I start on the subject of badgers and how I met the 1 of the only good sort earlier. Then onto how investors also fail to discount regulatory risk, ref Zoetic (ZOE), a few words on Metro Bank (MTRO) and the million morons march and about what it says about the investment climate. Finally on Rishi Sunak’s idea of a sales tax on online shoppers and why it is wrong at every level.

Tomorrow, I shall publish my correspondence with the FDA in America which has the power to shut down the entire business of Zoetic (ZOE) for its serial rule breaches. But for today I stay in dear old Blighty. I published the dossier showing the lies and law-breaking of Zoetic (ZOE) on Wednesday and naturally, being a fine upstanding, badger-hating member of the financial community ensured that the FCA saw the entire document. At 8.36 PM on Friday the regulator got back to me. It says:

As I noted yesterday, members of the OneMillionTradeMarch chatroom on Reddit were voting on which stock to buy en masse at 8 AM on Monday to #burntheshorters. Well there aren’t many shorters to burn in the case of the target pick but & if it rockets the big winners will be fat cat bankers but why stop the facts getting in a way of the narrative?

I am a massive shareholder in Optibiotix (OPTI) and believe that I will do very well from my investment, where my average in price is c9p. The shares are now 61.5p mid and I think they will easily double from here within 18 months if not far sooner. But there can be no double standards here in the way that I cover companies, just because I own shares in them. I think the company has made a material accounting error which is also an own goal! Here’s why:

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? 

The battle for free speech is hotting up. I have just published a piece HERE on attempts to shut down a new TV channel before it goes on air because its founders are not part of the woke establishment. Meanwhile, a few days ago I expressed my hatred for the badgers living at the Welsh Hovel here. Mistakenly, I also outlined a plan to get rid of them which I now understand is against the law. Suddenly, on certain bulletin boards and on Twitter, badgers are seen as the nation’s favourite animal and I am off to jail.

75! We’ve done 75 of these things. Well, you still don’t get a prize. Find your own beer, sit in the most comfortable seat, and, under no circumstances, can you Google the answer. Only I can do that. There are no prizes but post your scores in the comments for bouquets and brickbats.

It was announced on Friday afternoon by Schroder UK Public Private Trust (SUPP), the former Neil Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT), that the IPO of Immunocore on Nasdaq had gone ahead. We were offered some tasty numbers, but are they really true?

The most read non-Tom article this week is How likely is it that a proper silver short squeeze will happen? by Gary Newman at number seven, or  number 15 including Bearcasts and Tom’s new shareshow. Which one is the best of the week? Tell me in the comments.

It is such a good joke I think I make it about 5 times in what follows. And now from Wales, by just 30 yards, it is my new weekly video show. This costs 99p per episode, and you can either listen to, or watch, some sparky interviews with  Harry Adams of Kefi Gold & Copper (KEFI), where i am a loyal shareholder expecting the shares to double or more by mid year, and also Dominic Frisby. The singer, songwriter, comedian, gold guru, bitcoin expert and libertarian is on great form especially on the bitcoin/gold issue and tips the only AIM stock he owns and explains why. You will laugh and learn with him. You can access the show HERE

I start with a joke about Lord George Young and the late Jimmy Savile prompted by a discovery my sister made today in Shipston. Then I look at IQE (IQE), Cineworld (CINE) and the scandal that is the David Beckham linked pot IPO.

Last weekend I wrote about the silver squeeze which was being hyped all over social media and gave my opinion that it wouldn’t play out as people expected, and although we might see a brief spike off the back of all the publicity, we weren’t going to see the silver derivative shorts crushed overnight. I was right.

Nothing stacks up as it should…

It is cold at the Montana log-cabin. It’s a good job I have piled up the logs for the fire – how else would I warm up my cans of beans? And it is not just a chill blowing in from the veranda: in the markets there is a chill in precious metals as it seems everybody wants to buy junk and overpriced technology stocks. So Gold has been on a bit of a downer and despite the efforts of the Reddit short-squeezing crew, silver could not break above $30. With the yellow metal down to $1815 from its euphoric peak of $2062 last summer, has anything changed?

On Thursday 4^th February at 7 AM a CBD company Cellular Goods announced its plans to raise £8 million on a £20 million valuation and join the (sub) Standard List, home to so many frauds and dogs. The night before, Sky News came up with the “scoop” that this news could be revealed as soon as the following morning and that David Beckham had invested and would soon sign a deal to promote the CBD skin product. Oooooooh a nice photo of Becks and blow off comment with no questions asked, this is the corrupt MSM and a PR drop all over again as I noted with the other listed company where Becks has “invested”, Guild Esports (GILD) the other day HERE.

From the FCA’s spreadsheet of short positions required to be disclosed to it, the following shows the shorted AIM shares with positions from 2019, 2020 and thus far in 2021 (by net short position %, those in bold not on the list at the start of 2021) – and if this position has increased (red), reduced (green) or remained unchanged (black) since last week…

This will provoke some debate. Richard “nobody likes me and I don’t care” Jennings of Align Research thinks that Covid is a force for good. Actually, he makes one or two points although his conclusion is daft. Over to Jennings who writes:

Notwithstanding the fact that while long only hedge funds have made out like bandits on GameStop in the US while the sheep like followers of the “burntheshorters” Reddit group are now sitting on losses of up to 90%, the UK OneMillionTradeMarch Reddit group is, I can reveal, set to launch its first attack on Monday.

Hello, Share Splurgers. You’ll have noticed that the once criticised IQE (IQE) is slipping down my sharper colleague Steve Moore’s weekly list of the most shorted shares. Its share price has also risen from its usual 50p or so to 80p. I think I know the reason for the recovery – and it’s mainly down to the Covid story.

Red Rock Resources (RRR) has announced that its 50.1%-owned joint venture, Red Rock Australasia, ‘RRAL’, has formally been granted three licences and is beginning work immediately on evaluating previously identified areas of interest. This puts it on course for much greater upside to come within 90 days. The clock ticks…