There is an interesting dichotomy between the prices of Gold and Gold Stocks. Encouragingly, Gold closed the week having held the $1800 mark at $1803 but Gold stocks, Silver and Silver stocks have been sliding. What to make of this?

Well cripes! Blow me down with a feather, I am less trustworthy than John Terry ( the ex footballer) and Catholic priests. So say 43% of the 49 morons responding to this poll. Hmmmm, commended multiple times by the regulators for exposing fraud flagged up by Panorama for the same. But I guess I should ignore all of that and take on board these peasants tapping away their anonymous bile from the spare room at the Council House. Whatever… When you attract this sort of moronic attack and trolling from such obvious non-entities you know you are doing something right.

As I predicted it would in my last piece, Tern plc (TERN) came back to the trough last week with yet another placing (its 16th since it emerged from the ruins of Silvermere Energy in 2014) and the shares predictably sold off, causing a few rumblings of discontent among its shareholders, 100% of whom (bar management) are retail. But before I lay into the company and its management let me present you with a fun fact regarding dilution, a dirty word for most equity investors.

Ariana Resources (AAU) has made a “Significant Resource Update: Kepez North”-titled announcement and also is “exceptionally pleased to be able to announce the details of the company’s dividend distribution plan”. Should investors be also?

Asset manager Michael Gayed notes that this year has been remarkable in many ways. That is a bit of an understatement.

We previously updated on Wm Morrison Supermarkets (MRW) including noting Apollo Global Management stating that “it is, on behalf of certain investment funds managed by it, in the preliminary stages of evaluating a possible offer for Morrisons” meant that we could still see further upside potential with a competitive bid situation developing. There has now been a further announcement from Apollo.

Hello, Share Twiddlers. When this stunning website was free to view, funded by adverts, we had zillions of readers. But due to what we regard as shortsightedness, the number of punters plummeted and now stands at a faithful few. Well, quite a lot of savvy investors really, but not the huge army we used to have.

I apologise for a late bearcast. I was meeting up with my mentor on goat milking. Meanwhile brave Ian Westbrook is now half way to target to ensure that bully boy Neill Ricketts does not steamroller his second biggest critic - please do donate HERE. After 24 hours I still cannot tell you what shares I will be buying. Maybe on Monday. In the podcast I look at Ptredator Oil & Gas (PRD), Simec (SAE), Remote Monitored Systems (RMS) and  Acceler8 Ventures (AC8) where my take may surprise you. 

An early this week trading update from marketing technology group Eagle Eye Solutions (EYE) saw the shares closing at 540p. They have since retreated though and today a “PDMR Shareholding” announcement. Confidence restored?…

Parsley Box (MEAL) has announced a “new chilled range… branded the Chef’s Table by Parsley Box, consists of eight meals featuring some of the nation’s favourite dishes” and that a company connected with Chairman Chris van der Kuyl has purchased £0.528 million of shares at 120p each. Good news?…

Union Jack Oil (UJO) has announced news on the West Newton B-1Z well, in which it has a 16.665% interest, that it is “encouraged by the indications of permeability of the lower portion of the Kirkham Abbey under test, and the initial recovery of hydrocarbons to surface”. What’s the detail of the ‘encouragement’?

I have been really impressed by Hotel Chocolat (HOTC) as a (very) occasional consumer, but never (to date) as an investor. A couple of months ago I observed that I was waiting for a 300p or below share price, a level we have not seen for around a year. Yesterday early evening PrimaryBid offered an opportunity to participate in a money-raising for the group. You can guess what I said at a 355p share price (equivalent to a then discount of 2.74%) offer.

Having commented on the potential insider trading and undeclared related party deal at Predator Oil and Gas (PRD) only a few days ago and triggered Tom Winnifrith to write to the FCA, I’ve been drawn back again to look at a few further aspects. So often when you find something really questionable going on within a company, it is rarely a one-off and it would appear to be the case for this company.

During the early months of this year Zak Mir was the hero of numerous bulletin boards but notably those for Supply@ME capital (SYME) and remote Monitored Systems (RMS) for his almost non stop buy calls and ludicrous price targets. By contrast in calling out Supply as a fraud and Remote as an overvalued POS, I was the villain of the tale. With shares in both companies heading south at a rate of knots I invite you to consider the cartoon below and offer up suitable captions in honour of my good pal the Sith Lord. Post away in the comments section below. Do your worst.

Patrick Karim is a technicals based trader so take what he says with a pinch of salt but he makes a few big calls. 

I have been taking a brief look at AIM-listed Plexus – mainly because its ticker code is POS. So is it? Er……

That is because there really is no trading. But the update does contain an explicit warning that the cash is going up in smoke fast. This is a shocker. Some turds can be polished but PR man Graham Herring at IFC will not have bothered with this one. It is just a rough and ready turd au natural. And that makes the valuation a joke. BTW Graham: I wonder why the shares have fallen so sharply in the couple of days ahead of this awful update? It is a coincidence I am sure.

Hello, Share Stickers. As I’ve observed before, companies which operate within a niche have a better chance of success. A niche outfit operates in a tiny corner of a market which their customers can’t do without. Such is the nature of Strix Group (KETL). You’ll notice the epic code has now’t to do with the company name. Until you know that Strix makes bits for kettles.

Bluebird Merchant Ventures (BMV) has made an “Operational Update” including that the legal transfer of the Southern Gold (ASX – SAU) holding in the Kochang and Gubong projects in South Korea was finalised this week and emphasising “a clear plan to bring about gold production commencing at the Kochang gold and silver mine”.

Previously writing on windows and doors manufacturer and retailer Safestyle UK (SFE), in May with the shares at 62p I concluded risks saw the attempted recovery only on the watchlist. Today an update including that it now “expects 2021’s full year financial performance to be ahead of current market expectations”…but the shares currently at 57p?…