In this visualisation, we look at six important indicators that point to China’s economy slowing down. Data comes from the National Bureau of Statistics of China, the People’s Bank of China, and the General Administration of Customs, to see what is flashing red. As usual, courtesy of Visual Capitalist.

When looking at where clean energy technologies and their components are made, one thing is very clear: China dominates the industry.. As usual, courtesy of Visual Capitalist.

Hello Share Fanatics. This time last week I said I was changing from a bear to a bull. Not a moment too soon, either. Yesterday. the Footsie reached an all-time intra-day high of 7,906. More of that to come, I fancy. Here’s why.

Oh dear, oh dear, more bad news from the green pipedreams, slurp the jam tomorrow and forget about the bonkers valuation sector. Today it is Ceres Power (CWR) an AIM listed company repeatedly recommended by our own in-house Guardian reading eco-Warrior Malcolm Stacey but red flagged by  myself and Peter Brailey. Its shares are down by 65% year to date and by c80% since February 2021, the peak of the green bubble madness.

OptiBiotix Health (OPTI) has announced the opening of an online shop on Tmall.com for its Go-Figure products and that it has launched GoFigure shakes containing patented weight management aid SlimBiome on Tmall China. What of this and of a share price edging up to 19p to buy?

I3 Energy (I3E) has enjoyed a miraculous turnaround in fortunes over the past couple of years, thanks to buying new assets at the right time and benefitting from high oil and gas prices since then.

Oil has been showing signs of weakness in recent months after hitting highs of nearly $140/barrel – for Brent – earlier this year, and has suffered over concerns about the economic situation in many countries in the coming months.

Many of you have probably stayed in an InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) hotel. I am sure a bunch of you are fans of the Regent or Crowne Plaza options, but I am a bit more of a Holiday Inn sort of guy. As for the company’s shares, I have not owned them for years but, when I look at their performance over the last year, they are 10% or so below the c. 5000p share price average. How exciting (not).

Describing itself as a “leading in-content advertising company” and stating it is “tracking strongly against the KPIs and are seeing a very clear acceleration of interest in the in-content format”, Mirriad Advertising (MIRI) has announced first half of 2022 results. So what of a 7.75p share price – down from a start of year 28p!?

A routine-sounding “Notice of Results and Trading Update” announcement from ECO Animal Health Group (EAH), which includes it stating it “is pleased to provide an update to its expected results for the year ended 31 March 2022”... so why are the shares currently approaching 100p in response, circa 20% down?!

Describing itself as “a leading provider of technology and services for the global offshore energy markets”, Tekmar Group (TGP) has announced “a significant new contract award to supply 100 Cable Protection Systems for use on multiple offshore wind farms in the Shangdong and Guangdong provinces of China”. What of a current more than 5% higher share price response to 11.375p?

Hello Share People. Though I’ve gone largely to cash, fearing a recession, I still have a toe hold in some companies. A few of those are in the oil game, because it’s hard to see how they might fail given prevailing circumstances. It’s this old punter’s view that big oilers are still undervalued. Let’s look at the evidence.

Straws blowing in the wind are often said to presage great tempests and I believe that this chart shows just such a straw.

Hello Share Scratchers. The Footsie’s not upwardly mobile these days. Let’s see why. Well, there’s a strong presence of that great enemy of share price progress: uncertainty. And most of that wobble is caused by the super powers. Russia’s behaviour is unacceptable and world will never forgive her. Yet Putin continues to want back the whole of the Soviet Block.

How to cram as many buzzwords as possible into an RNS, and thus excite moronic investors:  a lesson from the fraud, Supply@ME Capital (SYME).

First, I would like to offer a huge congratulations to every “Rogue Blogger”; it was a fantastic effort. Back in the dull world of investments, I read today that “HSBC (HSBA) investor eyes £22 billion boost from bank break-up”.

As I observed back in January I am “not a global fashionista nor a chav...but still a Burberry (BRBY) shares fan”. With events since, unsurprisingly the share is down but I can live with that as - at various points over the last few years - I have bought the stock at an average price below the current sub 16 quid share price level. But what do today’s full year numbers to the start of April tell me about both recent and upcoming trading realities?

It isn’t really surprising that any companies operating in the region where the current conflict between Russia and Ukraine is going on have taken a big hit to their share price since it all kicked off, but that can also present opportunities as long as you are prepared to take on the risks associated with that.

A note out on 26^th April 2022 from AIM-listed Origo Partners (OPP)updated its long suffering followers that its shares would be suspended from the month end, as its Nomad, Arden Partners, was being acquired and was giving up on the Nomad business. But since the asset disposal programme was almost finished, the company advised that it was not looking for a replacement. So as of 30 May 2022 Origo’s career of the AIM Casino will be history.

Carclo (CAR) “is pleased to report that the business expects to report a strong performance for the year” and that “demand in the group's key markets remains strong coming into the new financial year”. So what of a current share price of 24.5p, down nearly 10%?!...

Previously writing on group which describes itself as a “licensor of proprietary solutions improving the sustainability and economics of the world’s clothing and fabrics” Xeros Technology (XSG), in January with the shares lower towards 100p I concluded its “pleased to report… progress” instead still looked to demonstrate a former Woodford dog and jam tomorrow. The shares last closed at 88.5p… and are currently significantly further lower on the back of a trading update announcement…

Back in August last year I observed that “when the FTSE 100 dumps next, have a look at Prudential (PRU)”.  So given that markets have been volatile year-to-date and the insurance giant has in the last week published its full year 2021 results, how am I thinking about the stock today?

Earlier this month HERE, I observed that the ‘Methodist Church threatens to pull stake from Rio Tinto (RIO) over damning sexual harassment report’. I am not sure if its investment committee listened to the mining sector giant’s conference call earlier today but – if it did – it will be pleased with the huge amounts of ESG mentions in the first few minutes of the call. Most investors though will be more excited by the news of ‘record financial results and total dividend of 1,040 US cents per share for 2021, a 79% payout’, equivalent to over a 10% dividend yield. Whilst some of this was a special dividend reflecting remarkable metals sector prices during 2021, how should investors feel now about the FTSE-100 giant with a market cap of just shy of £94 billion?

Hello Share Rattlers. I’ve commended Strix Group (KETL) to you before but lately this maker of kettle bits has not been one of my more illustrious calls. It’s down by a third compared to the second half of last year. But the fall, connected to perceived supply and transport issues together with the rising cost of raw materials, seems to me unjustified.

Origo Partners (OPP) was a member of the ShareProphets AIM-China Filthy Forty and is one of the last handful still standing. It was an investment company and lost almost all of the shareholders’ funds as the nest of snakes that was running it made, ahem, questionable investments which either collapsed or just disappeared. In 2017 current Chairman, Mr John Chapman, arrived and the previous board – and Nomad, Smith & Williamson – were given the boot as the past was revealed in all its horrific glory, alongside a series of major write-downs or just write-offs as Mr Chapman applied some common sense to the stated NAV, and in some cases just bothered to find out what the company had bought (if anything at all). But last week came some good news….

