Thanks to Covid, Trainline (TRN) is pretty screwed and will stay so for a good while. Indeed with leading law firms and others today announcing that 50% of staff days post any lockdown would be at home, the amount of business travel post lockdown is going to crater. The face to face business meeting is like the horse drawn taxi or funny BBC comedies using words like frog, things of the past. Even in pre Covid times, Trainline generated sod all cash. But how did it make that cash?

Early last year we showed the top shorted London-listed shares at the start of 2020. How did they perform? (those in bold remain from 2019)…

Hello Share Tasters. One of my more boring shares is United Utilities (UU.). But we all need a few run-of-the-mill investments for safety’s sake. And this water supplier is in that category. We will always need water and sewerage. In fact, water is the last thing we could stop spending money on. So water suppliers provide the ultimate defensive share. United Utilities shares have recently been moving forward but there’s still some way to go, I fancy…

As who will win the 2020 ShareProphets readers tips competition falls – the result to be revealed on this website in the next day or so, the 2021 competition is now launched. The prize is 1/2 litre of Tom Winnifrith’s Greek Hovel olive oil (2021 harvest). To enter, just put in the Comments to this article – on a once per username basis - one buy & one sell pick from the LSE or AIM Casino (with the stocks not to be suspended at the commencement of 2021). Entry closes & prices – buys offer price (and performance measured to bid price) and sells vice-versa – are from before the RNSs start at 7am on Monday 4th January 2021. Steve Moore will again update monthly on how the competition is progressing. Good luck all…

Between December 24 and January 3, the entire team here at ShareProphets is serving up our tips of the year (22 in total).  No 22 is a buy from Tom Winnifrith.

I mentioned this in yesterday’s bearcast, but to bring it to a wider audience, Colin, the winner of the 2020 Readers share tips contest, has donated his prize to a better cause, Woodlarks. He is a gent. So here’s the deal: an auction is underway for a half litre of Greek Hovel olive oil signed by myself and the top bid is currently £100. Nope, make that £150. The catch…

Between December 24 and January 3, the entire team here at ShareProphets is serving up our tips of the year (22 in total).  No 21 is a buy from Tom Winnifrith.

Have I judged Oisin Fanning of San Leon (SLE) by a different standard to, say, Neill Ricketts of Versarien (VRS)? Sure. Would I not judge, for instance, Cheryl Cole by a different standard in the looks department than, say, Diane Abbott? Yes I would. And I bet Cheryl is also better at singing, counting and more or less everything else than Ms Abbott too. Management is key to it all in the world of investing as I discuss today. 

Welcome to the Sunday ShareProphets Pub Quiz. 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.

There are, once again, bubbles everywhere. US markets are at all-time highs and Japan is at a thirty-year high, according to David Scott. Government bonds (as opposed to their yields) aren’t far off all-time highs and – importantly – the returns are minimal if not negative. Traditionally, that would be a warning sign that all is not well – normally when one is high the other is low. But these are no normal times.

Pantheon Resources (PANR) will be drilling one of the few big number exploration wells investors can gain exposure to in 2021, with its Talitha A well in Alaska. This company’s track record really make me question if it is it worth the risk, but the Market Capitalisation nails the flow of my investment cash.

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? 

Tom Winnifrith ate his hat over Red Rock Resources (RRR), so it is only fair I ‘fess up – my list of five slam dunk sells for 2020 was, ahem, less than successful – mainly down to the performance of AIM-listed Catenae Innovation CTEA) which put on a whopping 140%, and AIM-listed URU Metals (URU) rubbed my nose in it further with a rise of 54%. So was I wrong?

Before we get to the most read articles, I’d like to point out my tip of the year 2021. Before you dismiss it as the ravings of a scoffer, I’d like to point out my 2020 Share Tip of the Year was Flutter (FLTR). You could have been in at 9,300p and it’s 15,110p today.  My 2017 UK Investor Show tip was an eight bagger (It was Versarien (VRS), still doubled if you held it to today), and my 2018 UK Investor Show tip, Red Rock Resources (RRR), also doubled if you held it to today. And as long as you didn’t count IOMart (IOM), which I also recommended last year, you would have been quids in. Watch for my new paid newsletter on ADVFN, Random Hot Coin Flips for only £25 per month, available on the first day of the second quarter.

Between December 24 and January 3, the entire team here at ShareProphets is serving up our tips of the year (22 in total).  No 20 is a buy from Tom Winnifrith.

The dollar will weaken sharply in 2021 and that must be the basis of all your macro calls….

Between December 24 and January 3, the entire team here at ShareProphets is serving up our tips of the year (22 in total).  No 19 is a buy from our token crackpot socialist, tree hugging eco-loon living in the socialist paradise of Canada, Mr Darren Atwater. Before preparing his organically produced Eid stocks for Ottawa’s weekly socially distanced mask wearing Pride demonstration, the great man opines…

Back on 11 May 2020, it was announced that San Leon Energy (SLE) boss Oisin Fanning “had purchased” 98 million shares from Tosca Fund at 21p a pop on 7 May. The shares were cum dividend.

Of course, here in Wales, you can get Covid from sledging but Joshua and I will risk it and as the first snow fell today, his excitement was off the scale. Sadly, the snow has not lasted. Fingers crossed for tonight. In the podcast I discuss tips of the year contests (as opposed to our 22 tips of the year) and laugh at Justin Urquhart-Stewart. I look at two reasons the bulls spout for bullishness and discuss. And I look at executive turnover and greed among FTSE 100 fat cats.

With the 2020 Vomit list throwing up 9 out of 10 sick investments, it’s time to think about next year. The oil price is looking to be on the upwards trajectory, and hence any company really needs to be a standout monument to investment stupidity to be considered for entry to this year’s bucket list.