The FY22 numbers from Wood Group (WG.) today had good, less good and “we are currently in an offer period” uncertainty angles. On the latter point, it cannot comment further on the surprise Apollo bid approach last month. I am not smart enough to predict bid outcomes, but what I do observe is that if you hold Wood Group shares it is all about the turnaround plan its capital markets day five months ago excited me so much about. And on that basis, the newish CEO and the old school CFO are doing a good job.

Whilst it is getting closer to thirty years since I joined the City, I still make loads of investment mistakes. A year ago, I suggested shares in Smiths Group (SMIN) were a buy, with the “multinational, diversified engineering business” a really solid play. But did I follow by doing that myself? No…

The last time I wrote about the insurance (and related) business Phoenix Group (PHNX), I observed that “I am sure there are fans…but not me”. Since then, the stock has moved from a c. 700p price to more like a 600p one, however it has also continued to yield more than 7%. I guess that means there is potentially something for everyone.

As a boring (predominately) large cap global investor, it has perhaps been a bit of a surprise that it took me years to warm to FTSE 100 company Bunzl (BNZL), which describes itself as a “multinational distribution and outsourcing company”, which has banged out thirty years of rising dividends. A few months ago, I observed I thought it would be smart to “wake me up if Bunzl shares fall back below a 26 quid price (again)”. That has not happened and today the shares are kicking around above a thirty quid share price. Time for me to get (finally) more excited or not?

Four months ago, I noted that InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) “is still excited about the future hotel market…but it should not expect me to book a luxury global Regent or Crowne Plaza room in 2023!”. Famously, I am much more of a Premier Inn/Whitbread (WTB) sort of guy. Interestingly, as an investor, both year-to-date and over the last six months you would have made more money via a holding in the latter too!

A week ago I wrote about the latest update from Mode Global Holdings (MODE), stating that it was unable to secure any new funding, and I concluded that this likely meant a wipe-out for equity holders and that you should avoid it all costs. Some have tried to pump it, saying it was actually worth multiples of the 1.25p that it crashed to and that I was wrong and the EMI licence that it holds, and which basically enables its app to offer the financial services that it does, is actually worth a fortune and buyers would be queuing up for it.

Back in September 2021, I observed that it was the “same old, same old ‘not cheap but quality’ at Next plc (NXT)”. But the stock was kicking around at an eighty quid share price then, whilst a c. sixty quid share price (or below) was always a much smarter level to get involved. And hopefully some of you have done so over the last six months or so, a point reinforced by the observation today that Next plc’s full year profit before tax guidance has been raised “by £20m to £860m, up +4.5% versus last year".

As any regular readers will be aware, Horizonte Minerals (HZM) has been a favourite of mine for several years now and is edging ever closer to finally reaching production.

Parsley Box (MEAL) has seen its share price soar over the past couple of weeks on news that it is planning to delist, which seems rather strange as I can’t imagine all the PIs who have been buying actually want to be stuck holding this after it ceases trading on AIM.

Since I wrote about Tintra (TNT), its rule breaking and interim results on 27 October, it has busy with a few new announcements. Is this now a quarter of a billion dollar spoof?

Yes. The share price. Up 30% at the start now 17% ahead at 5.4p.  That has changed. But anything else?

Seed Innovations (SEED) was my exposure to cannabis and a jolly disastrous investment it has been. At 2.6p I am almost 80% out of the money. My feeling is that the cannabis bubble has burst and yesterday’s comment on CBD HERE has to be bad news. I cant bring myself to cut the loss although maybe I should.  But of the NAV is 8p as Ed Claims maybe I should hang on? A couple of weeks ago I exchanged emails with Seed boss Ed McDermott asking him if he was alright?

The Barryroe oil field off of Ireland looks attractive on paper in term of the resources, but it has been well over a decade now and it is yet to be developed.

About five months ago HERE  I concluded that I was a buyer of Halfords Group (HFD), the “largest retailer of motoring and cycling products in the United Kingdom”. That would have been very wise, as the then c.140p share is today more than 210p.  However - as I have plenty of capability to be an idiot - I did not follow my own advice!  So, how do I feel about its interim results out a few days ago…?

Back in July I covered Pets at Home Group (PETS) as a buy based on my opinion that I expected the business to continue performing strongly, as we are a nation of pet-lovers and spending on them would be one of the last things that many people would cut back on. Since then the share price has seen some ups and downs, broadly in line with wider market sentiment, but yesterday it took a bit of a kicking and closed down over 5% at 289p, on a day where the FTSE actually performed reasonably well, after it released its results for H1 2023, up until October 13 2022 and covering a 28 week period. Having looked at the results I can’t really see what the market didn’t like, as they are in line with guidance in terms of full year pre-tax profit expectations on £131 million, with a range of £121-136 million.

Having secured one of the most expensive funding deals that I’ve ever seen, that arrangement looks set to become even more expensive for Canadian Overseas Petroleum (COPL) unless it can secure a reserves based lending facility within the next few weeks.

Centamin (CEY) has announced what it emphasises as “a significant step towards delivering on our commitment to consistently produce 500,000 ounces per annum from the Sukari Gold Mine”.