Previously writing on “licensor of proprietary solutions improving the sustainability and economics of garments and fabrics” Xeros Technology (XSG), in September with the shares down to 185.5p I concluded the current record here doesn’t encourage. Still for me, a former Woodford dog and jam tomorrow avoid / sell. Today the group “is pleased to report on the progress which has been made by the group’s partners and licensees”, so why are the shares further lower towards 100p?…

Hello Share Takers. I’ve got just two words to say to you. Praseodymium and neodymium. They are metals and pretty rare ones at that. The biggest source of them is a company called Rainbow Rare Earths (RBW). What can you make with this pair of metals? NdPr Oxide, that’s what.

Analyst Jaime Carrasco of Canaccord Genuity is still a gold bull and here’s why.

Describing itself as “a leader in developing, manufacturing and commercialising products for the self-care market”, a “Trading Update & Board Changes” announcement from Venture Life Group (VLG) includes “the directors see many reasons to be optimistic and are pleased with how the company is positioned… The company is profitable, cash generative, with a healthy cash balance… order book ahead of where it was at the same time last year (on a like for like basis)”. So why then are the shares, at circa 35p, 27% lower on the back of it?…

I have no regrets that I quit as an institutional fund manager six months or so before my 40th birthday. That was over eight years ago now and fortunately in the investment world there is always plenty of new stuff to learn, especially when you can choose to only work with people you like and/or respect. Anyhow it was kind of interesting that the global fund I managed at the time I quit as a 39 year old, had thirty-nine holdings. But as I get older I own fewer positions, though one I still like is Burberry (BRBY).

Shares in injection moulded plastic products company Coral Products (CRU) are still around the price they were at before an AGM trading statement despite the statement including that it “has enjoyed a very strong first half to our current financial period. The group will report sales and profits before tax substantially ahead of the same period for last year”. This suggests a buying opportunity.

Johnson Matthey (JMAT) has seen its share price take a bit of a hit in recent months and is now trading at a similar level to where it started the year, despite the world economy looking in better shape now than it did then.

I remember – about 25 years ago – that my first boss told me a story concerning a previous contact of his who had bought shares in HSBC (HSBA) many years beforehand and it had provided a fantastic total return profile for the next few decades. Such is the attraction of thinking a bit like Warren Buffett and spotting an idea that is set to continue to perform well for the next thirty or forty years – and holding on. However, hindsight is easy to quote but harder to achieve. And whilst I have my own list of names I anticipate my pension fund is unlikely to sell its holding in during the rest of the 2020s, unsurprisingly this list does not include HSBC which I dumped about 4 years ago (at an akin share price I had purchased the stock at about 4 years earlier). The ‘Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited’ is a flash name, but despite the rise and rise of Asia over recent decades, any HSBC shareholder will be aware that the shares peaked in the year 2000.

Writer Kevin Muir of “The Macro Tourist” has a couple of pretty extreme big calls.

AIM-listed Rurelec (RUR) has been an untold disaster on AIM. Having ditched the Peter Earl regime, the directors who somehow managed to keep this crock afloat have now left and the outlook is truly grim.

The Quoth the Raven podcast host Chris Irons is a man who believes in sound money and bad language so he must be a good bloke. Chris reckons that everything in the markets is rigged and the biggest rigger is the Fed. He says that the Fed’s main function today seems to be preventing market corrections. This is causing numerous issues along with making most people complacent.

A company does not have to say anything on trading, on its prospects or on other matters at an AGM but it can do so and if it has anything good at all to say you can bet the ranch, especially with smaller AIM promotes, that it will say it. And that brings us to the Versarien (VRS) AGM yesterday.

Hello, Share Streamers. I’m usually not as pessimistic as my smarter colleagues on this scintillating website. So they may not agree with me when I say that shares might soon take off.We could soon begin an impressive bull run. For weeks now the Footsie has been static, but that could soon change. And here’s why I’m buying, not selling.

Hello, Share Campers. When the Footsie’s falling and you hold a share that’s just reached an all-time high, you know you might, in the words of Herman’s Hermits, be into something good. Strix Group, with the amusing epic code of KETL, is one such baby in my book. It’s worth taking another peek at its credentials.

Another cache of emails have been delivered to Winnileaks regarding the activities of the ex copper who uses private chatrooms where folks discuss having me killed, Mr Graham Wood. As we know from previous articles, Wood is a close confidante of the loathsome Neill Ricketts, of stock-market promotion Versarien (VRS) infamy.

This just cannot go on!

Shares in mining giant Rio Tinto (RIO) have performed well for me ever since I realised back in October here that ‘investors should focus on China not cultural heritage’.  Actually if truth is told, it is more than just China because demand for the iron ore, copper and aluminium exporter is centred on a broader changing world.  Or as Rio Tinto put it on a chart in its second quarter numbers a few days ago, ‘we produce materials essentially for a low-carbon future’.  

Back in early March I wrote some thoughts about Essentra (ESNT), which describes itself as a ‘three global divisions’ business active in 34 countries and having 50 principal manufacturing facilities. After appraising its business I bought some shares a week or so later…and judging by today’s share price have made absolutely nothing (admittedly after putting aside the volatility of the last month or two in many parts of the market). So what do I think after today’s first half numbers?

The fraud Zoetic (ZOE) said it would serve up its final results in July. Instead, on July 1, we had a trading update and today we have another trading update. If results really are out before the weekend, why rush out a second trading update this morning? This is smoke and mirrors time as the trading news is absolutely dire and the absence of those results should alarm even the most moronic of morons.

Sometimes I am good at investments…and sometimes I am not so good. Today is an example – fortunately not overly regular – of the latter as the shares I bought in Reckitt (RKT) at 58 quid something in late February this year, are now at 56 quid something. So not exactly awful but far from smart given I have written positively about the stock  including on Sunday  a couple of times and had plenty of opportunities to make a nice turn and move on. So why the share dump today?

I have covered the downs and further downs of AIM-listed Rurelec (RUR) in some detail since the demise of former management led by Peter Earl, and marvelled at the fact that the company – despite everything thrown at it – is still here at all. But this morning’s announcement of a new “Independent” NED makes the stock totally uninvestable. So who is the mystery NED?

Hello, Share Stickers. As I’ve observed before, companies which operate within a niche have a better chance of success. A niche outfit operates in a tiny corner of a market which their customers can’t do without. Such is the nature of Strix Group (KETL). You’ll notice the epic code has now’t to do with the company name. Until you know that Strix makes bits for kettles.

