Online competitions to win cars and other lifestyle prizes company, Best of the Best (BOTB) has announced that “trading for the first 6 months has been in line with market expectations” and “with Globe Invest Limited and their subsequent strategic investment, information sharing and negotiations are underway regarding both the Licensing and Distribution Agreement and the Marketing and Collaboration Agreement. The company hopes to finalise these agreements before the end of the year”. How do these compare to a current 410p share price, £34.3 million market cap?

On the evening of 7^th November I revealed how perma-dog ( with fleas) Applied Graphene Materials (AGM) was trying to raise money at just 2p even though the shares were 12.5p at the close the working day before. The next morning it fessed, citing my article, and admitted that the issue had been pulled and that it only had cash to last until January 31. The late Mama Cass put a date in her diary for a new gig. Today comes the words every investor dreads “strategic review.”

After the slave labour in Leicester scandal, Boohoo.com (BOO) insisted it had done nothing wrong but put in place all sorts of ESG committees, procedures and staff to make sure it never did anything wrong again. Not that it had sinned in the first place, you understand. Today, an undercover reporter from The Times has exposed what happened when posing as a worker at the company’s Burnley distribution centre.

It is far from being a boring day today. It is no surprise for me to see shares in De La Rue (DLAR), which institutional investors and brokers used to call “Danny”, pulling back nearly 20% given that it is still struggling to make proper profit and free cash flow. Meanwhile, Halfords (HFD) shares might be down 4% today (and over 40% year-to-date) but seeing the stock at a c. two quid share price strikes me as a bit cheap. Perhaps more on it another time, but today I want to chat about Johnson Matthey (JMAT).

Describing itself as a “global leader in LED lighting for heavy industrial applications”, Dialight (DIA) has issued a trading statement commencing that it “has seen positive overall trading momentum continue into the second half, with group revenue in the period up 35% (CCY 23%) over the prior year comparator”. That sounds good, but revenue is, of course, vanity – what’s the bottom-line situation?

Hello Share Bunnies. When I was a little boy in the middle of the last century (eek!), there were a lot of classmates with bright yellow knees and elbows. The school nurse used iodine as a healing lotion. Iodine is still an important chemical today and with some analysts predicting a return to a bull market in 2023, a company which might jump the gun and see a share rise specialises in iodine, it’s called Iofina (IOF).

Kefi Gold & Copper (KEFI) states that it “is pleased to announce that the updated US$320 million Tulu Kapi gold project costings and finance plan has now been agreed by all the Tulu Kapi syndicate lead contractors, investors and lenders. It is currently being processed for final reviews and entry into definitive documentation to be signed as soon as possible, with the expectation to achieve this next month”. Is this though what was expected at this point?

Previously writing on anti-microbial hygiene technologies company Byotrol (BYOT), in August with the shares at 2.65p I concluded to continue to avoid. The shares last closed below 2p but are currently up more than 7.6% today at 2.10p on the back of a “Directorate Changes” announcement, so what’s the latest here?

I am still being pestered by my fellow Kefi Gold & Copper (KEFI) shareholders for reasons I cannot fathom. Some of them are delusional. I then turn to Microsaic (MSYS) where a statement on related party deals is needed pronto. Then onto AO World (AO.) where I do not buy into today's rally before onto why Jim Mellon's Condor Gold (CNR) is actually a short after today's second attempt to put it up for sale.

Back on 14 October when Yourgene (YGEN) shares traded at 4,25p I warned that the company would almost certainly run out of cash and would need to do a fund raise, HERE

Promotional products marketplace group Altitude (ALT) has issued a trading update emphasising that it “anticipates that FY23 trading will be materially ahead of current market expectations, and that the group will achieve record year-end results” and that it “also anticipates that the group will continue to experience revenue and EBITDA growth throughout 2023”. So what of a current 15.6% higher share price response to 26p, an £18.4 million market cap?

Osirium Technologies (OSI) states that it “is pleased to announce that it has conditionally raised £1.53 million before expenses… at a price of 2 pence per share”. And the prior closing share price?...4p! You can’t say you weren’t warned HERE (at 5.75p per share), HERE (at 5.25p per share), HERE (at 6p per share), HERE (at 6.5p per share), HERE (at 6.25p per share) and HERE (at 6.25p per share)! So what now with the shares currently down to 2.55p, a current (pre-placing) £1.2 million market cap!?

In September 2015 with its shares at 53p Condor Gold (CNR), backed by my old pal Jim Mellon, announced that to maximise shareholder value it was putting itself up for sale. But with no takers by January 2016 and with its shares back at 20p it called the process off. Today: guess what? It is up for sale again! The shares are now 24p! So much progress in almost seven years!

I think it is fair to say there are not many fans of AO World (AO.) shares on this website, as a number of us (including myself) have written pieces highlighting the reasons to aggressively avoid shares in a company which struggles to make a profit and generate free cash. So, whilst the shares are still down over 80% since its 2014 IPO, why after another set of shabby numbers this morning are they up over 10% today as I write?

Gerry the arse Brandon has only “been resigned” from Deepverge (DVRG) for two weeks and yet already the new bosses have managed to find annualised cost savings of £2 million from thin air. That begs an almighty question of Brandon and surely means that he must be fired at Microsaic (MSYS) if it is not to go bust next year.

ShareProphets will be 10 years old next year, and this entire decade has been running on the tech equivalent of a BBC Micro merged with an Amstrad CPC 464. So we're moving to a modern server, with up-to-date versions of the underlying software. And I need you to poke around before it goes live to the public.

OptiBiotix Health (OPTI), a developer of “compounds to tackle obesity, cardiovascular disease and diabetes”, has recently provided an update presentation on its commercial strategy and future plans. At a current 19p, the shares are at least up from 16.5p lows last month but remain well down from above 30p as recently as August and 46p at the start of this year and we’ve spoken to CEO Steve O'Hara.

I start with 11 weedy virtue signallers and 11 incredibly brave men at the World Cup. Then it is on to Kefi Gold & Copper (KEFI), Fox Marble (FOX), Dev Clever (DEV) and Asimilar (ASLR) and inally a long look at Genedrive (GDR), a case study on crony capitalism and destruction of shareholder value.

Provider of training programmes for software coding Northcoders Group (CODE) states that it “is pleased to announce that… the company has raised approximately £2.1 million (before expenses). Pursuant to the placing, 694,444 new ordinary shares have been conditionally placed at a placing price of 300 pence per share”. How ‘pleasing’ is this?

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.