‘Virtual reality technology company’ Engage XR (EXR) has announced what CEO David Whelan argues “is a huge moment for the group. We are now a leading metaverse technology company that can help make the metaverse strategies of leading global organisations a reality”. What’s the detail and what of a share price move currently 5.3% higher to 15p?

It really is an ouzo on cornflakes day. Not only has Gerry Brandon been fired but the FCA has won a legal victory in its attempts to nail the fraudsters behind Globo (GBO) an AIM listed scam I warned about, doorstepped in Athens and eventually helped bring down by publishing the dossier of my pal Gabriel Grego.

As CEO of AIM listed Deepverge (DVRG) made two schoolboy errors: trolling me on twitter and then breaking AIM Rules by hiding a profits warning before doing a placing at 30p last June. There were other blunders and deceits too but after that crime, that fraud, of last June came to light he should have been in jail and his position was untenable.

Hello Share Fanciers. As a kid the most popular showing at the cinema in the fifties was a cheap and cheerful dubbed Italian Sword and Sandal saga. It bore the exciting title of ‘Hercules Unchained’ and it reminds me of today’s recommendation. The company is called Hercules Site Services (HERC) and it’s an AIM-listed specialised recruitment outfit.

A major subsidiary of BATM  Communications (BVC) or Batman to its City friends, has been implicated in a criminal investigation in Italy.  The subsidiary in question, Adaltis Srl, represents the vast majority of BATM’s “diagnostics division”.  It sells molecular diagnostic test kits for various diseases, including COVID, operating from a facility near Rome.

In my experience it is often better to short a company’s shares when they have already fallen sharply and it has indicated that its equity is worthless. After all, the upside for a short that goes to zero is 100% whether you open it at 100p or 10p.

But I do dare. Enjoy.

On Friday we wrote an article HERE on 4 shares we thought could double by Christmas. One of the four is Bluebird Merchant Ventures (BMV) at a 1.8p offer.

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.”

Honestly – get me out of the Sunday ghetto. Lobby for the quiz on Tuesdays! In the meantime, put the kettle on, write your score in the comments, there are no prizes, and most important of all – no Googling! 

Here are five long reads that have nothing to do with shares. Put the kettle on, find a comfy chair. You have the time, don’t you? 
 

Good Lord! Look what happens when we run the pub quiz on a Tuesday – it blows past everything, even the Bearcast. I think I want a promotion off the Sunday desk. Meanwhile, the most-read non-quiz article this week is ‘Golden Prospect – Duff Interims but No Problem…..Still A Buy’ by Nigel Somerville.

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.

Gold closed the week at $1683, up nicely from last week’s $1646 and back above the apparently all-important $1675 mark. But perhaps the real surprise is that it rose at all, given that the Fed again hiked interest rates by another 0.75% to 3.75-4% and warned of more pain to come. Normally, that would see the yellow stuff weaken, given that the yield on Gold is zero. But instead, someone lit the blue touch-paper.

Francis Hunt, Founder of “The Market Sniper”  Francis, discusses how demand for physical metal appears to be increasing significantly in the United Kingdom. He says that a lot of interest is coming from those in the financial industry and some of those customers have expressed concerns about their employer’s stability. He says that self-directed pensions in the U.K. are also seeing a move away from equities and into custodial backed physical metals.

Have a great bonfire night tonight. In today's podcast I discuss DFS (DFS) in great detail - it looks like a cracking short. Then Deepverge (DVRG) where Gerry Brandon needs to SMTM and finally Revolution Beauty (REVB) which will be either a zero or a penny stock but not until after Christmas.

Having asked for readers tips for 2022 for the prize of 1/2 litre of Tom Winnifrith's Greek Hovel olive oil (2022 harvest) HERE, the following is the monthly update on performance with now (just under) two months to go (to be eligible needed to have selected, on a once per username basis, a buy & sell pick from the LSE, AIM casino or Aquis lobster pot and the stocks not to have been suspended at the commencement of 2022).

Hello Share People. That big dilemma is still with us. If you’d aped me and swapped your shares for cash in the Spring, you made the right call. But you need to be in it to win it. And there’s no point in staying in cash if the big share rally is starting. And we all know it will, eventually. But what should we do right now.

I start with a bit of political betting - folks like Lucian will be wailing as the Donald makes his come-back. I kid you not. Then how ill prepared companies are for the coming economic and stockmarket shit-storm. Two case studies I mention which are, IMHO, uninvestable are Rosslyn Data (RDT) and Yourgene (YGEN). Then onto why Argo Blockchain (ARB) and its dead cat bounce is a chance to add to one's short.

Previously writing on castings and engineering company Chamberlin (CMH), in May with the shares up towards 5p I questioned whether a “pleased to announce” property sale and leaseback was actually for “growth strategies”. With the shares last closing at 4.4p, what of now full-year results and a current 4.5p share price, £4.8 million market cap?