It’s time to have a look again at Burberry (BRBY), shares in which I have loved for a number of years (even if I have never bought one of its products personally). But the shares have been a bit volatile so far this year, as I noted the other week with the surprise decision by the company’s CEO to leave. So whilst further insights on who may be the next CEO is more of an issue for later in the year, why are the company’s shares down today given its ‘excellent progress’ comment about year-to-date sales?

To be honest I did not think that today would be that exciting on the global stock markets. Certainly that has been the case for the vast majority of shares that I own or follow…with the exception of British luxury fashion house Burberry (BRBY), whose shares are down over 7% as I write. So why the big fall?

I’ve recently found myself wondering how many of these ‘Covid stocks’ have missed the boat, as many of them still aren’t producing any significant amounts of revenue, yet often their markets caps are comparatively very high.

Did you listen to Tom Winnifrith’s bearcast yesterday here ?  I am a few years younger than Tom but I feel exactly the same about the importance of the finances of retirement and related matters.  For myself – in a few months time – it will be twenty-five years since I finished my Finance and Investment Master’s degree and joined the City. The world has certainly changed a little bit since then, but all of us with twenty plus years experience know much more about the range of investment realities out there.

I remember when I first covered Bushveld Minerals (BMN) as a buy back in 2016 at around the 2p level, prior to the completion of its asset acquisition, vanadium wasn’t a commodity that you heard mentioned much.

These are not hard questions for the fraud Zoetic (ZOE) and its journalist-smearing, morally bankrupt PR team from Buchanan led by the fraudster’s fave spinner Henry Harrison-Topham to answer. But it will not.  I assume that Mr Harrison-Tophat is too busy pitching to do PR for another China fraud or smearing me then denying it to answer what is a very simple question.  After eight days and 6 emails he is yet to respond to:

This issue seems to be confusing some of the morons who own the humungously overvalued shares in the fraud Zoetic International (ZOE). And so I shall explain why. I shall make it simple as those who are confused are themselves simple and so there will not be too many long words. Before I start, I explain why Zoetic is a fraud.

An AGM statement from water temperature management components group Strix (KETL) emphasises that “we anticipate delivering revenue growth of circa 30% for the group during 2021 which also underpins our confidence in achieving our medium-term target to double the group’s revenues over the next five years”. What though does that mean financially and how’s current performance?…

I start with good news on Rogue Bloggers for Woodlarks - see for yourself HERE. Then a few words about incredibly exciting work today at the Welsh Hovel. Then onto bitcoin, China and Argo Blockchain (ARB), which links to Zoetic (ZOE) which really is starting to collapse. Then onto the arrogance of the City, Neil Woodford, Andrew Monk and Hurricane Energy (HUR).

Suddenly we dinosaurs who did not understand why a worthless piece of code, which was inherently vulnerable to substitution by other worthless but cheaper pieces of code, was so valuable don’t look quite so dumb. Bitcoin is down by 18% at sub $35,000 having been $64,870 just four weeks ago. This time it is not the prick Elon Musk to blame, the bubble today is being pricked by China.

Another day of volatility ‘excitement’ in markets today…but you can read more of some of my thoughts on this yesterday HERE, so let’s talk about something else and – for me – that has to be luxury goods company Burberry (BRBY) which published its full year to the end of March numbers today.

Xeros Technology (XSG) has announced the first deployment of its ‘XOrb’ and ‘XDrum’ technology platform in the commercial laundry market – this with the largest commercial washing machine manufacturer in China, Jiangsu SeaLion Machinery Co., Ltd. Exciting stuff?, Er…

As many of you will know, I’ve never exactly been a big fan of shares in small AIM listed lithium miners and viewed most as being junk when they were being heavily promoted a few years back when the metal was suddenly in the limelight and any sort of mention of it had private investors scrambling to buy in.

Here is another piece of fake news from Alliance News: “Losses widen at BSF Enterprise but cash position strengthens”. This followed the release by sub-Standard Listed cash-shell BSF Enterprise (BSFA) of Interims to March 2020 – just over three weeks AFTER it released full year numbers to September 2020 (which were released a day late on April 1^st despite having been filed to Companies House on 4^th March. What sort of shambles is this?

Brian Hirschman is the Managing Partner of Hirschmann Partnership, dubbed by  ValueWalk as the “World’s Most Bearish Hedge Fund.”  He warns that all the bubbles have only grown in recent months and that the two biggest bubbles are bitcoin and residential real estate.

The fraud Zoetic International (ZOE) has released a trading update. Natch, there are lorry loads of jam tomorrow but it is what it does not say that should give investors looking at a £157 million market cap ( at 80p) a real panic attack. The lack of critical data here is the monumental red flag.

Earlier this month, here, I excitedly wrote that prospects for shares in Burberry (BRBY) were strong as ‘comparable store retail sales in Q4 FY2021 are expected to be in the range of +28% to +32% higher than the same period last year’. And the reason (again) for this progress despite a world of shutdowns has been a substantial rise in demand for its luxury goods in China. That is why Burberry shares were pushing above a £21 share price at the time of my thoughts above.  So why did the shares dump below a £19 share price on Thursday and Friday this week despite a broadly workable stock market in the last few weeks?  Well that would be a few new thoughts from both the UK (and others) and naturally China.

I commented on the strange rise of ShareProhets AIM-China Filthy Forty play Origo Partners (OPP) last week, suggesting that the rise from 0.145p to a peak of over 0.4p was simply ridiculous – not, I hasten to add, that current boss John Chapman is in any way to blame.

Just over a year ago today, I wrote here about how investment industry giant Prudential (PRU) was ‘doing everything right in these troubled times’.  So no surprise to see the shares doubling over the last year although the shares are not back to their 2018 highs. Is there still scope to be excited in a company with a growing focus on Asia, especially after their spinning off of M&G (MNG) in late 2019?

For the record, I do not believe management at ShareProphets AIM-China Filthy Forty play Origo Partners (OPP) have anything to do with this- indeed, my view is that head honcho John Chapman is a breath of fresh air. But shares in Origo seems to have gone stark raving bonkers – only on Wednesday they closed at 0.145p and now they are 0.275p, having peaked at over 0.4p. What’s going on?

For me, a combination of earnings updates this week from the mining and banking sectors will give larger cap UK share watchers a bit of a focus.  Markets so far in February have broadly copied the positive take seen last November and December, although at least it is now based on actual Covid-19 vaccine tests and being the other side of Brexit deal details.  Yes – as discussed via a bunch of names such as DS Smith (SMDS), Whitbread (WTB) and Ibstock (IBST) in recent weeks – the scope for interest in cyclically recovering names remains opportunistic.  

Tin is not sexy or precious like Gold or Silver and one can argue its rather boring – not mainstream investment folder. But it is interesting to me and perhaps worthy of consideration as a few factors may see its value moving up further. Tin would appear to be the best preforming metal so far this year. I can see why, and why Afritin (ATM) is one way of playing what I see as an opportunity.

