Like buses, shocks often come in groups of three. Today though, in a fit of shocker enthusiasm, I count four that I have recently written about and warned you on. As Tom reminded me during my recent appearance on ShareProphets Radio, perhaps I should get serious about dusting down my ancient shorting skills given my historic schooling at a long-short equity fund. Anyhow, let us stack them up…

I commented that I had bought shares in fully-listed Egyptian gold miner Centamin (CEY) at around £1 with the proceeds of my part-sale  of AIM-listed Turkish goldie Ariana (AAU), partly thanks to Gary Newman who thought that the shares had overreacted to bad news. This morning Centamin reported its Interims…..

Neil Woodford cash-hungry dog Atom Bank has produced its Annual Report for the year to March 2019. As you can see HERE  it is a beautiful document full of nice pictures and lots of blurb to keep the sheep happy. But no amount of presentation can hide the truth: it burning cash and – incredibly – lending at a loss! That’s not a business, that’s a charity!

There should have been a trading statement from Kier on 30^th July. There has not been. Why?

Many AIM oilers just frustrate me with RNS announcements that either don’t need to be made or fail to disclose key information investors need to make sense of the investment case. The Parkmead Group (PMG) is at the opposite end of the spectrum. Ignoring price monitoring extension and holding RNS’s, we have had a grand total of 9 RNS’s in 18 months, 2 of which relate to loans to the Exec chairman’s wife’s company! That just bloody irritates me, but I hold.

You can’t beat a spot of bad press and Neil Woodford has certainly had his fair share, again renewed over the last few days, with the revelation that he dumped around £1 million worth of WPCT three weeks previously and the continued gating of his flagship fund. Meanwhile, this morning’s data from Morningstar shows that whilst his lesser (but at least still open for business) Woodford Income Focus Fund (WIFF) put on 0.48% in NAV per unit yesterday.

Silver and gold mining giant Fresnillo (FRES) has always been a good leveraged play on commodity prices, and is a favourite amongst both investors and traders looking for exposure to precious metals.

OK, we’ve heard it all before! But this morning’s interim results from AIM-listed Minoan (MIN) do seem to suggest that things are at last moving in terms of monetising the holiday resort in Crete. Much has changed over the last year or so, but much remains the same too.

I commented recently on Independent Oil and Gas (IOG) and how I considered the Harvey drill was crucial to the company’s future and a farm-out prior to the result was very unlikely. Well I was wrong on the latter point, as last Friday the company announced a farm-out to CalEnergy Resources Ltd, part of the Berkshire Hathaway Empire. The detail however only reinforces my view the Harvey drill is critical to the company, and if anything, is now even more important.

Hello, Share Catchers. I believe my second biggest holding is BP (BP.), so I was initially disappointed by the news that underlying profit was down in quarter number 2 compared to the same time in 2018...

Once again, please excuse my croaky voice. In this second edition of the ShareProphets Radio podcast sponsored by Riverfort Global Capital, this week, in order I discuss the cowardice of a well known AIM CEO, interview bear raider Lucian Miers on a wide range of subjects including Tesla, Neil Woodford and WPCT, IQE, Purplebricks, UK Oil & Gas, Thomas Cook and cannabis, I then interview value blue chip investor Chris Bailey on, inter alia, Tesla, EasyJet, Imperial Brands, Woodford, Burberry, Dignity, and St James Place. Enjoy. If you like this and can't wait seven days for more of the same you should listen to my Bearcast every day.

Columbus Energy Resources (CERP) has updated on activity towards drilling in the South West Peninsula, Trinidad…

Immotion (IMMO) has announced “following the success of its recent VR installations into a range of high quality partners, that it has decided to focus its strategy predominantly on the roll out of its Partnership Model into high footfall locations. The visibility of higher margins and recurring revenues delivered from this model is, the directors believe, the best strategy for the group and its shareholders. To support this strategy, the company is carrying out a fundraising”…

I doubt I shall be invited to the funeral given the stuff I have written about First Derivatives (FDP). I have been vindicated on that matter but the early death of Conlon is a shame and my thoughts are with his family. None the less I discuss what happens next as the chief plate spinner goes to another place.

Previously writing on Carclo (CAR), last week I noted results delayed again; now it’s “hopes” to avoid shares suspension!. Now an “Update on banking position and timing of results”…

It is hard to find anything positive to say about the interims from Centrica (CNA) this morning. Perhaps the most positive thing is that the dividend hasn’t been stopped altogether, but given the big slide in the share price the new target of 5p per share in dividend means a yield of 7.5%, suggesting that the market still doesn’t believe that is sustainable and thus might get chopped again...

Early last month freight management services company Xpediator (XPD) announced board changes including seeing “the Operating Board now consists of eight extremely experienced, energetic professionals and we are well positioned to take the business forward to the next stage”, with “trading in line with market expectations. Demand for freight management services remains strong across all three divisions and the group is benefiting from increased activity”. No fears re. a “Trading Statement” today then, surely?…

It is all about cuts in today's FTSE-100 news. For consumer staples giant Reckitt Benckiser (RB.) the most striking aspect of today's half-year update is the line 'Full year LFL net revenue target revised to +2-3% (from +3-4%) to reflect the slow start to the year'...

AIM-listed utilities provider Yu Group (YU.) has offered up a trading statement for the first six months of the year. The numbers offered are full of holes, leaving more questions unanswered and we are told there will be an adjusted (ie bullshit) EBITDA (double bullshit) earnings loss of between £2.5-£3 million. Goodness knows what the actual bottom-line loss will be then. And as for the cash figures offered...

Neil Woodford’s Income Focus Fund (WIFF) had a good day yesterday as it put on 0.53% in NAV per unit, according to Morningstar. Mind you, the FTSE-100 put on 1.8% and the FTSE All-Share index added 1.5%, so it wasn’t all that great. But a gain is a gain. In theory, that should have pulled the total assets up from Friday’s close of £287.65 million to £289.17 million...