Imperial Brands (IMB) has announced results for its year ended 30^th September 2022 and that it is “well placed to build on our track record of delivery over the next three years, improving returns and creating sustainable growth in shareholder value”.

Even though I have held shares in Burberry (BRBY) for a while now, I must admit it is not as if I have many of its trench coats, leather accessories and footwear products in my wardrobes. In fact, I have none at all. Historically that was because I failed to be enough of a chav earlier this century (and stylistically I was naturally a bit more stuck in the C&A 1980s). However, you live and learn as you get a bit older. So, was it good news to hear the new(ish) CEO observe today that his big plan was to focus on being a “modern British luxury” company?

Agricultural supplies group Wynnstay (WYN) has issued a trading update including that its “results for the financial year will be ahead of market forecasts” as beneficial trading conditions continued. So what of a share price currently helped up further above 600p?

I am pleased to see Sage Group (SGE) shares back up to a circa 800p share price after the publication of its full-year numbers earlier today. Six months ago, I noted that I was “once again…in love with Sage Group shares”. Even though I am not a personal user of its small business capabilities, it is still super relevant from a cloud and ongoing new R&D perspective. But, whilst the share was cheap in May, it looks closer to being a fairer value today. In short, time to take some nice profits at Sage Group. So, if one of Newcastle’s FTSE 100 finest is doing well, what about the more London-focused British Land (BLND)?

Shares in Tesco (TSCO) were above 270p as recently as August but have fallen back significantly as it faces clear macro challenges. However, it has a long track-record across economic conditions and we consider the share price fall has been too extreme.

As per analytical data from my personal pension fund account, I have made money from my choice to retain a holding in Haleon (HLN) - “a global leader 100% focused on consumer healthcare with a competitive advantage to combine deep human understanding with trusted science” - after its spin-off from GSK plc (GSK) in July.  I am not sure that is technically correct given the company’s c. 276.53p share price at the close of business on Friday.  Anyhow, the bigger question is what should I do now?  After all, other GSK shareholders - including Tom - decided to exit stage left kicking around a 300 pence share price immediately after the spin-off and invest elsewhere.

It’s been a while since we’ve had a new IPO of a large oil and gas company in the UK, so Ithaca Energy (ITH) caught my attention, especially as it is a company that I had followed previously when it was listed.

The bond market is nearly always a better guide to the value of equity than the equity share price since the latter – in situations of distress – is largely driven by bulletin board morons in denial who are trading the stock while institutions  are unable to sell large positions so just sit there like rabbits in the headlights waiting for the end. So there are some folks who reckon that buying Argo Blockchain (ARB) shares  at 8.5p giving a market cap of £40 million is smart

Judging by the move of most equity and bond markets over the last day or so, yesterday’s slightly lower than anticipated CPI numbers in the US excited the average investor. However, as shown by today’s UK Q3 GDP numbers, economic life remains tricky even before we talk about geopolitics, debt or crypto madness. It remains clearly an active investment world that has plenty of opportunities and threats, which is great news for boring stock pickers like me and less good news for “buy a bit of everything” passive funds.

BP (BP.) has announced third quarter results emphasising “net debt fell for the tenth successive quarter; we are investing with discipline; and we are delivering on our commitment to shareholder distributions - announcing a further $2.5 billion share buyback”. So what of a now slightly further higher 486.45p share price?

As we all face a cost of living crisis with the poor and the young hardest hit, Andrew Bell insists that Opera needs more subsidy. Is this a more tenable position than his defence of the Red Rock Resources (RRR) share price? I start with that then onto the two big losers from yesterday's surprising mid terms in the USA. Then onto Kefi Gold & Copper (KEFI), Ithaca Energy (ITH), MGC Pharmaceiticals (MXC) - which looks like a possible zero - and Dignity (DTY).

I am no longer tipping Red Rock Resources (RRR) as, I feel that its failure to monetize assts and thus prove what they are claimed to be worth has gone on for too long. Why can't it monetize even one asset? The failure to do so means more fund raisings and that, to me explians why the shares I still own after almost three years have been such a duff investment for me. But boss Andrew Bell has another excuse...

I do not believe that Advanced Oncotherapy (AVO) will ever generate a cent of positive free cashflow as the demand for the proton therapy services it will offer at some point in 2023 is, in my view, already fully catered for with existing capacity. Others, notably a fund management firm run by a chap who looks remarkably like Daddy Pig, father of Peppa, disagree but what we might agree on its that, until late 2023, there is no doubt that Advanced will continue to guzzle cash. Which makes the next bailout placing only a matter of time.

My friend Gabriel Grego has, along with a stack of other bears, been hit by a law suit from a biotech company he has taken on, Cassava (SAVA). Gabriel is too much of a gent to steal my catchphrase “see you in Court bitchez” but he says so in rather more gentle words. As my old pal Evil Knievil once noted “legal action is not an invitation to go short but an obligation.”

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.