Who was Time Magazine’s Person of the year 1938 and nominated forb a Nobel Peace Prize the year after?

Back in early November here, I got all excited about the global luxury brand company Burberry (BRBY) on the basis that Asia – especially China – was getting closer to being half the overall sales of the business. Sales elsewhere in the world were under a bit more pressure but the historic chavtastic name felt cheap to me at about sixteen quid a share. After today’s third quarter update, the shares are up to above eighteen quid a share which is solid news for shareholders.

Hello, Share Planners. Investing in a shipping broker has a rather historic feeling to it. Isn’t that where the share game first started, with merchants buying shares in ventures by galleons to exploit foreign markets? Shipping brokers often turn up in the exotic works of my favourite author Joseph Conrad. Any road up, today’s choice is a modern version – Braemar Shipping Services (BMS)…

The dollar will weaken sharply in 2021 and that must be the basis of all your macro calls….

Two “pleased” to announce and one “delighted to announce” update(s) from Mobile Streams (MOS) today… and the shares currently at 0.24p, 11% lower! So, what’s going on?…

‘Measurement While Drilling’ technologies and equipment company Enteq Upstream (NTQ) has announced results for its half-year ended 30th September 2020 including “the international customer base for Enteq has grown significantly in the last six months, primarily through expanding market share in China… with good further opportunities… has some exciting product release plans which have the potential to change the scale of our business” and “cash balance of $8.8m”. The shares have currently responded to 12p, er approaching 16% lower…

For reasons which are nothing to do with the insanity of Mark Drakeford, I cannot work properly today at the Welsh Hovel hence this bearcast is short.  I explain those reasons and hope to be back to normal by Saturday. In the podcast, I discuss that impending lockdown and also last night’s debate between Donald Trump and China Joe Biden and what it means for November 3.

Nobody seems to have noticed. Well, that’s not quite true but if you restrict your news diet to the BBC and other “mainstream” news outlets one would be forgiven for thinking so. There is a Greek tragedy playing out before our very eyes and the endgame approaches.

Back in August here, I observed that mining giant Rio Tinto (RIO) had been silly not to square off the various interest groups being a big mining group means you rub up against.  I did also observe that ‘the trajectory of the Rio Tinto share price remains centred fully on the demand levels or not from China for iron ore…for all the ESG excitement this situation will induce, that is the cold hard reality’.  

My pieces on Centamin (CEY) and gold over the past few days have picked up some interesting comment. Jimbo55 is worried and has been cleverly risk-managing his gold exposure. On the other hand, Putneywill seems to agree that the long term move for gold is up and TheBadger reckons that the increasing supply of US dollars in circulation suggests that gold is only heading in one direction. Meanwhile, Jordan Roy-Byrne of TheDailyGold.com  simply says “ignore the noise”…

Gary Newman stuck the knife in to AIM-listed Adamas (ADAM) – of the ShareProphets AIM-China Filthy Forty, no less – at the beginning of September when it announced a share buy-back at a higher price than a placing and open offer first announced in July, but which only completed today – and only partially. If that is not bonkers enough, it seems that a large chunk of the placing cash is yet to arrive. We were told yesterday that:

Fund manager Nick Barisheff looks back to what happened in the past and considers the risk of confiscation of gold and why the correct term should be “expropriation.”

Fasten your seat belts and don’t sell your gold shares (unless they are in companies run by folks whose middle name is Dilution and whose first name is Calamity). 

Last weekend, China breached Taiwanese airspace. It’s not the first time, they do it frequently enough for it no longer to be news but fresh from their victory in Hong Kong they are shaping up for a big one. Right now, having won in Hong Kong, they believe they can do what they like.

I’ve just seen one of the most ridiculous RNSs that I’ve ever read appear for a company called Adamas Finance Asia (ADAM) – it has announced that it is buying back shares at a higher price than it has just placed them at!

When the market cap of a company is trading at significantly below its net asset value it would suggest that there is value in buying, but usually things aren’t as clear cut as they at first appear.

Hello Share Scrappers. Do you view the battered trade and foreign tourist industries as a buying opportunity?  Doesn’t every battered sector usually come back up? And though the rule can’t be applied to every company, it’s often the case that after a disaster comes a bounce. However, I tended to avoid travel companies before the pandemic. And I certainly will now. The current French fiasco is only the start of travel restrictions yet to come. So where should we put our money now?

This morning it was confirmed that ShareProphets AIM-China Filthy Forty play Walcom (WALG) had been quietly taken out in the middle of the night and put out of its misery. No witnesses, no inquest, no last statement from the prisoner: it was all silently done.

Hello, Share Chums. I take my life in my hands a bit today with a suggestion that IQE (IQE), the Welsh maker of computer bits, might be worth a tentative look...

The Ouzo may have run out at Deputy Sheriff Towers, but the Wagnerian opera of ShareProphets AIM-China Filthy Forty play Walcom (WALG) took what surely is a final turn last night when at 4.22pm it announced that two directors were walking as of this morning, leaving just Mr Francis Chi on the board...

The China investment into Versarien  (VRS) farce began on 15 April 2019 and should have seen boas Neill Rickets sacked by now so what is meant to happen by midnight tomorrow and will we get an RNS?

My five slam-dunk sells for 2020 have been a wild ride in the face of the Covid-19 bandwagon, but this week saw the first casualty as ShareProphets AIM-China Filthy Forty play Walcom (WALG) suddenly found itself on AIM’s Death Row when its erstwhile Nomad Allenby suddenly upped sticks and resigned. As discussed HERE there is surely no prospect of a replacement stepping forward and thus I have marked this one down to zero. As for the remaining four plays…….

Somewhat  belatedly, this morning at 8.16 am ShareProphets AIM-China Filthy Forty play Walcom (WALG) finally got around to issuing an RNS which was surely due last Friday to tell us that the bank had again blinked, that CEO/CFO still  hadn’t provided the bailout loan promised back in January and that he still intended to do so. The Nomad-signed RNS suggested that it was therefore business as (not so) usual. But then at 1.16pm the Fat Lady finally ploughed through the security cordon and before you knew it she had sung her heart out and the show was over.

Last Monday ShareProphets AIM-China Filthy Forty play Walcom (WALG) offered up yet another statement saying that again its CEO/CFO Mr Francis Chi had failed to offer up a bailout loan, that he still intended to do so (as he has since January!) and that in the absence of further funding it would be a one-way trip to the corporate undertakers last Friday, June 19. There was no statement on Friday, and here we are on Monday and there still has been no statement. Is Walcom bust or not? We need a statement.

