Good Lord! Look what happens when we run the pub quiz on a Tuesday – it blows past everything, even the Bearcast. I think I want a promotion off the Sunday desk. Meanwhile, the most-read non-quiz article this week is ‘Golden Prospect – Duff Interims but No Problem…..Still A Buy’ by Nigel Somerville.

I3 Energy (I3E) has enjoyed a miraculous turnaround in fortunes over the past couple of years, thanks to buying new assets at the right time and benefitting from high oil and gas prices since then.

Gold closed the week at $1683, up nicely from last week’s $1646 and back above the apparently all-important $1675 mark. But perhaps the real surprise is that it rose at all, given that the Fed again hiked interest rates by another 0.75% to 3.75-4% and warned of more pain to come. Normally, that would see the yellow stuff weaken, given that the yield on Gold is zero. But instead, someone lit the blue touch-paper.

Francis Hunt, Founder of “The Market Sniper”  Francis, discusses how demand for physical metal appears to be increasing significantly in the United Kingdom. He says that a lot of interest is coming from those in the financial industry and some of those customers have expressed concerns about their employer’s stability. He says that self-directed pensions in the U.K. are also seeing a move away from equities and into custodial backed physical metals.

Have a great bonfire night tonight. In today's podcast I discuss DFS (DFS) in great detail - it looks like a cracking short. Then Deepverge (DVRG) where Gerry Brandon needs to SMTM and finally Revolution Beauty (REVB) which will be either a zero or a penny stock but not until after Christmas.

Having asked for readers tips for 2022 for the prize of 1/2 litre of Tom Winnifrith's Greek Hovel olive oil (2022 harvest) HERE, the following is the monthly update on performance with now (just under) two months to go (to be eligible needed to have selected, on a once per username basis, a buy & sell pick from the LSE, AIM casino or Aquis lobster pot and the stocks not to have been suspended at the commencement of 2022).

Hello Share People. That big dilemma is still with us. If you’d aped me and swapped your shares for cash in the Spring, you made the right call. But you need to be in it to win it. And there’s no point in staying in cash if the big share rally is starting. And we all know it will, eventually. But what should we do right now.

I start with a bit of political betting - folks like Lucian will be wailing as the Donald makes his come-back. I kid you not. Then how ill prepared companies are for the coming economic and stockmarket shit-storm. Two case studies I mention which are, IMHO, uninvestable are Rosslyn Data (RDT) and Yourgene (YGEN). Then onto why Argo Blockchain (ARB) and its dead cat bounce is a chance to add to one's short.

Previously writing on castings and engineering company Chamberlin (CMH), in May with the shares up towards 5p I questioned whether a “pleased to announce” property sale and leaseback was actually for “growth strategies”. With the shares last closing at 4.4p, what of now full-year results and a current 4.5p share price, £4.8 million market cap?

Is it 10? Is it 12? You decide. You may say there are a couple of cheats in there. Enjoy.

Author and political risk analyst Larry McDonald says that he is concerned about the impacts of rate hikes in Japan and around the world. Central banks are very nervous because they can’t assess the damage inflicted by their policies for many months.

I have always taken the view that Elon Musk is a crook and that he has committed serial fraud at Tesla (TSLA). It is so 2022 that this has made him the world’s richest man. Notwithstanding that, the way he is dealing with his new toy twitter is a joy to behold, not least in the way that it is causing wailings and howlings from all corners of the liberal world, especially today as Elon has said he will sack half the workforce by the weekend. Pro tem Elon is my hero!

I am technically a customer of “Your Sofa & Furniture Experts”, DFS Furniture (DFS). I say technically as, whilst we did purchase the lounge sofas from the company, it was about twenty years ago and even the DFS future sales department has (sensibly) lost interest in me. After all, the sofas are still good quality and it is not as if we use them that much. However, I do follow the company’s corporate updates and share price as it provides a good insight into the thinking of the average consumer. And this brings us nicely to today’s “trading update and AGM statement” from the company.

Jonathan, son of Spotty, Rowland is, as I demonstrated yesterday a bit of colourful old troll. Today his company, Mode Global (MODE) issued an RNS which is surely indicative of rule breaking. But rules are only for little people are they not?

SysGroup (SYS) recently issued a trading update stating that it “is pleased to report a strong trading performance, despite the challenging macro-economic environment”. With the shares having fallen from approaching 50p last year to a 24p offer price, such a trading performance suggests a lowly valuation and strong recovery potential.

I am once again nursing a hefty hangover in the wake of too much Ouzo on Cornflakes with regard to sub-Standard-Listed Pure Gold (PUR). Having warned and warned over this situation, it now finds itself in the Canadian equivalent of bankruptcy protection, has closed its gold mine (so has no income, but you can bet the plc bills are still coming in), was $13 million short of technical solvency BEFORE debts owed to Sprott with regard to working capital and on Wednesday the Toronto stock exchange dumped its shares of the Venture exchange in favour of a NEX listing on that side of the pond. Why, oh why has the FCA – the (no sniggering at the back) regulator of the Standard List – not acted to suspend the shares over here, pending financial clarification?

This company is somewhat bigger than the ones we usually cover, but it struck us as a relatively low risk trading buy and, although already well up from a below 300p tip price at approaching 350p, there looks some more to go. This follows a recent trading update from easyJet (EZJ) having emphasised continuing demand for its leading network alongside “step-changed” ancillary revenue and the rapid and profitable growth of the easyJet holidays business. The shares responded positively, but were above 400p as recently as August and above 700p earlier this year and, despite some clear challenges, we suggest that there is further recovery potential from here as we look to 29^th November-scheduled results and beyond.

Having announced earlier this year that “CEO, Paul Fineman will, for personal reasons, be stepping down as Group Chief Executive Officer as of 1 March 2022. A search is commencing for a successor”, IG Design Group (IGR) is now, albeit more than 8 months later, “delighted to appoint” a new CEO. With this also following a CFO change in May, what’s the outlook now?

After that apology to most of the citizens of a nation that has turned Philistinism into an art form I discuss the Bank of England hiking base rates by 0.75%. Then it is onto ouzo man and Purplebricks (PURP) before I turn to two gold stocks that could now rocket by Christmas, Kefi Gold & Copper (KEFI) and Bluebird Merchant Ventures (BMV). I own shares in both and both have two reasons for a dramatic near term re-rate. Then Trainline (TRN) where the outlook is not so bright.

Previously writing on “data science and machine learning company” Insig AI (INSG), in August with the shares at 22p I noted that, despite being down from above 40p when I previously wrote, with further access to finance looking to be required still avoid / sell. So what now on the back of a “Trading update” – and the shares currently further down to 18p, a £19 million market cap?