I am technically a customer of “Your Sofa & Furniture Experts”, DFS Furniture (DFS). I say technically as, whilst we did purchase the lounge sofas from the company, it was about twenty years ago and even the DFS future sales department has (sensibly) lost interest in me. After all, the sofas are still good quality and it is not as if we use them that much. However, I do follow the company’s corporate updates and share price as it provides a good insight into the thinking of the average consumer. And this brings us nicely to today’s “trading update and AGM statement” from the company.

It is not over-egging the pudding to describe today’s interim 2022/23 numbers from BT Group (BT.A) as boring. After all, you do not need to be a financial genius to see its year-on-year adjusted revenue to be up by 1% and its adjusted EBITDA number to be up a massive 2%. And we have not even started to appraise whether the “adjusted” nature of the numbers had boosted them materially or not. However, there are other numbers of far more significance for BT Group and its, down c.6% as I write, share price.

There has been news but no RNS. So for 24 hours there has been a false market in Cineworld  (CINE) with morons now buying the shares at c8p or higher. They are misunderstanding what has gone on in a void as Cineworld has issued no RNS statement. This is a regulatory disgrace, which again shames the FCA, but take advantage of it and short the feck out of the shares.

Nigeria isn’t my first choice of location when looking at investing in oil and gas companies due to some of the issues that foreign investors have had over the years, but if you’re bullish on the sector, then I can currently see value in shares in Seplat Energy (SEPL).

When Liz Truss became Prime Minister one of the first things she did was to reverse the moratorium on fracking in England, and now just a short while later we have seen another U-turn by the Conservatives, with Rishi Sunak reintroducing that ban.

Jubilee Metals (JLP) has announced results for its year ended 30^th June 2022 and that in South Africa new enlarged (+45%) PGM and chrome operations have set the platform to deliver 44,000 PGM ounces and 1.2 million tonnes of chrome concentrate per annum from its own capacity and in Zambia that it is targeting first half of the year copper of 3,000 tonnes.

A couple of years ago I did a podcast suggesting that the share price of ITM Power (ITM) was truly bonkers.  In the mad rush to buy “green” investments it then got a bit more "truly bonkers". That is the problem with bubbles, they can just keep on expanding far longer than most folks think, defying all logic.  And green energy clearly is a bubble.

Hello Share Tasters. Did you watch TV news this week? Climate change, says the UN, must be taken more seriously otherwise the planet is ‘doomed.’ Not just inconvenienced, gang, but doomed. This year’s tragic changes to the weather show how awful the prospect is. We absolutely must migrate to clean forms of power. So let’s look at a company at the forefront of change, but with a share price that has fallen a lot in the last year or so.

Sub scale investment company Tern (TERN) has announced that it has invested a fresh $303,000 in loan notes issued by Device Authority, its largest single investment where it has a stake of 53.8%, Two matters of grave concern should leap out at you.

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.

Gold producer in the Philippines, Metals Exploration (MTL) has announced third quarter of 2022 results and that “full access to mine plan Stage 3 was achieved during Q3 2022 and higher grade Stage 3 ore will be accessed during Q4”. How encouraging is this from a current 0.85p offer share price?

I am so happy that today is a Thursday during the quarterly global corporate earnings season, which means I am busy looking at a hundred (and one) companies and can ignore the latest political “excitements”. And to think some people voted for the current PM, in a choice of two, only six weeks or so ago! Back to the corporate world and three UK-listed names which have published a few new thoughts today.

Oh dear, oh dear, shares in Deepverge (DVRG) run by Gerry “the journalist trolling arse” Brandon have collapsed again today and are now just 2.25p bid, 2.375p mid. And to think that – as I exposed HERE – the company started its current bailout fund raise with Turner Pope trying to raise £9 million at 5p. Ooops. The arse assured us that the response from a roadshow had been positive but the share price today (off another 17%) suggests either frantic forward selling or that the placing is flopping altogether.

With serial failure Richard “horseface” Horsman as chairman since its 2016 IPO, Toople (TOOP) has always been a disaster and I have always been a bear. The CEO changed regularly but the pattern of cash guzzling underperformance was always the same. Oh, and it also lied to investors as I showed most recently, HERE. That is never a good sign. Today the Fat Lady has arrived bringing a bottle of ouzo for the Sheriff as she gets read to sing with the loser Horseface.

Oh dear, oh dear. Some folks paid 2.6p for Chesterfield (CHF) first thing when news of the “sale” of its Canada assets was announced. But it’s a big fat Canadian spoof and the shares have retreated as even the morons picked up on this and are now 2p-2.3p. And when the deeply discounted bailout placing is served up for Christmas those buying at 2.6p. Ouch. I hope they lubed up. So this is why this is a spoof.

At what point is AIM Regulation going to say that enough is enough and kick Verditek (VDTK) into touch for what appears like serial securities fraud? Or do the Oxymorons at AIM Regulation consider that announcing contracts every single year since the 2017 IPO, contracts which eventually come to nowt but allow a share price pump and bailout placing, to be acceptable? Today we have another case study of the Verditek contract fraud.