So ShareProphets AIM-China Filthy Forty play Walcom (WALG) lives to fight on for a few more days after the bank blinked again and allowed Walcom to extend its payment plan, now with RMB 150,000 due on Friday but with CEO and CFO Mr Chi’s loan still nowhere to be seen, at some point the bank will lose patience and then either Mr Chi will have to cough up or it will be a one-way trip to corporate heaven.

The seemingly never-ending Wagnerian Opera of ShareProphets AIM-China Filthy Forty group Walcom (WALG) and its lack of a bailout director loan to avoid a one-way trip to the liquidator’s office saw the latest deadline yesterday pass without a statement. Oh dear: has the curtain finally come down?...

A no deal Brexit now looks very much possible and that could have profound implications for your wealth.

They say that if you owe the bank a quid you’ve got a problem, but if you owe the bank a million quid – or in the case of ShareProphets AIM-China Filthy Forty group Walcom (WALG), RMB200,000 by the end of May, then it is the bank which has a problem – especially if Walcom can’t pay. And so the latest deadline came and went….and it was the bank which blinked first...

Banking shares aren’t exactly in favour at the moment, with concerns over the lasting impact that Covid-19 is going to have on the economy in general, and as if that wasn’t enough, any banks wirth major dealings in Hong Kong have suffered a double whammy due to the escalation of the situation with China.

AIM-listed Walcom (WALG), one of the handful of remaining members of our AIM-China Filthy Forty has once again updated the market over its grim financial position……and the CEO loan which has still not arrived. This melodrama has been ongoing since January – one wonders whether the company thinks that if it drags on long enough the Fat Lady, who has been well warmed up for months, will finally be too hoarse to sing. But I fancy the denouement is now on the way.

Back in July last year  I sold a big chunk of my holding in the luxury goods company Burberry (BRBY) holding.  By the end of last year I had exited completely.  More recently I have reestablished a position and even tipped the stock at the recent online ShareProphets event.  Was this wise or chavtastically silly?

Pest control and hygiene company, Rentokil Initial (RTO), wasn’t looking particularly strong even prior to the arrival of Covid-19 and was trading at a very racey valuation, in my opinion.

A “Placing and Related Party Transaction” announcement from OptiBiotix Health (OPTI)… but we previously stated confidence of the company now moving to profitability, so are we wrong? No! In fact we are now far more bullish than ever before following a chat with boss Steve O'Hara earlier.

Shares in ShareProphets AIM-China Filthy Forty play Walcom (WALG) are STILL trading despite further warnings this morning that the company has insufficient funds to settle bank loan repayments due this month and in any case will run out of cash in a week. Surely we should have had a suspension pending financial clarification announcement by now.

The Wagnerian Opera that is the death of ShareProphets AIM-China Filthy Forty play Walcom (WALG) took a further step this morning: the Fat Lady has done her warm-up, got onto stage and loosened up by joining in the final chorus before stepping centre stage herself. But still AIM Regulation has not forced a suspension!

In today's bearcast I start by apologising to someone who is not a pest at all. Then I again discuss Covid 19 and have another podcast on my own website up today which has some relevance to this. I look at surging markets and am sceptical, at Yourgene (YGEN), Genedrive (GDR), FastJet (FJET) and at Versarien (VRS) which has announced a big China deal which cannot be a fraud given the involvment of top nomad SP Angel in doing due diligence and honest as they come Neill Ricketts in constructing the deal.

Hello, Share Diggers. When I was looking for a hotel in the Smoke last month, I was shocked that Premier Inn, a so-called budget hotel, wanted £360 for two nights, a huge increase on my room last year. I bet they’re not charging that now. This brings me no joy, especially as this family has shares in Whitbread (WTB) which owns Premier.

The Wagnerian Opera that is ShareProphets AIM-China Filthy Forty play Walcom (WALG) appears to be heading at last to its inevitable conclusion for this afternoon it was announced that CEO and CFO Mr Francis Chi had been unable to provide the bailout loan.....but still intended to do so...

And so the Wagnerian opera that  is AIM-China Filthy Forty play Walcom (WALG) continues. To recap, it is out of cash and dependent on yet more loans from its CEO for survival which as yet had not been forthcoming….

The Wagnerian opera of the eventual demise of ShareProphets AIM-China Filthy Forty play Walcom (WALG) continues, as we learnt today that the bailout rescue loan from its CEO is still not in the bank, but apparently more orders and perhaps more importantly measures from the Shanghai government in response to the corona virus mean that the company will survive until a week on Monday in the continuing absence of the CEO’s largesse.

Yet the one or two deaths it brought to Britons become headline news. Can you possibly imagine every flu death being treated in the same way? Meanwhile, there are signs of that China, the source of the outbreak, is seeing a drying up of cases. That’s surely likely to happen everywhere.

A Friday “Trading Update and Impact of Coronavirus” announcement from industrial chains and related power transmission products company Renold (RNO) failed to halt a falling share price – and now both Chairman Mark Harper and Finance Director Ian Scapens have responded buying shares…

Yes folks, it is time for an update on my five slam-dunk sells for 2020 – and the writing is on the wall as the anti-portfolio slides. At the end of January the score was an overall drop of 9.8% on a bid to bid basis. One month on the slippage has accelerated amongst my five picks from the AIM Casino, namely Tern (TERN), URU Metals (URU), AIM-China Filthy Forty play Walcom (WALG), Catenae Innovation (CTEA) and Yu Group (YU.)

There will be some who say that shorting a stock because it is exposed to the fallout from Coronavirus and what may well soon be a global pandemic is Tasteless. They probably have no such complaints about going long of a company with a test for the product. I am sure we all pray that this human tragedy ends soon. But the reality is that right now it is growing and, notwithstanding today’s sell-off, many of us reckon the market in certain stocks fails massively to discount the downside risks.

Hello, Share Cashers. There’s a perception that fresh food companies will have a hard time of it as a growing population forces up prices. It’s called food inflation. But the fear seems overdone, especially for big nosh producers that try to deal in what customers really want. As a long time vegetarian, I keep a close eye on food companies that avoid meat and fish. And as vegans are a fast-growing army, I imagine that meatless firms will probably go from strength to strength. Which brings me to today’s choice...

Another update from ShareProphets AIM-China Filthy Forty play Walcom (WALG) shows that the Wagnerian Opera of the cash-crisis is still not over, but the fat lady has been sent from stage left to stage right to make her entrance and so the company has another two weeks to sort itself out.

