On the face of it, great news was announced by my favourite oddity of the investment world, Craven House Capital (CRV), this week with the appointment of Richard Burrows as its new Chairman. Richard has a very impressive CV and I couldn’t help but wonder why he would take on such a role but with a bit of digging and a wild imagination, I reckon I’ve worked it out.

Recently, we have seen gold make a downward turn. Jordan Roy-Byrne of Palisade Capital predicted this turn, and put a hedge on his gold positions. He thinks we should be looking for a bounce soon. If October doesn’t turn to be a bad month it will be a good sign that we will start to move up again. If the market takes more time to digest these losses, it could be anywhere from a month to a few months before we start to move back up again.

Hello Share Twiddlers. Tesco (TSCO) published its first-half figures this week and the shares rocketed by 12%. That pleased me as I still hold a load of its stock - though I wish I could get round to dumping it. You see, I’m not sure that the leap in share price was justified. Yes, revenues were up, but pre-tax profit was down (including a £200m foreign exchange loss).

“Time Out Group (TMO), the global multi-platform media and e-commerce business with food & cultural markets, is pleased to announce that it has signed a lease for a new Time Out Market in the iconic São Bento train station in Porto, Portugal. This will be the second Time Out Market, following the success of the group's flagship market in Lisbon which opened in May 2014”. Hmmm…

This morning's article on Cloudtag (CTAG) should be yet another red flag and Lucian and I should served up one more soonish. Just how many red flags to the morons need to see? I ask this after a fellow asks me what he should do about his collapsing investment in TrakM8 (TRAK). Answer you should have listened to me when the shares were double today's price! I also look at Impact Holdings (IHUK) and then offer warnings about Blur (DOG), Rosslyn Data (RDT), Strat Aero (AERO) where, in all three cases, I'm sure it is placing ahoy and I explain why. And I look at why the Footsie is heading through 7,000 and where next.

Okay this presentation is rather long but Art tells a good joke or two. And the message is important. If you need a higher oil price for your portfolio to flourish...don't hold your breath! Enjoy!

Falanx Group (FLX) has raised £750,000 at 4p in a placing organised by new broker Turner Pope. It was Turner Pope that approached Falanx and we know most of those who put up the cash and they are firm-ish holders not flippers. Turner Pope will get its commission and also 468,750 shares with a six month lock-in.

So Tesco (TSCO) shares are flying today.  Well that's great news as a shareholder. The move is justified as Dave Lewis ('Tesco Dave') is doing a solid job with his difficult aircraft carrier sized hand.  Improving positive momentum in UK like-for-like sales, more engaged customers and an internal satisfaction survey that Tesco staff are feeling the love again. That's a couple of boxes ticked on the 'to do' list.  Other parts of the business like the global operations and the Tesco Personal Finance crunch along in a workable manner.  

Arguing “the strong financial and KPI performance from the stores reported in the company's 2016 interim results gives the board comfort that the business model is proven and the confidence to accelerate the roll-out of new stores”, the company with the exclusive right to develop, operate and sub-franchise Domino's Pizza stores in Poland, DP Poland (DPP) has announced it’s placing ahoy! Hmmm…

Only posters on the LSE Asylum get it right 100% of the time. That is why they are all millionaires but are so generous that they still share their wisdom with the rest of us. Steve & I don't always get it right. Since we launched the Nifty Fifty website almost four years ago our second worst tip has been Stanley Gibbons (SGI). Overall we are still c20% per tip up with an average holding period of less than a year. But this one has not helped our average. 

Hapless Neil Ritson of LGO Energy (LGO) is doing yet another ramptastic interview with BRR Media, the company that charges PLCs who want to ramp worthless shares to record interviews with easy questions. The webinar is at 11 AM on Friday and has asked that questions be sent over to lgo@brrmedia.co.uk. I am a nice guy and always keen to help so here are 25 for starters:

I have been very pleased with the way that Glencore (GLEN) has performed since I covered it here a few months back, but I now feel that it is time to cash in, at least for the time being.

My attention is drawn by a member of the Global Shorting Conspiracy to three most excellent posts by a chap called Nod4 on the ADVFN Bulletin Board. I have no idea who this fellow is but his digging on the fraud Cloudtag (CTAG) is most excellent. This company is all smoke and mirrows and Lucian and I have another matter of real nsignificant to raise later today. We've done a bit of sleuthing ourselves. But on the offshore stink, I can do no better than bring you Nod4's posts. Suffice to say the shares remain a sell at 19p with a target - as is the case with all frauds - of 0p. Over to Mr Nod4:

After a long City career Jason Streets has just joined paid for researcher Hardman and in a quite superb piece has spilled the beans on the collapse of traditional research and why the broker notes that are produced are just worthless pieces of marketing junk.Mr Streets does us all a service in laying out the hard facts which explains the death throes of broker research and its total lack of crredibility. Over to the man with the inside track.

After a 240p per share recommended offer was voted down, Journey Group (JNY) is “pleased to announce… discussions with regard to a possible offer… the possible offer price under consideration is 240 pence”. You what?…

Hello Share Perkers. Nigel Somerville is not only a very nice chap but his analytical skills are legendary and his integrity, like everyone else's on this glittering website, is impeachable. (We quickly disappear from the ranks if we are found the slightest bit wanting). So when Nigel admits to nervousness at the current success of the soaraway Footsie, we have to take it seriously.

Yes I am beginning to miss George Osborne. No I lie, he really was useless. But so too is Hammond. I comment on him believing the boy who cried Euro Wolf (Nissan) and handing over taxpayers cash as a result but also on the way that he is set to allow the deficit to balloon again - this man is a danger to your wealth. At a company level I look at Inspirit (INSP), Cloudtag (CTAG), SKIL Ports and Logistics (SPL), Quantum Pharma (QP) and my pals the fraudsters as African Potash (AFPO) - Lord Peter Hain when will you blink and quit? 

Having previously updated sceptically on supercapacitor and energy management systems company CAP-XX (CPX), I note it is now “pleased to announce its audited results for the year ended 30 June 2016”. Let’s take a look…

As we know, my good pal Paul Scott bought shed loads of TrakM8 (TRAK) shares at c220-230p following what he termed a "Winni-wobble", that is to say share price weakness caused by my high quality investigative and forensic journalism. With the shares dipping another 10% today to 165p-170p without me saying a dickie bird, perhaps Paul wants to average down? I wouldn't.

Shares in Circassia Pharmaceuticals (CIR) have flatlined since the big sneeze last June when the company reported the failure of its cat allergy trials. Once close to a market value of £1 billion this company has proved to be the biggest ramp in the UK Biotech sector in recent years, supported by the bluebloods of JP Morgan Cazenove and, of course, Neil Woodford.