Earlier this year I took a look at online fashion retailer BooHoo (BOO) and noted that whilst I saw long term value from the share price at the time, it could well get even cheaper in the near term.

Plastic products designer, manufacturer and supplier Coral Products (CRU) has announced an acquisition of Ecodeck Grids Limited for up to £5.6 million and that it expects it to be earnings enhancing in its first year.

Platinum group metals and chrome producer in South Africa Tharisa (THS) has issued a fourth quarter and full-year production report noting that it “will translate to a strong set of financial results… net cash position of US$78.6 million (30 June 2022 US$48.0 million)”, and helping the shares up to 107.5p.

On 7^th October Argo Blockchain (ARB) announced a three part emergency refinancing package. Two parts will see it limp through to November without calling in the administrators. The third part was news that an investor was preparing to stump up £24 million at 26.7p. But today the shares have fallen, again, to just 14.75p. Surely the Oxymorons at AIM Regulation must force a statement to clarify:

The markets in general are pretty weak at the moment, but unless you’re planning just to sit in cash, there are still opportunities as long as you’re taking a longer term outlook and can weather any further drops we may see.

It has been a stockmarket darling for years but plant hire group Ashtead (AHT) is a short at a current 4230p share price, around £19 billion market cap, and here is why.

Last Friday’s news of an emergency refinancing package at Argo Blockchain (ARB) made clear – as I explained HERE – how bad the cash crisis has become. Today’s September trading update makes it so clear that even Stevie Wonder can now see what is happening. The update is a car crash from start to finish but Argo uses its same cut and paste from better times and says that it is “pleased” to provide the update. Yeah: whatever.,..

A new week and finally some good news from the United States for GSK plc (GSK) as the “FDA approves Boostrix for immunisation during pregnancy for the prevention of whooping cough in newborn infants”. It is not enough alone to start pushing the multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology FTSE 100 name up, but it is a bit of good news for the company’s struggling CEO. As I have noted before, Dame Emma has a lot still to prove. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the FTSE 100, I am excited to see the over 8% rise in the shares today of DS Smith (SMDS).

I was a bit busy on Friday and hence a bit knackered yesterday, but it was undoubtedly smart to take a bit of a rest as the next six weeks or so are going to be very busy. Like the complete larger cap sad sack I am, genuinely I am very, very excited about the upcoming global corporate earnings season. It might not tell us everything about the last few months or the next few quarters, but it will tell us something. And that is what makes it fun. In short, there will be loads and loads of corporate names to write about deep into November.

As a long term holder of Horizonte Minerals (HZM) I was disappointed to see the news that the company has needed to raise more capital via an equity issue, but I probably shouldn’t be too surprised.

Hello Share Bashers. This old punter watched a hero of his on tv the other night. Jeremy Paxman has Parkinson’s disease and he was explaining how he coped with this lousy throw of the dice and how it’s being treated. Like quite a few horrible conditions, the number of Parkinson patients is growing. So too are drugs which are holding back illness. That’s why I think we and all investors should have some pharmaceuticals in our portfolios.

You can sometimes get some borrow in Versarien (VRS) and if you can you should even with the shares, which were once almost 200p, having slumped to below 15p. The next collapse will happen and happen fairly soon. It is a when not an if.

Back in early August I observed that a dump below a twenty quid share price would be quite interesting for anyone interested in buying shares in Greggs plc (GRG). And, with the fall in the company’s share price over the last two or three weeks, we now might be at an interesting moment.

On August 26^th nanosynth (NNN) LIED to investors claiming it had done a deal which would see it “raise £2.9425 million”. That was a great big fat lie. It will raise nothing like that. Last week it doubled down repeating that lie in its interims and now, facing bankruptcy by Christmas it still refuses to come clean and its shares are tumbling again. Perhaps it is time to start telling the truth as lying sure is not working!

Gold closed the week at $1661 per oz – up from last week’s $1645, but still below the apparently all-important $1675 mark. It is all a bit depressing, but with incoming cash from the latest AIM-listed Ariana (AAU) dividend of 0.175p per share due tomorrow, the Gold price in Sterling terms within £100 of its all-time high and equity markets in another bear-run, its not so bad.

Death spirals have been a hot topic of conversation here on ShareProphets, the issue being whether they decimate share prices and are thus a major Red Flag.  Tom pointed out here that there is no causal link but with Cloudbreak Discovery (CDL) of the sub-Standard List, there seems to be another issue.

I really do hope that you are not feeling too pessimistic about global financial markets and your portfolio.  Sadly, stuff does happen and what matters is always how you respond to such challenges.  Meanwhile in personal positions and investment choices I see that I get another opportunity to talk about and appraise Carnival (CCL), where frankly I would have been much, much wiser to have a holiday or three on the “6,465-passenger Carnival Mardi Gras, one of the largest cruise ships in service across all lines”, rather than holding shares in the company (whose US listed shares were at a share price last seen in 1993 yesterday afternoon)...

Tertiary Minerals (TYM) has always been one of those companies that has promised a lot based on the potential of its resources in the ground, yet never seems to make much progress towards actually extracting any of them, whilst burning through cash and having to raise more at regular intervals.