Previously writing on bathroom and kitchen products company Norcros (NXR), in October I reviewed how’s ‘play it safe and bank the gain here. Sell’ looking approaching a year on? – concluding suggesting increasing difficulties with a reliance on winning market share. Meanwhile, acquisitions still bring greater elements of risk. Thus, whilst at a current circa 220p the shares look cheap, I currently remain on the sidelines here. The shares last closed at 291p but are currently sliding on a “Trading update and impact of the Coronavirus”…

Photonic components and systems manufacturer Gooch & Housego (GHH) has updated including of “high levels of demand for fibre optics, hi-reliability fibre couplers used in undersea cables and our A&D and life science capabilities” and the shares have currently responded above 1350p, more than 6% higher…

This really is today's bearcast despite my introduction. Thanks for the kind messages about the flooding, the waters are now recedng fast. In today's podcast I look at China and the Coronavirus and ask WHEN IQE (OQE) will warn and if that will force a discounted placing. Methinks it will. I then look at the rioles of brokers (does research mean anything)? and Nomads (rules on quitting) in general and specifically in relation to Versarien (FRAUD). Then I discussa crazed TW hater and Optibiotix (OPTI) and how ultimately all comment on a company cannot determine its real value. In that vein I also look at Novacyt (NCYT) before finally looking at the worthless joke that is Conroy Gold and Natural Resources (CGNR). And I announce a fifth rogue blogger, Praise the Lord. Please donate something to the Woodlarks appeal HERE

Today we have the shock news that Versarien (VRS) has a new Nomad. Not a better Nomad, SP Angel is clearly massively inferior to Canaccord and this begs the question whether Versarien lied to investors on February 10. I have thus written to the Oxymorons at AIM Regulation and to the FCA with a question so simple that even they should be able to answer it.

The forecast death of ShareProphets AIM-China Filthy Forty play Walcom (WALG) seems to be stretching out long enough for your average Wagnerian opera. But yesterday the company announced that the fat lady is, at last, on her way.

One can only have sympathy for John Chapman, the chairman of AIM-China Filthy Forty play Origo (OPP), who came in after the damage had been done by previous management and leaving a hospital pass for whoever followed. The full horror of what Mr Chapman inherited is detailed here in the FY18 Annual Report and this morning the bad news was that Origo’s investment (and I use the term in its loosest sense) had suffered another setback as a purported bidder (unidentified!) had apparently walked in the face of a demand for arbitration being served. Given that this was about the only asset of measurable (but questionable) value, Origo shares have slumped...

Hello Share Twirlers. A few years ago I wrote my fastest-moving book Attishoo. It was about the common cold. What it was and how to avoid it. The cold is a coronavirus and there are more than 200 different varieties. That’s why we keep getting one cold after another. We only acquire immunity from one type of germ at a time.

In short no, although this virus could well be far larger than some folks (Lucian) think. Elsewhere I discuss useless research from broker Goetz and Optibiotix (OPTI), Future (FUTR), Amigo (AMGO), Iconic (ICON), Oracle (ORCP) and Petra Diamonds (PDL)

ShareProphets AIM-China Filthy Forty play Walcom (WALG) updated at lunchtime today that after weeks of prevaricating its CEO and CFO, Mr Francis Chi, has finally signed on the dotted line to give the company a lifeline in the form of a further loan of HK$ 270,000. But as lifelines go, this is as short as it gets for even with further loans which may or may or may not follow we are told that the cash will still run out in early February.

What does not stink in the annual accounts for Woodford Investment Management which surfaced at Companies House yesterday? The £14 million dividend paid to Neil and his business partner Craig Newman surely is top of the list but then there are the dates…. Let me explain.

Peter Brailey has already offered his list of sells for 2020 in the form of his Vomit List of useless oilers, so here is my 2020 list of Slam-Dunk sells. I doubt there will be much borrow available on any of them so shorting may not be possible (although two might offer up some) but the main message is stay away!

Two days before Christmas AIM-China Filthy  Forty play Walcom (WALG) announced the departure of Yong Tian Chan from the board as of 1 January (ie today). Now the deputy CFO, Jessie Chan, is off, from the end of February. Meanwhile, the company is still teetering on the brink of insolvency as discussions with the CEO regarding another bailout sticking plaster continue.

To be fair to ShareProphets AIM-China Filthy Forty play Walcom (WALG) it has made no secret of its financial woes since its formerly best customer defaulted on payments owed, plunging the company into crisis, even if the initial announcements suggested mis-placed confidence that the default would be resolved. 

Following news that disgraced and shamed Neil Woodford, wants to open up a new business in fraud ridden China I invite you all to supply a suitable caption for the pic below in the comments section. The deadline for entries is midnight tonight.

In my last update on the sorry saga of AIM-China Filthy Forty play Walcom (WALG), I commented that having been teetering on the brink for an age….I wonder if the company will survive into the new year. This was in the light of a bank loan due for repayment in the second week of this month (and no cash to pay it with)...

The death throes of ShareProphets AIM-China Filthy Forty play Walcom (WALG) seem to be going on even longer than your average opera. Having encountered problems last in getting its largest customer to pay up (still no progress there despite a court win) and hits to its business by disease, Walcom has been teetering on the brink for an age. But with the Christmas and New Year break coming up, I wonder if the company will survive into the new year following Friday's intra-day update.

Following our previous update September – another has fallen…& yet more to follow?, how’s the latest developments with the (few) remaining ShareProphets China AIM 'Filthy Forty'?...

Hello, Share Pullers. Food and clothing don’t usually go together but they do in the case of Associated British Foods (ABF) and Primark. The food bit owns the fab gear bit. And Primark, which often seems to be crammed with shoppers both young and old, could be propelling British Foods along...

Hello, Share Magnates. Given my general wariness of banks - even though I own quite a bit of High Street bank stock - I have not lately featured Standard Chartered (STAN). But, unlike the big four British banks, Standard Chartered has released some encouraging figures for the third quarter of this year...

I always find it surprising that private investors are prepared to take big risks on the drilling of oil and gas wells, yet they won’t touch certain shares due to geo political risks.

Almost a year ago I suggested that it would be a good time to consider banking at least some profit on Bushveld Minerals (BMN), but now that the share price has almost halved since then, I believe that the shares are now back in the buy zone.  Here, in detail, is why...

Following our previous update May & another suspended, how’s the latest developments with the (few) remaining ShareProphets China AIM 'Filthy Forty'?...

Yesterday ShareProphets AIM-China Filthy Forty play Walcom (WALG) announced that its death, due to lack of funds, has again been postponed – to the end of October. This time the saviour was its CEO, Francis Chi, who has offered up a loan of HK$ 350,000 (around £36,000) to Walcom Bio-Technology Chemicals Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary. It is unsecured, but suggests that the plc will be heading for the knacker’s yard and the choice parts will end up owned by someone else.

Gamfook was a Jersey Registered China play. That is always a good sign it was a fraud. It listed on the NEX lobster pot on Christmas Eve 2018 with Daniel Stewart, a firm with a fine history of floating frauds both British (Quindell) but also Chinese.  The tale of what happened next is a scandal.

