Tom Winnifrith hinted at a perceived problem in the last placing by technically insolvent POS AIM-listed URU Metals (URU) and I fear history is about to repeat. Back at the beginning of May the shares raced ahead to 200p and then a placing at 85p was announced. Now the shares have raced ahead again to 285p on minimal volume…..are shareholders about to be plundered again?…

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.

Before we get to the most-read articles of the week, I want to plug the Netflix documentary The China Hustle, which I watched yesterday. Essentially, they have made a documentary about Nigel Somerville and the Filthy Forty…

Chaarat Gold (CGH) has updated investors with news including “following the recent political disruptions in the Kyrgyz Republic, Chaarat confirms that its projects in the country have not been materially impacted”…

ECB secretly trade marks the name “Digital Euro”. DE for short…

I start with a few personal thoughts as I sit here with my father. Thank you for your kind words and prayers. Then I deal with the idea that ShareProphets and I run a shorting gang. It is libellous tosh.  Then to the US election. I am almost ready to call both the Senate and the Presidency for the Dems. I called the House that way eons ago. I say almost and then discuss what that means for you and me.

My pieces on Centamin (CEY) and gold over the past few days have picked up some interesting comment. Jimbo55 is worried and has been cleverly risk-managing his gold exposure. On the other hand, Putneywill seems to agree that the long term move for gold is up and TheBadger reckons that the increasing supply of US dollars in circulation suggests that gold is only heading in one direction. Meanwhile, Jordan Roy-Byrne of TheDailyGold.com  simply says “ignore the noise”…

Corporate deals always provide insight. If you have been around for a while, then you will know that a bunch of deals struck in 1997, 1999 and 2007 typically did not age well. The jury remains out for the last couple of years but, suffice to say, the old mantra of ‘price is what you pay and value is what you get’ is still hugely relevant. That ramble brings us to my old mucker Biffa (BIFF), which is active in the waste and recycling business…

Hello Share Watchers. As most following this legendary website are already well versed in the way to play our golden game, I always hesitate before returning to basics. But another part of me says that it does no harm to revisit lessons we probably learned yonks ago, but which we may have become blasé about. So let’s look at the rudiments of daily timing…

From the FCA’s spreadsheet of short positions required to be disclosed to it, the following shows the shorted AIM shares with positions from 2019 and thus far in 2020 (by net short position %, those in bold not on the list at the start of 2020) – and if this position has increased (red), reduced (green) or remained unchanged (black) since last week…

Writing last month on commercial flooring and specialist construction group Mountfield (MOGP), with the shares at 0.60p I concluded, with it stating “the increasing extent to which companies will rely upon home-based workers has and will continue to reduce demand for city centre located office space and in turn, for the flooring of large new or refurbished office premises within the City or in neighbouring areas”, I’ll continue to monitor this but, certainly currently, still avoid. Now half-year results… and the shares at 0.40p…

We tipped Asiamet (ARS) on January 24 at a 2.4p offer price. The shares are now significantly ahead after recent news. What next?…

Yesterday I wrote on Gulf Marine Services (GMS) hits back at Seafox International, but bank crunch looms. Seafox has since responded…

A “Statement re: Contract” from internet top-level domains owner and operator Minds + Machines Group (MMX) – and the shares currently at 5.25p, 11% lower…

Oh dear. The following article from the Houston Chronicle is self explanatory. Say what you like about Patrick Abbott but at least he works to generate real sales, unlike anyone still employed at Versarien’s (VRS) graphene arm. I have swapped emails with Patrick who denies all charges vehemently.

One day gold is up, the next it is down – but the overall picture is one of not going anywhere. Gold was threatening to start to rebuild a head of steam and then Donald Trump announced that fiscal stimulus talks were to be suspended until after the US elections….and gold retreated again. I’m not sure why – both sides are promising to load the country up with more debt and a new package is a certainty once the election is over…

You know I like gold. Regular readers will know that the company with the ticker GOLD on the New York Stock Exchange (Barrick Gold) is currently my largest position. However, I have been more choosy in my other selections in the space. Back in July I arched an eyebrow at the plans of Canadian larger cap gold play Yamana Gold (NYSE – AUY), to list in London from a rationale that ‘there is a void in London for a pure-play gold company producing 1m ounces a year in friendly mining jurisdictions’. Time to tap a different set of institutional shareholder punters?…

Hello, Share Tasters. A company I’ve not covered lately because it fell on covid and has, so far, been slow to recover is ITV (ITV). I can see no obvious reason why this share has not rallied back to more normal levels. And I expect it to do so. Here are my reasons…

Previously updating, we noted even with the gutter standards of some AIM Nomads, there was no one who wanted to take Walcom on and thus the ShareProphets China AIM ‘Filthy Forty’ was down to just 4! How’s the latest performance?…

 It appears that rumours of the financial distress of Christoper Williams, aka the market abuser Chris Oil are not exaggerated. The tweet below is self-explanatory.