Shares in airlines have been hammered recently with concerns over demand during a cost of living crisis, as well as rising costs of running these businesses, but I’m not convinced that things are quite as bad as the markets seem to be factoring in.

Before today, during 16 years when various executives have troughed it on a material scale, shareholders in Vast Resources (VAST) have witnessed a 99.96% share price decline. Today it will get worse as there is another bailout placing to fund operational failure and fat cat largesse, including a CEO on £227,000 a year. Everything about this latest disaster stinks.

I start with a question for you all ( except Nigel Wray and Nick Leslau): should the Mrs and I fix our mortage next April. Then onto Boohoo (BOO) and the timing of its next trading warning. For Boohoo also see Sosandar (SOS), etc, etc. Finally I wonder which academic will be brave enough to run an exercise correlating boardroom diversity with share price performance in 2022. You and I can work out what the result will be and also that there is no causal link but who will dare say it for exposes the boardroom diversity MUST be good line for the canard that it always has been.

Caerus Mineral Resources (CMRS) is a company that I tipped as a speculative buy when it IPO’d, and after initially performing well, the share price has since crashed.

Back in March, at the request of a ShareProphets reader, I took a look at Capital Metals (CMET) and noted that although the company and its resource didn’t really appeal to me personally, I could see some potential there if and when it reached production.

On 16 August I warned HERE that Made.com (MADE) would be lucky to end the year with its bottom of the range cash forecast of £5 million and that the company needed to get away a placing of £40 million. Two days later it ‘fessed that it was working on things with its advisers. Since then matter have got worse and worse and I wonder if this can be rescued at all. First up is the very obvious cash crisis

Needless to say, the Oxymorons at AIM Regulation have failed to force serial dog Nanosynth (NNN) to correct the grotesquely misleading RNS of 26 August in which it claimed that a Lanstead death spiral deal meant that it had secured “ a conditional subscription to raise £2,942,500  through the issue of 535,000,000 new ordinary shares of 0.01 pence each in the Company at a price of 0.55 pence per Ordinary Share.” That was a big fat fecking lie and with the shares collapsing to 0.42p, i.e less than they were before the deal was announced and a couple of subsequent ramptastic bullshit RNS’s. Mr Market is waking up and smelling the coffee even if the bogus Sheriff of AIM, Marcus Stuttard, and his colleagues are asleep at the wheel.

With the recent weakness in the prices of some commodities, including copper, many junior miners at the pre-production stage have seen their share prices drop substantially. That has definitely been the case with US copper explorer Phoenix Copper (PXC) which was trading at close to 70p earlier this year, but has since gradually slid all the way back down to a current price of just 20p, and without any company specific news really justifying it.

Petrofac (PFC) definitely had its fair share of problems and scandals in recent years, but that all now seems to be behind it, and the sector that it operates in should perform strongly in the coming years.

The numbers for the year to June 30 came out last Thursday. Forgive my delayed response but suffice to say that MGC (MXC) engaged in industrial scale turd polishing.

North Sea-focused oil and gas development company Orcadian Energy (ORCA) holds significant licence interests at a time of energy supply problems and energy security concerns. With those leading to increasing development incentives, it looks well set.

We have talked many times in the past about the reasons why the next fifteen years in global markets are going to be different from the last fifteen years. You should never worry about change (in fact I would worry more about a lack of change in economics or in life in general). And, if I had to make a guess about the focus of the investment world in 2037, I doubt it will be all about favourite Nasdaq holdings or how high the dollar is. Simply put, investors in Ashmore Group (ASHM), “one of the world's leading Emerging Markets investment managers with a history of consistently outperforming the market”, should be feeling excited about prospects. But despite a near 7% rise in the share price today, why is their stock nearly down 40% over the last five years?

Perhaps you are really smart with your investment choices and do your trades from the beach or a luxury yacht. By contrast, I am mostly sat in my study working and thinking. Still, it is less than ten years to go before I can access my pension fund and one stock choice that has helped out over the last week is Reckitt Benckiser (RKT), which I last loved-up a bit over six months ago HERE. So why has a CEO change been announced today?

I have talked before that the most interesting aspect of the quarterly FTSE 100 changes is not which corporate names join London’s largest index…it is those that get booted out. The one of interest to me is not fund manager Abrdn (ABDN), which we used to all know as Aberdeen Asset Management before its comedy name change, but Howden Joinery Group (HWDN).

Last week the Dark Destroyer agreed to do a conference call with a few fund managers to discuss Darktrace (DARK). Some sad feck recorded the call and passed the recording to the Sunday Times which ran a big story “exposing Matt’s undisclosed short”. If only financial journalists on the deadwood press understood that short disclosures are only visible over 0.5%. So, for Darktrace that would be c. £18 million, way too big for Earl’s Shadowfall oufit. Earl is hiding nothing.

Almost exactly a year ago, I asked myself “I historically mucked it up on Bunzl (BNZL), so what do I think now?”. I concluded back then that it was a worthy business, which had grown its revenue, profit and cash flow over time but I passed on buying the shares as I was fired up by a bunch of different sectors and corporate names. Though, despite the stock falling about 4% this morning, it is still up over 10% during the last year. So should I be more boring and buy the stock?