Analyst Tavi Costa sees the current business cycle as being almost over and is waiting on an overall downturn in equities. Two-year yields reveal that we are near the top of the cycle. In the US, manufacturing reports are trending lower, and non-farm payrolls have had a sizeable downward reversion. 90% of the yield curves in Canada have already inverted, and many other countries are similar.

The 10 stages of a property bubble and crash...

I’ve already waved bye-bye to Haydale (HAYD) when it collapsed earlier this year on a massively discounted rescue refinancing – as long predicted by yours truly – saw me call it a win. Now it seems that Walcom (WALG) is finally heading for the corporate knackers’ yard next month, unless some miracle happens and the shares are down to just 0.25p. That will be two out of five if/when (with emphasis on the when) it happens. All hail the ShareProphets AIM-China Filthy Forty, from where it made this year’s sell list.

ShareProphets AIM-China Filthy Forty play and member of my slam-dunk sells for 2019 Walcom (WALG) has warned again about its financial position – but this time the warning is more direct than before. If you hold shares, now really is just about the last chance to get out for suspension and a trip to the corporate undertakers could come pretty much any time. The company tells us it expects to have enough cash to mid-October, but "expects" and certainty are two different things...

Hello Share Spooners. I’m making a lot of dosh these days. Not through trading shares, but in selling a load of what my wife describes as’ tat’ on eBay. It’s amazing how much little sales mount up. However, it’s currently hard work supplementing my income by trading shares.TW Note is not the Welsh word for what you sell tuch? (not sure on spelling)

Previously writing on homeware and fashion retailer Laura Ashley (ALY), I concluded including the continuing rapid trading deterioration concerns – particularly in terms of what the balance sheet will look like by the year-end. The company has now announced results for its year ended 30th June 2019…

A couple of days after Greene King (GNK) got scooped up by a Hong Kong billionaire, and on the day that Cobham (COB) announced the scheme particulars for its mooted takeover by a US peer, I read that plumbing and bathrooms kit company Ferguson (FERG) is thinking about switching to a US market listing. So woe betide the future of the UK market? In my opinion not at all...but you just have to face facts…

Oh dear, oh dear – an intra-day Company Update….not a good sign. ShareProphets AIM-China Filthy Forty play Walcom (WALG) – one of a handful left – has updated the market on its position. We learn that African Swine Fever continues to affect most of the company’s domestic customers (so another profit warning), its former best customer still hasn’t paid up and it is unclear whether it will, the company has only funds to see it through to the middle of next month and absent alternative funding it will be a trip to the corporate undertakers. Apart from that, everything is fine!

Hello Share Pushers. The hotel game is a funny old business for share shifters like us. The sector rarely seems to act in unison. Where one chain does well, another doesn’t. And it’s hard to fathom the reasons. Except that you’ll have noticed that some pubs are full whereas the one down the road is empty. For some subconscious causes, one pub becomes trendy and its nearest rival does not. Same with hotels, I fancy...

Hello, Share Snatchers. The huge lurches down and up made by the share markets on the day’s news always amazes me. Yet that news is nearly always a nine-days wonder which makes no difference in the end. I’m also bewildered at the lack of many investors’ realisation that this volatility is (perhaps subconsciously) engineered by the world’s biggest traders so that they can make money.

Yesterday a new name joined the Standard List of the London Stock Exchange: that of BSF Enterprise (BSFA). It is yet another cash-shell to join the sub-standard list – as if we really needed any more – but a name sprang out at me and that name rang a bell.

I like to think I have a little bit of knowledge about a wide range of matters but if I ever offer fashion advice on this page, then I really think you should ignore it. Fortunately my share-based love for Burberry (BRBY) has always been centred on those twin mega themes of the internet and China, rather than the new looks being developed by Riccardo Tisci and his team…

Fraud Origo Partners (OPP) is one of the few remaining stocks of our AIM-China Filthy Forty. One might wonder if there is hope given that it is still here but Chairman John Chapman has offered up its FY18 accounts which are truly dreadful (again) and his chairman’s letter is pretty explicit as to why. In short, Origo shows everything that is wrong with AIM: the transfer of wealth from the many (shareholders) to the few. Read it and weep Marcus Stuttard, the head of AIM and Sham Sheriff – this is your system.

Hello, Share Trampers. For the last ten years, I’ve ignored the stock market adage ‘Go away in May and come back on Leger Day’ (September). But it’s beginning to look like better advice this time around. Just when the Footsie seemed to be recovering from the Brexit blues, it’s gone back into reverse.

Could China trade wars pop the bubble?

Following it previously noted, when will the next domino fall?, here's an update on the current ShareProphets China AIM 'Filthy Forty' situation...

Hello Share Shorters. What a peculiar place Shareland is. We have multi-millionaires and billionaires with so much money they could never spend it. Yet some hang onto every penny. Then we see the other end of the share spectrum where a bunch of (mostly ageing) heroes walk 33 miles and raise nearly £50,000 for kids who face appalling disadvantages. How many small charity walks realise that kind of dough? Most of the donors will be from our shareholder community.

We have a double edition today of further articles released by Norwegian E24 as it continues to dissect the activities of Chris Rynning, the former boss of ShareProphets AIM-China Flithy Forty play Origo Partners (OPP). First up we have part 4, which looks further into his role as an adviser to Investinor (Norwegian state-owned) which seems to unearth a massive conflict of interests. Then we move on to Rynning’s lawyer who offered a reply...

Chris Rynning, the former boss of ShareProphets AIM-China Filthy Forty play Origo Partners (OPP) can rest a little easier today as we continue to follow the fine work of Norewegian E24 as the scandal of Rynning and Origo continues. Today we learn that having left Origo, Rynning was helping Norwegian entrepreneurs get a foothold in China as Innovation Norway referred them via its own website to Nhack, another Rynning company, based in Shanhai. Of course, Innovation Norway had checked him out.....hadn't they?

This gets worse and worse for Chris Rynning, the former boss of ShareProphets AIM-China Filthy Forty play Origo Partners (OPP). Having discussed how a billion Kroner disappeared to tax-havens under this self-styled China expert, today E24 looks at the company credit card. If you thought Nilesh Jagatia of Teathers (TEA), Insprit (INSP) and Octagonal (OCT) was, ahem, generous (to himself), this appears to take the biscuit.

I have covered the scandal of ShareProphets AIM-China Filthy Forty play Origo Partners (OPP) in some detail – see HERE. To cut a (very) long story short, it raised a pile of cash and seems to have lost almost the whole lot – apart from the generous remuneration and related party dealings – and the management paid itself a stack of bonuses just as the icing on the cake. New boss John Chapman has been forthright with what he found out on getting his feet under the table and now Norwegian outfit E24 has been looking into the original brains behind Origo, Mr Chris Rynning.

Hello, Share Callers. As most shares are falling now on Brexit fears, though I believe them to be groundless it might be the best idea to avoid buying most stocks in the expectation of getting them cheaper a little later on. And yet one company tends to do well when its fellow Footsie members step back...

