It was in April last year that oily Neill Ricketts first announced that Chinese Investors were going to buy new shares giving them 15% of Versarien (VRS). The shares roofed it and he dumped vast amounts at 137p - today the shares are 42p. First it was BIGT, the CIGIU and finally YG, a newly established Hong Kong entity set up to source funds working with those other companies that had no websites or offices or phone numbers. Quelle surprise! Guess what?

Do you believe that British Land (BLND) has everything under control after announcing earlier today that it had collected 88% of office and 36% of retail rent due to it for the June quarter? As for what is still owed to it, it is engaging on a 'case by case basis'. You bet it is... As I wrote in late May, 'I guess anyone can get a high rent collected metric if you fudge through deferral, forgiving it or moving it to a different schedule...that still sounds like a future day of reckoning to me'. The shares are lower than when I wrote on the stock above and suggested shareholders should be selling at above four quid a share and that non-investors should not bother…

The close-out of the quarter to June saw Gold post a high point going back almost eight years at around $1780. Futures troubles the $1800 mark and gold stocks have had a decent run over the past few days. So is this the big breakout we have all been waiting for?

The Ouzo may have run out at Deputy Sheriff Towers, but the Wagnerian opera of ShareProphets AIM-China Filthy Forty play Walcom (WALG) took what surely is a final turn last night when at 4.22pm it announced that two directors were walking as of this morning, leaving just Mr Francis Chi on the board...

Hello, Share Pickers. Though the latest numbers from Royal Mail (RMG) could have been worse, I’m not altogether happy about holding my bunch of shares much longer. A tiny part of this view is unfairly coloured by personal experience. One package I recently wrapped carefully came back in bits (I was compensated). And prices for some parcels have gone up...

A “Trading Statement & Funding Update” from St James House (SJH) including “injection of cash, when combined with the capitalisation of liabilities, the stability of the lottery business and the steady growth of the payments business means the outlook for the business is positive despite the challenges all businesses have and continue to face” – and the shares have currently responded to 67.5p, 350% higher!...

Jeepers he must have been sober to have fallen in love with this shite. In today's podcast I look at Versarien (VRS), TrakM8 (TRAK), ADM Energy (ADME), San Leon Energy (SLE) and Catenae (CTEA). Now go and have a butchers at MineProphets and book your ticket (just £2.99) now HERE.

AIM-listed dog Catenae Innovation (CTEA) released its FY results to September 2019 and Interims to March 2020 this morning. What a dog’s breakfast! We have been saying for some time that Catenae was technically insolvent and this morning the hard numbers show that we were bang on the (lack of) money...

Comptoir (COM), the Lebanese and Eastern Mediterranean restaurants group with 30 restaurants including 6 franchised sites, has updated “re: Restaurant Reopenings” – and the shares have currently responded to 4.20p, approaching 10% lower...

Buying bombed-out shares in companies that have previously run as successful businesses can be very lucrative if they somehow manage to turn things around, but it also offers a very high chance of losing all your money if you are proven wrong and hold to the bitter end. There are plenty of companies on the stockmarket that have been at death’s door but have managed to survive and have subsequently gone on to do quite well, but there are also a large number of others that went bust and where investors lost all their money, and there is a very fine line between the two if you do decide to take a risk on a company that finds itself in this situation.

I cannot believe it was sixteen months ago that I was writing about the housebuilder Redrow (RDW), loving up the entrepreneurial fervour of the soon-to-be retiring (for a second time) founder, and observing: 'The trouble with 'help to buy' and other initiatives is that despite all the good intentions in helping younger people to get onto the housing ladder, it just deepens distortions and takes the housing market another step away from a proper market clearing level - which is why I refuse to buy/hold the sector and still remain fearful and bearish towards it.'...

“CloudCoCo (AIM: CLCO), a UK provider of IT and communications solutions to businesses and public sector organisations, announces its unaudited interim results for the six months ended 31 March 2020” – and the shares have currently responded to 1.40p, 87% higher...

Fund manager Keith Watson works with my old pal Malcolm Burne at Golden Prospect Precious Metals (GPM) and so can't be a total fool.  He argues that the broader commodity sector is at an extreme discount to general equity markets. 

It is self-evident that stop losses are important, particularly when it comes to short selling where potential losses are infinite but I have always set the limit high with obviously bust companies and been relatively relaxed when they have moved against me, as it is usually an opportunity to sell more...

Hello, Share Plumpers. It takes a brave investor to consider trading the housing market now. Many analysts believe that the virus will knock incomes and make buying a house impossible for many. Others believe that the huge amount of DIY going on in lockdown will make folks happier to stay where they are. Plus GDP is linked to house prices and a virus-led slump in growth would also knock home sales. But there’s also counter-arguments.

Sorry this is late. I have been distracted by the mad world we live in so musing too much on www.TomWinnifrith.com and tomorrow Joshua and I try to bust out of lockdown Wales, like the - now erased from history - Dukes of Hazzard, to visit my Dad so limited copy from me then. Ahead of that I discuss Avacta (AVCT), Versarien (VRS), Sound Energy (SOU), Cineworld (CINE) whose managers I despise, and UK Oil & Gas (UKOG). Okay I am not firing Darren tonight, you can now book your MineProphets tickets HERE 

“Windar Photonics plc (AIM:WPHO), the technology group that has developed a cost efficient and innovative LiDAR wind sensor for use on electricity generating wind turbines, is pleased to announce that it has renegotiated the terms of its Growth Fund borrowing from the Danish public institution, Vaekstfonden”. This following I previously concluding on Windar including Of course, “to strengthen the company's balance sheet” means ‘to currently keep the lights on’ – so I guess it is pleased in that respect! However, with the “challenging… trading conditions… conversion of the sales pipeline into confirmed orders being particularly slow”, will the new cash really be sufficient for long?...

And now from Wales, by just 30 yards, it is my new, I hope, weekly show. This costs 99p per episode to access and you can either listen or watch very sparky interviews with our in house gold guru Nigel Somerville on why you must be in gold and on the stocks or ETFs to own to maximise your bull market gains and with Union Jack Oil (UJO) boss David Bramhill, the most underpaid oil CEO on AIM. I also serve up a red flag-spotting session with reference to Diversified Gas & Oil (DGOC). You can access the show HERE

Having spent, and continuing to spend, shedloads of shareholders cash at Horse Hill and Broadford Bridge for not a lot of commercial return so far, UK Oil and Gas (UKOG) attempted today to extend the rampy reasons to raise yet more cash via the proposed Loxley drill. Consent has been refused by the Planning Authority, and for good reason I think this should be good news for shareholders, unless of course the company chooses to throw shareholders cash at an appeal to keep the rainbow in place.

Self-styled “a leading B2B media business”, Bonhill Group (BONH) has updated including “the business has continued to see good levels of activity in each of its major markets… has also been focusing in Q2 on improving its working capital position… at 25 June 2020, the company had a cash balance of approximately £3.8 million”. The shares have currently responded higher to 7.5p, but even so a still below £7.5 million market cap?...