A thing about both eyes going a bit blind is that you have to give up your driving licence. I may have felt a bit frustrated about this early last year, but obviously it is very smart to fully adhere to. So I am useless now for people such as Lookers plc (LOOK), which “proudly represents 32 manufacturer brands, selling a huge range of new and used vehicles from 144 franchise dealerships in the UK and Ireland”. But what do I think about it after its first half numbers published today?

Whilst I’m generally wary of investing in small oil and gas companies, occasionally one comes along that appears to be in the right place, at the right time, and with the right assets and management team.

A spokesman for Ironveld Resources (IRON) denied to me yesterday that sitting on price sensitive information for at least 6 weeks during which time the share price slumped by 30% as some folks “miraculously” knew the bad news, is not doing anything wrong. “The company does not believe that it has done anything wrong”. Neither do 90% of the inmates of Wormwood Scrubs. Whatever you say Giles Clarke and Martin Eales.

Bear raider Miles Dyson and I chatted the other day. Lucian Miers says that - apart from me - Miles is his new best buddy. His work on Audioboom (BOOM) suggesting fabricated user numbers is compelling as you can see here. But last night he unearthed a hammer blow which, as I shall explain below, will have devastating consequences for the share price.

I explained yesterday how the curse of value destroying loathsome ex Tory MP Tony Baldry was about to strike again and that Westminster Group (WSG), where his chairmanship has seen a 5 year 90% share price collapse, was set to do another bailout placing. On reflection, the numbers presented are misleading and the merde in which this company is drowning is far greater than folks realise. Let me explain.

Whilst shares in AO World (AO.) are currently up nearly 10% today as I write, the apparently “leading online electrical retailer” continues not to make an operating profit and has fallen into (admittedly slight) net debt, since corrected by a placing, I have not been a fan of this name for years and years, most recently back in early June when the stock looked a clear avoid at its then 72p share price. Despite today’s share price rise, it is now at a c. 45p share price level and still an Avoid for me. And talking about shares I have avoided for many years, how are those of Rank Group (RNK) getting along?

I recently wrote a piece criticising Canadian Overseas Petroleum (COPL), and as a result appeared to upset some people on the bulletin boards – not that I really care! – and having now looked more closely at its latest financing deal, I’m even more convinced that it is a company to avoid like the plague.

Afentra (AET) has finally relisted after being suspended for nearly a year whilst it completed the acquisition of producing oil assets in Angola.

Still the dumb pricks who own these shares do not seem to get it and think that abusing and trolling and abusing myself and Gary Newman is going to reverse the all too predictable share price decline. Today, there is another RNS for them to ignore.

Long suffering Teathers Financial shareholders could actually be on the verge of seeing the company actually worth something again after a deal with Power Metal Resources was announced, but for me it raises a lot of questions.

Just under eight months ago HERE  I gave Capita (CPI) - which describes itself as “supporting the justice system through smart technology solutions” - a slightly alternative name.  I remember first using such an alternative name many years ago - and it is certainly neither unique or particularly smart.  But it kind of captures well the company’s struggles over the last seven or eight years where its share price contraction stands at well over 90%. How striking for a company which many will remember its epic 1990s (and initially beyond) performance.  

Canadian Overseas Petroleum (COPL) seems to have been getting a fair bit of attention today after releasing an incredibly rampy resources update for its Wyoming asset, with the focus being on oil in place rather than actual reserves and what might be extracted.

It never ceases to amaze me how easily some of the micro cap shares get pumped, and how willing some people are to buy even after a huge increase in the share price on no actual news.

A little under three years ago, I first wrote about Smith & Nephew (SN.), which “designs and makes technology that takes the limits off living, and we help healthcare professionals to achieve the same goal”. All good stuff, but - as shown by the 70% fall in share price since October 2019 - life for this sort of business has got more tricky.  And the then-CEO did not listen to my advice: that he needed “to focus on performance and not pay”. Unsurprisingly, he has left, chasing more money… So, what about the new(ish) CEO and prospects for Smith & Nephew shares, now at a five-year low?

Red Rock Resources (RRR) has announced the issue of £0.623 million of convertible notes, and that “near-term positive financial developments may be anticipated” – can they be, though?

Quite a lot has happened since I covered Jadestone Energy (JSE) as a buy just over a month ago, and recent news has further strengthened my positive outlook on the company.

I am struggling to remember a Wednesday that was as busy for those of us interested in the world of analysis, fund management and macroeconomics matters over the twenty-six years since I started work, as was yesterday. It was all good fun, even if I ended my day listening to the Federal Reserve believing it was very good at looking after American inflation. More about stocks. Like the analytical weirdo I am, I love listening to at least one live conference call every business day. However yesterday, I lost count of the number of calls I listened to and there were a bunch I passed on because I knew I simply did not have time.  First up for me was Reckitt Benckiser (RKT), a company that I mentioned on Tuesday was far more interesting than Unilever (ULVR), which remains very clear after the former’s first half numbers.