Hello Share Cringers. They tell us that 90% per cent of our worries never materialise. This could be the case with all those Brexit fears. And it seems that the Big City agrees. Because despite all the cynicism, share prices are holding up remarkably well. But there are some headwinds that are now’t to do with Brexit.

In today's bearcast I read out an email sent to Paul Shackleton (and AIM Regulation) regarding Management Resourse Solutions (MRS) following today's bombshell HERE. I look at Plus 500 (PLUS), AFC Energy (AFC) and First Property (FPO) whose CEO is outed today as a Brexit Party candidate. I also do read out the roll call of heros who have sponsored Rogue Bloggers for Woodlarks. Tomorrow I am attemptng to do a 22 mile training walk so as you think of my pain why not be a hero too and sponsor all nine  rogue bloggers HERE

I noted last month that ShareProphets AIM-China Filthy Forty play Origo Partners (OPP) had sacked its investment adviser, Origo Advisers Limited “for cause”. Now it seems that the company’s website has disappeared, as you can see HERE – which is, of course, contrary to AIM Rules. But before I get on my high horse, I would note a few things.

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.

Last month one of the five had its denouement as AIM-listed Haydale (HAYD) had an emergency bailout  - as long predicted by me -  at only 2p. That left just four. My suspicion was that AIM-listed member of the Filthy Forty, Walcom (WALG) would be next with its head under the guillotine and the news there was only marginally better as death has been postponed to June.

AIM-China Filthy Forty play Origo Partners (OPP) has sacked its investment adviser “for cause”. Origo has been a total disaster for its investors, but a great wheeze for the investment adviser as you can see HERE: while shareholders have lost almost everything the adviser, Origo Advisers Limited (OAL), coined it in fees, bonuses and so on. You might wonder what took the company so long, but until recently the board was dominated by its investment adviser…..and then along came hero of the hour Mr John Chapman.

The final death throes of ShareProphets AIM-China Filthy Forty play Walcom (WALG) seem to be upon us. This is as a result of its biggest customer defaulting on payments, leaving Walcom with no cash, a much reduced client pool and a stack of bills to pay. On 28 February the company warned it may go belly up by the end of March. The good news is that the executioner has been held off until mid-April, and Walcom is now proposing to sell off a subsidiary to raise a bit of cash...

Well, you can’t say you have not been warned! ShareProphets AIM-China Filthy Forty member (one of the few remaining) Walcom (WALG) warned yesterday that Trading in the first two months of the financial year has been significantly below budget. But that was the minor issue, as its defaulting customer still hasn’t paid up. Walcom is pretty specific over its predicament;

This was the $105 million deal, announced in July, that was meant to complete on December 7, then January 31 , then February 20 and now… well it appears China based TUS does not have all the moolah it needs yet. 

It seems that someone wants out of ShareProphets AIM-China Filthy Forty play China New Energy – the shares plunged 18% yesterday to just 1p on no news. And yet only on Monday we were told that some outfit in the BVI had offered up a £1.118 million loan “for general corporate expenses”, convertible at 4.7p upon a listing in Asia. This, from a company which claims to be profitable!

I made a brave positive call on Thomas Cook (TCG) in late November after its share price shocker, noting that: 'The stock is cheap (less than 4 times EV/ebit) but clearly not without risk. Would I roll the dice here as a 2019 punt wrapped up in politics and climate realities? You know - rather than buying one of its holidays - just maybe I would given the range of assets'...

Oracle Power (ORCP) seems to have become popular all of a sudden and has seen its share price rise by around 80% in the past week, but as usual some on the bulletin boards seem to be claiming that it should actually be worth many multiples of its current valuation.

AIM-listed member of the ShareProphets AIM-China Filthy Forty, China New Energy (CNEL) has announced a £1.118 million (before expenses) convertible loan with an entity called Double River Limited of the BVI. With the shares previously at just 1.125p, the conversion price of 4.7p seems a little on the too-good-to-be-true side of things, and is conditional on China New gaining a listing on a stock market in Asia. What’s not to like?

Investors in GCM Resources (GCM) seem to be shocked that recent news hasn’t caused the share price to rise much higher, and barring a very brief spike immediately after news of a deal landed, it has settled back to around the level that it was trading at before the RNS dropped. The news that has got everyone invested in this Bangladeshi coal miner so excited is a joint venture agreement with a huge government owned entity called PowerChina, which is involved in coal fired power plants and is a name that some will be familiar with as it also has similar deals in place with other small mining companies in various parts of Africa as well...

As Tom Winnifrith drowns himself in Ouzo for breakfast this morning, after AIM-listed Telit (TCM) put off its disposal and fellow AIM-listed Altona (ANR) and Alien Metals (UFO – formerly Arian Silver) were suspended on AIM, I wonder if I’m missing out. Back on 21 November 2018, AIM-listed Walcom (WALG) of the ShareProphets AIM-China Filthy Forty told us it had a debt repayment due in January…..

I thought I’d update on my 5 sells for 2019 as after just a couple of weeks a few cracks are beginning to show already. The five, Telit (TCM), Haydale (HAYD), Yu Group (YU.), Walcom (WALG) of the ShareProphets AIM-China Filthy Forty and First Derivatives (FDP) are not necessarily shorts – some, such as Walcom, couldn’t be shorted anyway. But they are sells.

I explain the headline ion the podcast but it is all to do with Anglo African Oil & Gas (AAOG) and UK Investor Show - book your free ticket for March 30 today HERE. I explain why Old man Stacey really has lost the plot on Brexit, he needs to look at what is happening in China and that will make him truly fearful. I look at Tesla (TSLA) and UK Oil & Gas (UKOG).

Hello Share Trouncers. About two years ago, I sold this family’s shares in Ashtead (AHT). After consulting this very website, I could not see how its meteoric rise could be sustained. We took a big profit. But then, as so often happens to shares which seem overvalued, the share price continued to soar. But while I suffered many months of kicking myself, the share price then did what it should have done all along and crashed back to 1800p - the price at which I sold the lot. Then it fell even more...

Oh dear. Oh dear. For those beguiled by the shoddy analysis of thirsty Paul Scott into buying shares in IQE (IQE), things are set to go from bad to worse. Much worse.  Last night Apple issued a first quarter sales warning.

I didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry at the flotation of Gamfook (GAMF) on the NEX lobster pot on Christmas Eve. Was it an elaborate April Fool, carried out in December to fool us all? I’ve no idea. But the Red Flags are everywhere to see. For starters, it is a Chinese jewellery play with one of its main outposts to be found in Fujian Province (which, I gather, is called Fooking in another Chinese dialect). And the Broker is that fine house of AIM-China frauds, Daniel Stewart – the former Nomad and former resident of the AIM Casino. What’s not to like?