pedo guy” and, more recently, his contacting the boss of a vociferous critic on twitter “Montana Skeptic”, with threats of legal action.

Lucian Miers and Brokerman Dan plotted the actual route for today's trek - but they didn't mention that they included obstacle courses...