It gives me no pleasure seeing companies heading toward bankruptcy. I do not care about institutional investors losing money. I feel some sympathy for private investors, almost certainly roped in by some newspaper tipster or those pushing low grade broker research. But I do feen genuinely sorry for staff and suppliers who will have their lives turned upside down. That6 brings us to Made.com (MADE).

I hope you enjoyed a nice start to the week because - if you are an investment markets follower - it is going to get really busy. All good usual late July fun then. I guess I should start with easyJet (EZJ), a company I have become royally hacked off with ever since the cancellation of my flight back home with it in early July.

San Leon Energy (SLE) has just announced a transaction which would give it a much more significant stake in the OML18 field in Nigeria, which constituted a reverse takeover and required an admission document to be published prior to trading in the shares recommencing.

Previously updating on the UK’s largest pawnbroker and a leading retailer of new and pre-owned jewellery and watches, H&T Group (HAT) we concluded that we continued to look for further news flow to drive a return to an above 350p share price. The shares have now reached further higher than that.

An upbeat trading statement from Tortilla Mexican Grill (MEX) tries to paint a bright picture for this member of the shamed IPOs class of 2021 - listing at 180p on October 8 with founders dumping £23 million of stock, share price today 125p. But buried deep in the release is a clear warning of troubles ahead.

Writing on OptiBiotix Health (OPTI) last month with the shares at 21p to buy, we noted potential for a move into meaningful profitability and further potential from 'second generation' products addressing much larger market opportunities. We drank our own medicine with Tom buying more shares at 22p. The shares are now further up at 31.5p on the back of a “Joint development agreement signed with Firmenich”-titled announcement.

Serica Energy (SQZ) is a company that I’ve been following for quite a few years now and it has been my best performing share tip ever during that time. It has gone from a small company that had acquired some later life assets that BP didn’t appear to want any more, and with sentiment pretty low following its past screw-ups in Indonesia, to where it is now with a booming UK-based gas and oil business, lots of cash in the bank and more being added on a daily basis and a market cap in excess of £900 million.

The way the markets are currently it feels like there is plenty of risk in buying anything, even in the sectors that are expected to remain strong in the coming months.

The first cut is the least painful. That is to say, selling when it is clear a company is fecked, is less painful than waiting to sell in such circumstances. The document today published by Shield (STX) shows just how fecked it is.

Asiamet Resources (ARS) has turned out to be my worst ever investment in a mining company, in terms of percentage loss anyway, and has been a great example of what happens if as a company you continually miss deadlines.

Touchstone Exploration (TXP) seems to be suffering from rumours on a Telegram group that there are delays to its Cascadura gas asset reaching into production, and this has caused the share price to plummet, currently down over 11%.

Almost every week J Sainsbury (SBRY) makes a food delivery to our home. It is probably not the cheapest nor the highest quality supplier, but it is proximate, reliable and - in my opinion - an above average player. Spot my aspirational middle-class background! I cannot remember the last time I have held shares in the company though, and that’s been a good year-to-date call. Despite offering a 5% dividend yield, the shares are down over 20% so far in 2022. Is it time to buy or keep on avoiding after numbers today?

I start with two examples of BlowJo's utter stupidity. Then, I touch on how Big Corporate is rallying around Halifax, and its woke hectoring of customers. After that, onto Nanosynth (NNN) - where the share price target is now a fall of 80-100% - and Valereum (VLRM): expect a share price collapse within weeks.

MyHealthChecked (MHC) has revealed that, in the first six months of 2022, trading was stronger than expected – as the company launches its new at-home "wellness tests".

It is the last day of June, the last day of the quarter and the last day of the first half of the year. How exciting! There is so much more to come for all active investors. As for the ‘buy a bit of everything / anything’ passive investor types…good luck, unless you really want to ignore the world of investments for a decade or two. And so much to think about, as always on a Thursday. First, I was amused to see that the latest Nationwide House Price Index for June pleased many people by still showing a year-on-year increase of 10.7% (only just below the 10.8% anticipated number).

Hello Share Squashers. It’s not often I suggest you look at the same share in the same week. But there’s enough data to add to my earlier posting on Ceres Power (CWR). Especially as the good news I imparted on a partnership with Shell (SHEL) has made no difference to the share price. It seems the City has yet to wake up to the potential here.

As many of you reading this will know, I’m not exactly a fan of Mode Global Holdings (MODE) and even less so after its latest antics where it hasn’t exactly gone out of its way to inform investors about its latest fundraise!

Hindsight is often of little use on the markets and consists of people kicking themselves about something which seems obvious after the event, usually a missed trade, but occasionally it can also be used to avoid making the same mistake again.

Back in April I called the Imperial Leather, Cussons Baby, Cussons Kids, Carex, Original Source, Sanctuary Spa and St. Tropez seller PZ Cussons (PZC) a “bad day buy” below a 200 pence share price. I think we might have had a few of those year-to-date. But if you have bought some shares - like me - then you certainly have not made a fortune (yet) as the shares are basically 200p this morning. Still, it could be a lot worse…

Structural steel company, Severfield (SFR), has announced results for the year ended 26^th March 2022. Its growth strategy, the company claims, is delivering a record order book, with a broad diversity of sectors, geographies and clients, providing good earnings visibility through 2023 and beyond.

Ariana Resources (AAU) has announced significant progress across its projects, “most notably" the construction of Tavsan, with associated development activities being ramped up.

This is a disgrace and if the Oxymorons at AIM regulation “led” by the bogus Sheriff of AIM, Mr Marcus Stuttard, were not such pathetic and spineless pond life they would be banning the devout Christian Matt Lofgran and London’s worst Nomad from playing any further part in life on the AIM sewer.

I start with my wonderful son, Joshua, losing every race at Sports Day with bravery and humour. Then, onto UK Network Agency; Innovation Agri-Tech; Eden Pharma; the wretched FCA's failure on £65 million fraud, Appbox Media/One True View; Ocado (OCDO); Morses Club (MCL); Cake Box (CBOX) - where Steve is wrong; Verditek (VDTK); and Shield Therapeutics (STX).

Any disruption to production is obviously a big issue for oil producers, and even more so when a company only has a small number of operations and it causes a significant impact on output.

Back in August last year, I concluded about Rank Group (RNK) that at the then 175p share price “for me today I would AVOID”. That was wise as this morning shares in the company which has “entertained Britain since 1937” are only 82p! So why have they halved over the last ten months?

About three months ago, I noted that, before I bought back into the shares, I needed to see a >10% fall in the then c. 265p Tesco (TSCO) share price. We are not there yet, given this morning's 248p price, but what did its Q1 update say about the tricky path ahead?

Argo Blockchain (ARB) is a company that I wrote about several times a couple of years back, but more recently have left to Tom Winnifrith to write about the numerous red flags that he has spotted there.

Another exciting day in the markets, although at least today they are up…until we see what the central banks on either side of the Atlantic have to say for themselves over the next 24 hours or so. All good fun (as always). Meanwhile two workable updates today from Whitbread (WTB) and WH Smith (SMWH)...

Jadestone Energy (JSE) has announced results for the 2021 calendar year and that it still expects 2022 average production to increase to 15,500-18,500 boe/d. So what of a share price slipping to 101p in response?

It was about six weeks ago when I last called AO World (AO.) “comedy” and the reasons for not investing into (as per its website this morning) the ‘largest online-only white goods and electricals retailer in the UK…we also operate in Germany’ continue. AO…let’s continue not to invest (despite the near 71% fall of its share price over the last year).

Back in November 2020 I noted about Workspace Group (WKP), the “leading provider of flexible space for London’s brightest businesses”, that it was “fortunate it does not have the huge legacy debts of many of its commercial property peers, so it will survive…but the structural headwinds are still most clearly there: fewer clients wanting more discounts”. The shares have gone a bit up and a bit down since then but, despite being up about 1% this morning to a 732p share price after full year numbers, they are basically unchanged over the last nineteen months or so. In short no disaster…but what should investors think now?

Finding junior mining companies that have the potential to go on to develop a large resource through to actual production, or an asset sale, is never easy and the reality is that most of these companies fail to ever achieve much other than burning through large amounts of cash over a period of years.

Bluebird Merchant Ventures (BMV) has announced sample results from South Korea, which, it emphasises, confirm that it is on the right path to 'proof of concept' gold production.

South African metals producer, Tharisa (THS), has announced results for its half-year ended 31^st March 2022, including “PGM production of 91.8 koz, up 22.2%... Chrome production of 776.7 kt, up 6.3%... strong commodity markets”. That sounds good!

AEX Gold (AEXG) has announced first-quarter results, emphasising that its strategy remains to bring the Nalunaq gold project back into production, and use it as a platform for strategic mineral assets in Greenland.

I’ve been a fan of Capricorn Energy (CNE), formerly Cairn, for some time now and my investment there has done pretty well, but I probably won’t be holding for much longer now that it has announced a merger with Tullow Oil (TLW).

My continued advice to keep well away from fully-listed Esken (ESKN) – the former Stobart Group (STOB) seems to have been well placed. Quite apart from the serial Red-Flags-At-Night announcements, there is the small matter of the share price continuing to collapse. A year ago the shares were 32.9p and I said sell; last August they had fallen to 15p and I said keep well away. Now they are just 8.77p and there are a few Red Flags in the FY22 results (to February) to suggest that there is still further to fall.

Floorcoverings distributor group Headlam (HEAD) has issued an AGM trading update including that it “continues to be comfortable with profit expectations for the year”. So what of a current 338p share price?

I think it was the Welsh poet George Herbert who once wrote “Thursday comes and the week’s gone”. Perhaps he should have looked at the stock market a bit more, because Thursday is always the busiest day of the week for anyone interested in corporate updates. Three pieces of news flow that particularly interested me today…

Asiamet Resources (ARS) is a great example of what happens to a share that the market has totally lost confidence in and how a major, company-making piece of news is likely to be needed in order to bring about any sort of change in sentiment.